Information on Web Collaboration

[Kelvin Machakaire]

Hello Community,

The figure below shows my scenario. We have got a college from which students (3-6 per given session) should attend lectures over the web. The students sits in one room (at the college site) in front of a Cisco TelePresence System. The lecturers are located all over the world and will connect one at a time via internet. The solution should allow lecturers to share content and vice versa.

May you please help me with information and explanation on the most ideal Cisco TelePresence scenario.  

I look forward to your helpful information.

Regards.

[mr.arun]

Hey Kevin,

There are many ways to do this, as you mentioned:

The students sits in one room (at the college site) in front of a Cisco TelePresence System:

You can use Profile Series for these rooms.

The lecturers are located all over the world and will connect one at a time via internet:

Lecturers can use Cisco Jabber Client (Movi) for this.

so your setup will look like this:

Student <----> TP Profile Series <----> VCS Control <---> VCS Express <----> Internet <-----> Lecturers running Jabber

may be you can think to consider Cisco TMS and MCU based on your requirements.

HTH

Arun

[Kelvin Machakaire]

Hi Arun,

Thanks for the responce. I have got more questions tho.

Am I restricted to TP Profile Series endpoints or I may use other CTSs? In my case I prefer using the new SX-20. Please tell me if I can work with this one.

Best Regards

[mr.arun]

Hi Kelvin,

Yes, you can use any endpoint SX-20 is really good, I've seen Schools using them on trollies to move one from class rooms to another.

I would say it's good choice and cost effective too.

HTH

Arun

[Kelvin Machakaire]

Hey

From what you are saying I think I can deploy the solution as shown in the figure below. One Cisco VCS Starter Pack hosts all the devices. The VCS uses a public IP address. The CTS-SX-20 is on the same site with the VCS though they are in different networks. The Movi clients connect to the VCS through the internet using the public IP and calls can be made between each Movi client and the SX-20. There is no firewall in use at the college.

Will such a solution work? Are there any components (software or hardware) that I need to add or remove from the setup shown?

I look forward to your helpful responce.

[mubakhta]

Hi Kelvin,

Yes, the above setup should work fine for you. I believe that you would also require the Cisco TMS (Telepresence Management Suite) which would deploy TMS Agents for the Movi to work. You can get the TMS in an appliance model or as a hardware model depending upon your needs.

Please rate the answers using the stars below.

Regards,

Mubashshir Akhtar

[Martin Koch]

Hi Kelvin!

Just as a comment upfront. As you wrote "web collaboration" and regards to the usage might also be an option.

This could offer you interesting interaction capabilities (if needed).

But I am more happy with the video and audio quality of vcs/endpoint/movi deployments.

It is a great way to start with the VCS starter pack express, JabberVideo (formerly known as Movi) and

an endpoint like the SX20. You can easyly add even more endpoints and JabberVideo users way beyond

what you described.

Check the bandwidth in between the VCS/JabberVideo/Endpoint. I would recommend to have in between

0.768 and 2mbit/s of bandwidth and on the Lecturer site + a good webcam like the Cisco Precision USB HD cam.

On the Student site you could even connect two screens to have presentation and remote video image separated.

With the starter pack you do not use the TMS, you get what you need in the VCS starter pack itself.

(but you can later upgrade the VCS and use TMS as well to scale even more!)

The described components would work fine. The VCS starter pack shall be on a public IP (best firewalled in a DMZ).

If you need to have it behind NAT or some special network deployments you might need to get

an additional option key.

If you are interested about the technical setup, you can find a lot of info on the cisco  web sites,

for example the VCS deployment guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/config_guide/Cisco_VCS_Expressway_Starter_Pack_Deployment_Guide_X7-1.pdf

If you have further questions or would like to see a demo, I would reach out for a local Cisco Partner / representative!

Good success!

Martin

Kevin: please rate the answers with the stars below the messages

[Kelvin Machakaire]

In addition to what we have on the diagram above, the lecturer (using JabberVideo) wants to use an interctice whiteboard when conducting the long distance lessons.

Any idea on how I can achieve this?