IDSolutions, Inc.

Training and Ongoing Learning as a Priority

2012-02-28T07:13:00.007-08:00

As I write this blog I have been thinking of several things that I would like to potentially discuss concerning technology in the world of visual communication that I live my life everyday. The dramatic changes in the very technology itself being integrated into every day life of corporations, schools, and healthcare institutions.

However, as much as I like talking about details of the technology itself I get more excited to talk about how and why it should and in some cases should not be utilized.

One of the priorities to me as a business owner is not only providing opportunities for education and life long learning for our team here at IDSolutions but to make it a priority. So often you see businesses and government entities viewing ongoing education as the first thing to cut in their budgets.

These people are seeing ongoing learning as an expense not an investment. And it is my believe that this is an investment that is and should be a priority which will result in:

Greater levels of customer service
Employees that enjoy what they do and who they work with
Profitability and long term success for an organization

The world we live in is so short term orriented that sometimes a priority is put on the long term success of an organizaiton or the individual members of that organization.

However there are those that do view training and ongoing learning as an investment and there is usually a limit to how much capital you can invest, so you have to make wise decisions with your investments. That is where the technology comes in.

The days of having time and budget to bring everyone together in a single location for all education are over. That being said, all human beings are visual by nature and visual technologies such as telepresence as well as live and on demand (YouTube for the Enterprise) visual solutions for ongoing learning.

Visual technologies are only part of a sucessful investment in ongoing learning but a key enabler that allow you the ability to maximize your return on investment in ongoing learning.

Check out the flipped classroom theory....

2012-02-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

I think this guy has a great idea - the kids should be doing homework in the classroom and their general studies at home....http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/18/my-view-flipped-classrooms-give-every-student-a-chance-to-succeed/

Video Conferencing Installation: It Doesn't Have To Be A Major Construction Job

2012-01-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

So your company finally decided to delve into video conferencing. Your key decision makers have decided on the type of system, you've decided which room its going to go into, and what brand of system you're going to use. Most importantly you called IDSolutions and purchased a room video conferencing system and your hard working project manager and sales engineer have given you the news - you'll need some construction work to reinforce the wall supporting the 55" plasma screen you're using for these video conferences and watching NCAA March Madness (who us? Watch college basketball while at work? NEVER!), you'll need to trench the floor to run the presentation cable underneath to the conference table, and electricians to relocate assorted power outlets and your landlord requires you to use their contractors and these contractors are backed up 6 months and when they finally get around to you they'll have your conference room out of service for a week and ....

(deep breath)

Do you remember the children's story "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie"? If you don't, Google is your friend.

It doesn't have to be that way. IDSolutions has an ideal setup for small to medium sized conference rooms that hold 2-15 people.

This is a screen and codec mounting system that IDSolutions installed in many installations for one of our major national accounts. There are two options for camera positioning - above the screen for longer conference rooms and below the screen for smaller rooms at eye level to the audience. The cabinet below hides the codec and other items, and is completely open in the back. There are false panels to hide unsightly wiring and the cabinet locks for security. The screen mount handles up to 55" flat screens.

There's just a couple small requirements for using this system - a power outlet and a network jack. Ideally a double-gang power outlet is used but a single gang with a power strip is also acceptable.

So you're wondering with all that top heavy weight of the screen what keeps the cabinet from tipping over? Behind the screen there's four mounting brackets which attach to the wall. So there will be four small holes in the wall behind the screen with bolts to keep the cabinet in place.

The presentation cable and microphone cables can be brought out the small grommet in the top of the cabinet, or ran behind and under the cabinet to the conference room table.

In the installation above, the customer left the cables on top of the cabinet and would run them to the table as needed for conferences, and when done roll it back up and place it back on the cabinet.

Best thing about this mounting system, IDSolutions engineers can have this assembled and online with video conferencing in a single day.

How to Rid Your Video Conference of Audio Gremlins

2011-12-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been in a video conference with audio problems that slowly devolves into an unproductive troubleshooting session? By the time someone really starts troubleshooting, everyone has left frustrated, joined an audio bridge and the problem is no longer reproducible. Along with it goes the visual communication experience and the $20,000 investment in video conferencing equipment you just made, all at the hands of audio gremlins.

So here are several things you can do to avoid being the gremlin and to help identify the gremlin when you are on an important video call so you can properly dispose of them.

Echo:

There are many acoustic phenomena that can affect the quality of a call, but not many will drive you as mad as an echo of your own voice. What is worse is that you are probably the victim of somebody else's gremlin causing behavior.

To avoid being the source of the echo, you have to be using an audio device that performs Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) like a ClearOne Chat 150 or physically isolates your speaker from your microphone (headset or headphones and a separate microphone.) Make sure you don't have two devices both trying to perform AEC as that can be just as bad. Additionally, this should be done for every participant in a call to avoid them being the cause of the echo.

If you are hosting or presenting to a large group you should advise far end participants to mute until question and answer time or until they need to interact. With large conferences and numerous open microphones you are bound to get some interesting noises.

Microphone and Speaker Placement:

Positioning your microphone and speakers is extremely important. In most conference rooms the microphone and speaker positions are fixed and have been installed for optimal performance in the room. Make sure to avoid impinging on this design by setting anything down on or between the microphones and the participants. Laptops and papers are likely gremlins as they can be loud and can seriously degrade the microphone's pickup of participants in the room.

For desktop participants you should be using a headset or speaker-phone unit that is positioned as close to you as possible without physically touching you. Headsets are great if they are positioned correctly, but have the microphone piece too far from your mouth or touching your lips and the gremlins come out. The same goes for speaker-phones. They are usually rated for a specific distance but three feet is probably a good rule of thumb. With the speaker-phone, make sure the path from your mouth is unobstructed and also try to keep the phone on a flat surface with as few obstructions or noise-makers around it as possible.

Preparation:

For the true audio ghost buster, the number one weapon is thorough testing. Learn what configurations work and don't work within your environment. While acoustics is a science, you don't need a Masters to have successful video conferences.

Standardize as much as possible on the audio devices you recommend for participants you conference with to simplify troubleshooting. Test and certify new participants prior to having them join a large critical conference. Having first time participants in a multi-point call is a recipe for supernatural audio activity. While training and education is always recommended for new users, a simple one on one test call can prevent that future company wide video conference from succumbing to the gremlins.

When all else fails, troubleshooting:

For those of you with maintenance contracts or a video conferencing Helpdesk at your disposal this part is easy. Pick up the phone and call your local ghost busters.

For the more adventuresome DIY ghost busters, read on.

As I mentioned before there are many potential audio gremlins out there, but the one you will run into the most is acoustic echo. While this troubleshooting section focuses on identifying echo, these steps can really apply to any audio issue. Chances are the problem is being caused by one participant and just identifying them is the tough part.

Echo in conferences is caused by a participants' transmitted audio feeding back into another microphone (not their own.) So if you are hearing an echo of yourself or any other noise, chances are you are not the participant causing it.

Here is how to identify the source. If participants are joining one at a time, it is pretty easy to identify the participant when the echo, or noise begins. Start with the most recent participant to join and have them mute to see if the echo goes away.

If you are in the middle of a call and begin to notice an echo, check with the other participants to see if they are also hearing the echo. If there is a participant who is not hearing the echo, they are most likely the source. Lastly, if the source of the echo is not easily identifiable have all participants mute and then add participants one at a time, talking to them as they un-mute. The source of the echo will be apparent when a participant un-mutes and you begin to hear yourself back.

The last step is deciding what to do with the gremlin once you've identified them.

E-Rate Season

2011-11-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

What is E-Rate?
The E-Rate Program is also known as the Schools and Libraries Program. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the Universal Service Program to provide discounts to most schools and libraries in the United States on their telecommunications, internet access and other internet access offerings.

How does E-Rate work?
Schools and libraries can apply each year for discounts on the cost of telecommunications along with other services. These services are broken down into Priority 1 and Priority 2.

Who is eligible?
All public schools k-12 along with all non profit K-12 private and parochial schools with endowments not exceeding $50 million. Also included are all public libraries many private not for profit libraries accessible to the public.

What Services are Eligible?

Priority 1 Services:

Telecommunications services such as local and long distance, cellular service and 800 services.
Basic conduit Internet access which includes Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

Priority 2 Services:

Internal connections which includes network equipment and wiring required to bring information directly into the classrooms. This includes Video Conferencing and Video Streaming equipment.
Basic maintenance of the internal connections is also eligible

Note: Computers, learning software and some teacher/librarian trainings are not eligible.

How are Discounts Determined?
Discounts range from 20%-90%. The National School Lunch program determines the level of poverty for the institution. The higher the poverty level, the greater the discount.

How Long is E-Rate Season?
Applicants typically start submitting 470 requests in October and the window closes in the February/March time-frame.

How can IDSolutions Help?
IDSolutions has been a service provider with over 10 years experience in the E-Rate arena. We can provide you with a proposal for your Video Conferencing, Video Streaming and Basic Maintenance Priority 2 request. We will also provide an Item 21 attachment which lists the equipment, equipment eligibilities, and the associated costs for the SLD and applicant.

We can provide the following tools and resources for:

Morning Broadcasts, School Announcements, Video PBX Services, Classroom Capture, Special Event Webcasts, Virtual Field Trips, Distance Learning, VCR Asset Delivery and Cable Television Distribution.

How Do I Get More Information?
Additional details can be obtained by calling the Client Service Bureau at 1-888-203-8100 or by going to the USAC website at www.usac.org/sl. You can also find out more about us at: http://www.e-idsolutions.com/who-we-serve-education.htm.

Reach out to any of our E-Rate experts with questions you may have.

Evolution of Video Teleconferencing and how not to let the Capital Appropriation Process slow you down when acquiring Mission Critical Technologies

2011-11-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

Many people aren’t aware of the evolution of Video Conferencing; it’s actually pretty interesting, even for the non-technical person.

All my life I have been what people call a “Right Brain” person. I have always been the creative, intuitive, people person type, I found that after working in the world of IP technology for the past seven years, a light bulb had gone off, and I realized that hey, the left side of my brain is really there, and it’s active! I find myself now a sponge for learning about the technical details, analyzing and actually enjoying crunching numbers and being more logical than I (or my family & friends) ever thought I would be. With that being said, I had a desire to find out how the technology that I now work with has evolved over the years. Below is what I found out.

Video Conferencing - is something that has been possible since the creation of the television. It's not become popular for use as a tool of communication until recently with travel expenses going through the roof. It all started with the Picture phone back in 1956. Definition: a brand of videophone that enables telephone users to see each other while talking. Really? 1956? Seriously….google it!

AT&T created the first system for two-way videoconferencing, Picture phone, in 1956. It allowed for constant conversation between parties with an updated picture every two minutes. What a refresh rate!! A revised model premiered at the 1964 World's Fair in New York where visitors were able to use the phone to call across the country to exhibits in Disneyland. The criticisms of the Picture phone were many and that sent AT&T back to the laboratory for the next six years. In 1970, the company released the first Picture phone service to residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ultimately, the large size and the high cost of the Picture phone led to its failure and it was taken off the market soon after.

Advancements throughout the decades - A video telephone system was developed in the early 70’s. In the 80’s advancements were made in Packet Video Protocol and the encoding began for communication lines. In the late 80’s the first release of equipment was released! The system was sold by VCR systems, with a whopping price of $250,000 in addition to the phone lines that cost $1000 per hour.

In the 90’s research continued, developing new technologies for video and audio. IBM released the first one that was able to be placed over a PC. Remember those gigantic monitors and the antiquated floppy disks?

In the 2000's, video conferencing was popularized via free Internet services such as Skype and iChat, which were in essence the old style video conferencing but re-packaged and re branded, web plug-in produced for the public and home environment these programs produced which promoted low cost, even though they were and still are, low-quality, video conferencing to virtually every household, business and school with a Internet connection. Through this development true video conferencing was now borne. Voice Over IP occurred from 2005-2008, all of which continually improved the quality of videoconferences while lowering their cost.

This then opened the doors for a new generation of the good old telephone and even social media. Companies are now able to drastically reduce if not alleviate travel costs, Telehealth advancements allow Rural Hospitals to connect to specialist to improve patient care, Schools can provide students with knowledge to open doors that were never available through distance learning.

Our society has definitely come a very long way since the 50’s. Video conferencing will continue to evolve until it becomes an integral part of any business. Even though the cost of Video Conferencing technology has decreased since the 70’s, many businesses are finding with the current economy, that their Capital Appropriation funding requests are being denied and budgets cut. Even though it may be a critical business need.

In conclusion, there are many other options for companies, healthcare, schools and government agencies to get the much needed technology to increase business, instruction and learning, provide services and save costs.

There are numerous grants available, Federal Funding for school districts and leasing options, which have proven better for companies concerned with streamlining cash flow, preserving after-tax capital and protecting credit lines best used for business growth.

Janet Lee
Regional Inside Sales Manager

Video Usage Tips

2011-09-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

While on a long 10 person audio/video call today I observed a number of basic etiquette issues that detracted from the quality of the call. During the long call, I was able to watch the presentation and the participants. What may work with audio conferencing doesn’t always work with video. Here are some basic items to be aware of when using video:

1. Stay still - participants should not rock back and forth in their chair- nervous habit or boredom, the constant motion distracts from the primary participant/presentation.

2. Be aware - use self view to insure your face is in the field of your camera, not with just the top of your head showing. Consistently seeing the top of someone’s head is distracting. Make sure there is good camera height and the camera is located behind the monitor.

3. Backgrounds – use a professional backdrop if available. Close office doors so you don’t have continuous traffic passing behind you. Clear clutter from any visible surfaces. Consider adding live plants or artwork to add color and texture.

4. Lighting - bad lighting equals bad video, good lighting is key to good video.

5. Video Mute - empty chairs are strange when people get up and leave, distracting to participants. If you meet with other people while on the call, block video so others don’t see the interaction.

6. Pay attention – stay focused on the presentation and participate when needed. Avoid surfing the internet or attending to email while in a video call. Other attendees and the presenter notice when you aren’t paying attention.

Brad Ballentine
VP, Customer Service
IDSolutions, Inc.

Remembering September 11.

2011-09-09T08:59:00.001-07:00

Its hard to believe that 10 years has passed since that day. I think everyone can remember exactly where they were and exactly how they felt when they heard the news. The events that day changed who we are - as people, as a nation.

As we approach the 10th anniversary, we at IDSolutions are remembering. Remembering those who were lost and those who have had to move on without loved ones. And thanks to our first responders and our military who work every day to keep us safe.

Here is a short example of how students using distance learning technologies were able to connect personally with Ground Zero:

http://www.cilc.org/pdfs/highlights01.pdf

VidyoMobile is here

2011-09-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

The new VidyoMobile app is now available for iPad2, iPhone4 and IDSolutions is offering a free trial - check it out at: http://www.e-idsolutions.com/services-managed-desktop-video-conferencing.htm

New Website is Live!

2011-09-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Our team has been hard at work on the new IDSolutions website for a while now, and finally, its LIVE! Check it out at: http://www.e-idsolutions.com/

We plan to keep this site updated with industry news, events, and fresh content. Stay tuned to see whats the latest in the video space. Also, check out our twitter and facebook pages as well as this blog for the latest updates!

We'd love to hear your comments, use the contact us form to let us know what you think!

Welcome!

2011-08-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new IDSolutions Blog! We will use this space to update you on industry trends, product updates, interesting applications and much more! Follow us now!