What do you wish to achieve?

• Point to Point ¨C two locations only at any one time\r
• Broadcast Live ¨C from one site to many ¨C watch and listen\r
• Broadcast pre-recorded ¨C from one site to many ¨C watch & listen\r
• Multipoint ¨C three or more sites with Q&A between any, relayed to all\r
• Multipoint - three or more ¨C plus broadcast from any to satellite sub-groups as a watch and listen.\r
• Live with session taped for future edit and distribution\r
• Person to person/s with video & audio & data manipulation across participants ¨C e.g. sharing documents, drawings with or without live edit and audit of changes made.

  With whom do you wish to communicate by videoconferencing?

• Only inside your company\r
• From your company to sister/ contractor/ supplier companies\r
• With your customers\r
• With your prospects

  Frequency of system use

• Ad hoc \r
• Estimated use per annum (min/max)\r
• Weekly\r
• Monthly\r
• Quarterly

  Installation type

• Custom built static installation ¨C i.e. a designated room\r
• Desktop location/s ¨C i.e. from the office desktop PC\r
• Mobile ¡°roll-about¡± system - \r
• Off-site facilities required ¨C going to a dedicated videoconference facility

  Options required

• Record, Edit & Distribute by hardcopy (CD/DVD)\r
• Record, Edit & Distribute by softcopy (Web cast)\r
• Broadcast live via direct links to named recipients/ groups\r
• Broadcast pre-recorded across one or more time zones\r
• Log who watched and listened and when\r
• Multiple persons at One or Two (group to group videoconferencing ¨C e.g. design teams, board to local management) \r
• Multiple participants at Three or more sites

  What are your current IT capabilities?

• ISDN 1 \r
• ISDN 2\r
• ISDN 30\r
• LAN ¨C Cat5/ Cat5e/ Cat6\r
• LAN ¨C Fibre\r
• LAN ¨C wireless ¨C type?\r
• WAN ¨C bandwidth?\r
• VPN ¨C bandwidth?\r
• Internet access, dial-up 56k\r
• Internet access , Dial-up 128K\r
• Internet access , Broadband 1Mb\r
• Internet access , Broadband 2Mb\r
• Internet access , Broadband 4 Mb\r
• Internet access , Satellite link\r
• Internet access , permanent fibre/ cable link\r
• T1 / T2 / T3 / T4 (aka DS-1/ DS-2/ DS-3/ DS-4) \r
• OC-1 / OC-3 / OC-12 / OC-38

  Impact on your system ¨C to be considered

• Bandwidth load\r
• Current capacity used & unused & reserved (max/ min for each)\r
• Planned bandwidth use ¨C excluding video conferencing\r
• Contention ratio\r
• Speed\r
• Video quality ¨C predominantly static (talking head ¨C Yes/No)\r
• Hardware at point of display\r
• Hardware at point of transmission\r
• Hardware at point of distribution

  Points to consider

• Budget\r
• What do you spend currently on flights/ travel/ accommodation per annum?\r
• Write-off period for cap ex\r
• Leasing options\r
• IT infrastructure\r
• Cost and timescale of increased capacity and hardware -if required

  James Hunter works for Edric Audio Visual, a premier provider of video conferencing solutions in the UK.