IT is pleased to announce two new video conferencing services for the use of Berkeley Lab staff. First, we've outfitted 30 conference rooms with multi-functional video conferencing carts. Second, we've procured a site license for Fuze, an easy to use online meeting + videoconferencing application.
Video Conferencing Carts
IT Division developed and deployed 30 new video conferencing carts across the laboratory, with more to come. Each cart has a TV (either 40" or 60" models depending on the size of the room), a mac-mini, high quality external microphone and speakers, along with a cart (if the TV is not wall mounted). Each system is remotely managed (e.g. software updates) and the IT help desk can assist as needed. The carts have software to use Fuze (our new standard) attend traditional H.323/SIP video conferences, Skype, Readytalk, Google Hangouts, and more.
With the landscape of video conferencing changing rapidly and the diversity of platforms used by our collaborators, we're happy to have found a solution that delivers high quality audio and video, but supports a wide variety of video conferencing technologies.
FUZE now available
We're also pleased to announce the availability of Fuze labwide via a site license. Fuze is a cloud based video conferencing service that has high quality video and audio (via VOIP). You can use Fuze on our video carts, or on virtually any computer or mobile device. We chose Fuze because it provides a simple but powerful interface and very high quality video and audio.
Fuze has been fully integrated with our single sign-on service. go.lbl.gov/fuze will allow you to authenticate with your Berkeley Lab identity username and password (often referred to as "LDAP"). A client is required to fully participate in a meeting (as either a host or as a participant) and you will be asked to download the software the first time you visit the site). Clients are available for Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS.
Learn More
Classes for Fuze (and a general introduction to the cart based system) are available for signup in employee self service. We also provide on-site instruction wherever we have deployed a cart.
For more information on the Video Conferencing Pilot, review this web site go.lbl.gov/vc. The web page you will see is also what appears when the mac-mini is started - some of the directions are targeted towards use in that environment. Follow the link at the bottom called "Conference Room Targets" to find out which rooms have video equipment.
Give Us Feedback
As always, we welcome your feedback, questions, and suggestions at http://help.lbl.gov
