Three self service options are available to Lab users.
- Room Equipment
- Google Video Chat
- BlueJeans.com "cloud bridge"
Room Equipment
The Lab standard for Room Equipment is Lifesize (there are several different models to choose from). Point to Point and multi-point video conferences can connect rooms together, as long as the destination site is Lifesize or something that it can connect to.
We have recently implemented an appliance that allows Lifesize users to elect to stream and/or record the conference (which will be publicly available). Call the Help Desk and identify the IP address of the lifesize unit, date/time of meeting and a title. This will allow them to initiate the service. The web link to send to collaborators for viewing is stream.lbl.gov .
It is important to note that everything recorded or streamed is publicly available (we may implement changes to this model at some point, however)
Google Video Chat
One-to One video chat is available through the Gmail web interface (gmail.lbl.gov). If you and your contact both have camera's and both have Google accounts (not necessarily LBL google accounts), this option will work well. It is similar to Skype which is also frequently used.
Note: If you decide to initiate a chat (or Video Chat) with someone, they will have to accept the invitation first.
Bluejeans cloud service (Pilot)
A third option which combines the prior two is a new service that is being tested - bluejeans.com. This can be viewed as a video bridge in the cloud - a service that can connect different technologies and platforms together into one conference. It does require an account (which the IT Help Desk can provide) to initiate a meeting (similar to the Readytalk service that is offered). Participants can include non lab employees.
Go here for instructions on using BlueJeans, once you have an account or are asked to participate in a meeting scheduled by someone else.
Go here for the IT service description for video conferencing options
