cb38

Carman B38:

The Ed-Net or I-Net room, for Education or Information net exchange between local and far sites.

This room is for videoconferencing.

It is controlled by DOITT, the NYC Dept. of Information, Technology, and Telecommunications.
We book all sessions with DOITT. They set up and manage our connections. See DOITT homepage.

C-B38 Resources:

A session may be set up for the local site (i.e., this room) as well as up to three far sites.
The "far sites" have the identical setup. They include colleges and highschools.

Setup:

The room has space for an audience of 24 people, placed at 4 tables. Image.
All tables have voice-activated microphones. (But the camera must be focused on the speaker by the presenter.)

The room has a front monitor panel and a rear monitor panel, each for 4 monitors, one for the local site, three for far sites.
Each panel has a camera so areas of the room may be seen from front or rear.
The front panel is for the audience, the rear panel is for the presenter.

The room has a document camera: place on it an object or book or sheet of paper with text or image, for all to see.
The room has a computer with communications software to control the two cameras and the document camera.

The presenter stands in front, facing the audience. The presenter watches the rear monitor panel.
The presenter uses a microphone, with or without a wire. The mike is not needed for the room but it is needed for the far sites.
The presenter may use an assistant at the computer AND/OR the remote control.
Either will let the presenter control the cameras (to focus on a speaker or the audience, a screen, etc.)
The presenter must use the remote control to move a camera to focus on a speaker.

Future plans: add cpu (for showing PowerPoint slides, for example), VCR, audio tape and laser disk players.

(The room is connected to the so-called head end.)

Sample Session:

Lehman's professor X plays soft background music while welcoming the audience and outlining his presentation.
(Stop the music which currently comes from a tape or CD player.)
Present an object, or text, or image--using the document camera. Discuss it.
Invite questions or comments from the audience. Focus the camera on each speaker.
The audiences at the far sites watch and listen--spellbound, we hope--and join the discussion.