TRIUMF is now connected to the global MBone (Multicast Backbone) via a tunnel to UBC.
What this means is that using freely available software you can view video and
whiteboard from global conferences, listen to audio at audio-equipped workstations,
and possibly participate by using the tools to send to a conference.
The session directory tool sdr lists current broadcasts and automatically launches
appropriate viewers.
There is an interesting report by Andrew S. Patrick on The Human Factors of MBone Videoconferences.
The video and whiteboard tools are standard X11 programs, and will run on any X-terminal. Since the X-terminals do not support multicast directly, the net load increases for each X-terminal in use. Workstations with integral displays do not impose any extra net load.
The audio tools are available for workstations with integral sound systems. At this time
the SGI system indi01, the Sun SPARCstation sundae,
Win95 PC's with soundcards and the
Linux PC andrew are known to support sound.
There is some NCDAudio software available for Alphas, but it lacks features
compared to the workstation-based tools, has lower-quality audio, and consumes more
local bandwidth.
The Sun SPARCstation sundae is equipped with a video frame grabber, with NTSC/PAL video and S-VHS inputs, so that it may be used to send video.
UBC transmits talks from the CICSR the last Thursday of each month at 4pm. See UBC CS Invited Speaker Series 1995/96
