* The Reviewmeister looks at Starbak's Torrent videoconferencing gateway
Nobody loves communicating by videoconference more than the Reviewmeister. I’ve got my own little desktop video setup and I can videoconference with other people in the company who have similar gear. But what if I want to package up a video presentation and send it out so people can watch it via Real Player or Microsoft Media Player at their own convenience.
Well, Starbak’s Torrent videoconferencing gateway is just the ticket. It converts a videoconference into streaming media.
The Torrent VCG is a 1U-high server running Red Hat Linux 2.4 and a combination of third-party licensed and Starbak-written applications for streaming and videoconferencing. The server contains built-in Gigabit Ethernet connections, and has options for Networked File System-mounted storage devices.
Torrent users can initiate calls with any H.323-compliant device. During the call setup, the user selects the media and tools that will be incorporated into the final presentation window. Options include video and audio, video and audio with slides, and all of the above with chat.
Users registered to the same or a neighbor gatekeeper can establish a video call to a specific line from their videoconferencing terminal by entering the alias of a specific line or to the next available H.323 port by entering the IP address of the VCG server.
For conferences that includes slides, the uploading process is straightforward and sufficiently automated. Each slide is converted to a JPEG on the server and advanced manually once a call begins. The call-initiation process was reliable, and we never had a call fail. We even maintained a call for more than three hours.
When the Torrent is in a call, the management interface lets administrators, call initiators and moderators view call-specific information, including compression algorithms in use, presentation format, duration, record on/off, and the number of viewers in different formats receiving the stream.
With one mouse-click, VCG account users can begin or end recording of an active session to the disk. A window in the call-center view indicates the bandwidth usage of a selected call in real time. Overall, the call center was very useful.
The administrator or account user also can see relevant server usage statistics, including streaming bandwidth summary, active stream list, audience totals and active multicast lists. File management is easy to use, and offers insight into the number,duration, size and format of files on an account basis.
Starbak deserves credit for developing an ingenious solution for Webcasting or recording a videoconference. This is the only all-in-one device specifically dedicated to the convergence of these two rich media forms of communication. For the full report, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0324rev.html
