A Video Conference Experience in February.

A colleague had suggested that we conduct a proposed meeting by way of a video conference. He would be using the Internet 2 circuit part of the time. We would be using Time Warner's Road Runner on our end. We wanted to see how video would work. The alternatives were driving through snow, sleet and freezing rain to physically meet with him or to just use a telephone with a speaker.

His camera is the $500 videoconference unit from Polycom, www.ploycom.com; ours is an Intel Deluxe PC Camera, http://www.intel.com/pccamera, that cost $50 with capture software, as the Intel PC Camera Pack at a local discounter. Each attaches to a computer by a USB cable. We both used the NetMeeting software that comes with Windows. The video looked pretty good, but the audio rapidly went from acceptable, to frequently breaking up, to mostly silent. We therefore turned down NetMeeting's audio, placed a POTS call for audio, and left the 2-way video on. It shows only occasional pixelization when he moves rapidly. When he leaned forward and then back, his hairline remained visible for as much as 7 seconds before the compression gets around to writing the background there. Our video that we sent purportedly looked marginal as video but significant in that this was a first. Nevertheless, the video added a great deal to the conversation. It would have been even more important for making the call personal, if we had not worked with this person for a decade.

NetMeeting was very easy to use. We each only needed to know each other's ip address.

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