Introduction
Available services
The following videoconference services are available for our member institutions:
- Gatekeeper service (fixed terminal number allocation, international calls),
- H.323 multipoint service (for multi-party conferences with more than 2 participants), access to our web based MCU booking system,
- PSTN/VoIP dial-in service (connecting to videoconferences from public telephone networks),
- Directory service for videoconference endpoints,
- Videoconference recording and streaming,
- Technical assistance to the aboves,
- Administrative services (call detail record database, detailed statistics): only for organizational administrators.
All these services are free of charge. Please read "Conditions" page for more information.
Short history of NIIF videoconference service
Our higher-education and research community formed a considerable a need for a national, centrally organized and supported, high availability IP based videoconference service back in 2001-2002. NIIF established Videoconference Project gathered required finacial resources and started forming the services by procuring the following elements in 2003:
- High capacity H.323 Multipoint Control Unit (MCU),
- 50pcs. meeting room videoconference terminal.
The public procurement process brought a very fierce vendor competition that pushed down expenses considerably. Videoconference terminals were distributed among higher-education and research institutions and public collections not requiring any financial contribution from them. Thanks to the initial high number of videoconference terminals, the service stretched out to almost all important HUNGARNET organizations. The system due to its capacity and number of terminals became the largest IP based videoconference system in Central and East Europe.
Beyond infrastructure investment, we established key service components and international liaisons, which main steps are the following:
- Deployement of a national H.323 gatekeeper network allowing E.164-like dialling (2003),
- Establishment of elementary management services,
- Connection of national gatekeeper infrastructure to Global Dialing Scheme (2003),
- Web based MCU booking system,
- Centrally supported videoconference recording and streaming service (2006),
- HD tests (2006).
Thanks to the service and good user experience usage of videoconference in daily research and project co-ordination quickly increased, several institutions bought their own equipment and joined our network. Today, our system consists of more than 100 meeting room videoconference terminals.