Meeting Expectations
Gilliam connects people via videoconferencing
John Gilliam is used to being in more than one place at a time. With the recent symposium on "The Pentagon Papers", sponsored by the Lied Center for Performing Arts, Gilliam linked a panel discussion at UNL with four other institutions via video conferencing over Internet 2.
"The Lied Center is a member of the Major University Presenters Consortium," says Charles Bethea, Lied's Executive and Artistic Director. "Since several of the MUP arts presenters have the LA Theatre Works on this season with 'Pentagon Papers', this seemed like a good starting point. We were subsequently able to host an hour discussion with four campuses: UNL, University of Iowa (Hancher Auditorium), University of California-Davis (Mondavi Center), and University of Pennsylvania (Annenberg Center) as well as the I2 home site at the University of Michigan."
"Information Services was extraordinarily cooperative and helpful," added Bethea. "We knew nothing about how I2 works on the campus or over the net and were reliant on such excellent knowledge and service. John is a superstar as far as we are concerned. The results exceeded my wildest hopes, both for technical success and success of the program."
Gilliam also regularly provides streaming and recording capabilities for the Chancellor's Lecture Series and the NU Tech monthly meetings. "John has always been collaborative," says Dave DeFruiter, Director of Information Technology Services, College of Business Administration."He's let the whole NU Tech community work together. Being able to record our sessions is huge."
Watch the video of the "Pentagon Papers" panel discussion
Courtesy of The Lied Center
"We really have a good equipment package," says Gilliam. "We give our clients a polished product that fits a major university." Gilliam can remotely control up to four video cameras and switch them on the fly like a television director. A meeting can be streamed via the H.323 video standard which uses nominal bandwidth. "The network team has done a wonderful job supplying connectivity across the campus. I can plug in almost anywhere." A meeting can be recorded and archived for later playback via QuickTime on the web.
The future includes incorporating the production capabilities of the New Media Center."We really have some great tools available to help people collaborate," says Gilliam. The Lied Center is interested in future possibilities. "I hope that we will have other and more regular opportunities to use I2 and this technology to connect our learning and collaborative efforts to other campuses and schools," added Bethea."It is part of a future we must be engaged with. I predict that we will get to know John and others very well as new opportunities arise."
For more information, contact the New Media Center at http://nmc.unl.edu or John Gilliam
Connectivity is a publication of UNL Information Services
