Over the summer, while students were traveling the world and faculty were off to conferences, Cornell Information Technologies' (CIT) Academic Technologies Services and User Support workers were installing new videoconferencing technology to make traveling less necessary.

A new central unit can connect up to 20 standard and high-definition video conference sites as part of one or more conferences. Phone calls can also be bridged into a video conference. The system allows CIT technicians to manage up to 50 individual conference systems. Weill Medical College has installed an identical system and the Ithaca and Weill systems will support each other's services.

ISDN connected sites can still be included in conferences and connected to network-based video conferences.

CIT has two conference rooms available for campus use in the Computing and Communications Center, B08 and 217. A new touch panel control system has been added to B08. A plasma display has been added to 217 along with additional audio/visual switching and interface equipment.

CIT, Biotechnology, and the College of Arts and Sciences partnered to add video conferencing capabilities to Biotech G01 and Stimson 206. Biotech G01 can be booked by contacting Steve Sparling at ss110@cornell.edu. Stimson 206 can be booked through University Scheduling - Resource 25 univ_scheduling@cornell.edu. Weill Hall includes a 30-seat tiered conference/meeting facility and an 80-seat multipurpose room, both with high-definition video conferencing, webcasting and additional audio/visual capabilities. Room 224 has a curved presentation display wall with three data/video projectors that can display multiple video sources. It has an advanced collaboration system that supports large-scale distributed meetings which includes connection with the Access Grid network, an Internet 2 based global system that supports group-to-group interactions between over 260 research institutions.

CIT continues to offer webcasting systems that can capture event audio and video at facilities all across campus for remote viewing via the Internet, Web conferencing support via Adobe Acrobat Connect, and high quality audio/video distribution of events to on-campus and/or remote sites.

For more information e-mail cit-av@cornell.edu.