Video Conference Solutions at HKUST

As video conferencing technologies are getting better and better, more and more people find it more cost-effective and efficient to conduct business via video conference. Assuming a stable video and audio channel with adequate clarity, participants in video conference save significant travelling time, transportation costs, and have more flexibility in scheduling. In HKUST, more and more users are deploying video conferencing technologies for various research, teaching and administration purposes. 

The potential of video conferencing technologies is huge, but in reality users are intimidated by various issues such as stability, ease-of-use, quality of video and audio signal, etc. In fact, a poorly set up video conference can be very upsetting and cause unnecessary anxiety to participants.

To maximize the value of video conferencing technologies and optimize the user experience, we need to consider user needs, technological requirement and limitation as well as other external factors.  ITSC has been supporting a variety of video conferencing technologies and solutions and we would like to highlight 3 different types of solutions for different scenarios:

• Vidyo – This is a high-quality on-premises video conferencing solution intended for staff members without usage charge. It supports industrial video conferencing standards like H.323 and SIP, allowing other universities or external parties to connect with us using other brands of systems complying with the standards. A number of remote courses with partnering institutions in overseas are conducted using Vidyo, with satisfactory experience.  To use Vidyo, HKUST staff members can connect to our Vidyo Portal at https://vidyo.ust.hk to download the corresponding VidyoConnect – the desktop program for Windows or MAC platform. Users of iPhone and Android phones can download VidyoConnect App from AppStore or PlayStore. 
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• Zoom – This is one of the most widely accepted public-cloud-based video conferencing solutions. User can create a free basic account at https://zoom.us. The free basic account can be used to participate group video conference session for a maximum time of 40 minutes. Users who need to use for longer than 40 minutes may consider subscribing a paid Zoom Pro account. 
  
  
• Microsoft Teams – This is a cloud-based team collaboration software inside the Microsoft Office 365 suite of applications. It provides a chat-based work space in which users can create different channels to organize their communication groups by topics. Users can also schedule voice and video meetings using Teams. This technology is ideal for teaching group work, especially when group video conference is needed. HKUST staff and students are entitled to use Teams. One can download Teams from Microsoft Office Portal - https://portal.office.com, and log on with your ITSC network account. Please click here to learn more about Microsoft Teams.