Site Coordinator Requirements

In order to be designated as the Internet2 Commons Site Coordinator for your organization or department, you must have the following knowledge base and skills, and you must perform the following duties. If your abilities match the following list, send an email message to emerging@osu.edu describing your qualifications. Or, take a Site Coordinator training class.

Knowledge and Skills

You:
  • Have assigned time to support your organization or department.
  • Have access to a personal hardware-based H.323 endpoint in order to connect to and support your endpoints.
  • Know how your campus network works and who to call to discuss network problems.
  • Train your users in how to run their endpoints.
  • Take ownership of problems until they are resolved.
  • Understand environmental factors:
       lighting
       visual clutter     
       room acoustics       
       extraneous noise
       camera and microphone placement       
       location signs
  • Understand audio basics:
       microphones
       speakers
       headsets
       handsets      
       feedback
       echo
       line level
       microphone level
       muting
       software and hardware volume control
       local and remote levels
       encoding algorithms
  • Understand video basics:
       field of view
       focus
       eye contact
       cameras
       document cameras
       VCRs
       character generators
       S-video, composite video, component video
       encoding algorithms
       continuous presence (advantages and disadvantages)
       projectors, screens
  • Understandvideoconferencing basics:
       1:1
       1:Many
       Many:Many
       Speed vs. performance tradeoffs
  • Understand data collaboration and its relationship to videoconferencing, and the commonly used methods.
  • Understand MCU, Gatekeeper, and Gateway basics:
       What is a zone
       How to set up and administer a zone
       Cascading MCUs
       Streaming and when to do it
  • Understand expected quality and performance, when using:
       Internet2
       Commodity Internet
       DSL
       cable modem
       56K modem
       Full or half duplex
       10 or 100 ethernet
       shared or switched ethernet
       T1
       Heavily loaded or somewhat defective network
  • Know common applications of videoconferencing.
  • Are familiar with the ViDe Cookbook, a key resource for videoconferencing training.
  • Have experience with PC-based systems:
       USB
       PCI
  • Know the difference between room-based and standalone systems.
  • Understand video address books, in PC and standalone systems, and how they relate to Gatekeeper aliases.
  • Can arrange and conduct a multipoint videoconference.
  • Are familiar with H.323 protocols and sub-protocols and their various versions.
  • Know which types and brands of equipment work well and which do not.
  • Can set up, debug, and operate the most common brands:
       Polycom ViaVideo
       VCON ViGo
       Polycom Viewstation
  • Understand equipment costs and where to buy endpoints.
  • Can debug problems:
       Dial and no answer
       Gatekeeper registration
       Crashed systems
       Ping and trace route
       qcheck
       duplicate alias
       firewalls and NATs
       poor video or audio
       echo
  • Perform routine testing via our testing MCU.
  • Can construct a standard GDS (Global Dialing Scheme) number.
  • Know videoconferencing etiquette
  • Know how H.320 are H.323 are different
  • Know where to go for higher-level help
  • Can find endpoints through user directories

Duties

  • Work with your endpoints and users to specify, install, and debug equipment and solve network issues.
  • Participate in the site coordinators' email list <commons-coord@internet2.edu>, to provide mutual assistance and problem solving with other member organizations.
  • Provide and maintain a directory of local users on a publicly accessible web site. If a local gatekeeper exists, it should be registered with the ViDeNet directory. We also encourage all Internet Commons users to register all endpoints with ViDeNet.
  • Provide training for your users.
  • Schedule Internet Commons MCU usage for your users and keep what local records you require.
  • Certify your organizations' endpoints by connecting successfully with the test MCU. This should be done prior to each endpoint's first significant videoconference.
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