Technology Brings ISES Canada Closer

Don Dewar
Sharp’s Audio Visual, VP Membership, Vancouver Chapter

Sharp’s Audio Visual was pleased to help bridge the miles across three of Canada’s largest cities for the ISES Canada 2009 first-ever simulcast AGM. As a member of the ISES Vancouver chapter, Don Dewar with Sharp’s AV in Burnaby was approached to explore the idea of helping to host a first-ever videoconference between the cities. Videoconferencing is a fairly simple and quick solution, but because of the costs associated with bandwith and venues, it was decided to explore “less expensive” options. lara@ready2spark.com introduced the ISES team to an exciting current technology that has some very useful applications, including a simulcast between multiple cities.

What’s different about this internet technology vs. a video conference is in its “push” characteristics to multiple users, no matter where you are. You only need an internet connection to receive the broadcasting shows. In this instance, Vancouver was broadcasting (uploading) their show as host, Calgary was broadcasting their show and Toronto was broadcasting their show over the internet. Each location was receiving (downloading) shows from the other two locations simultaneously. The quality is surprisingly good, the voice and speaking are fairly well synchronized, and it gives the sense of a “Skype-type” session. Skype is limited to point to point or person to person links for free. The difference with Ustream is it enables anyone with a computer, camera and an internet connection to broadcast or “push” a show out, and anyone with an internet connection to receive (download) that broadcast.

However, because of the type of technology Ustream uses, there is about a 5 second delay built in to buffer the stream as it sends it out. So, for a dynamic conversation between two locations, it has limitations. But for “push” technology and sharing across multiple users, it has some advantages. The ISES team came together nicely though, rehearsed the content and script, tested the venues and it came off without a hitch for ISES Canada’s first-ever simulcast AGM.