Video streaming: remote participation and engagement in the conference environment

Video streaming and videoconferencing technology is now attainable using inexpensive and widely available equipment. This paper makes use of a set of case studies conducted at a recent conference in the UK to investigate the technical and organizational issues related to differing approaches to the technology. Two approaches, videoconferencing over the Access Grid with VRVS, and a simple monodirectional video stream, were used back-to-back. Their effectiveness, scalability and applicability in various use cases are compared. In each case, a synchronous but asymmetric (making use of a modality of lower bandwidth) feedback channel was made available; a simple, moderated IRC chat system. Asynchronous feedback was also collected post factum using blogs and content distribution services such as Flickr. Feedback from users of each channel is analysed, and recommendations are given for future use of video streaming in conferences, workshops and interactive events. Relevant current research and opportunities for future work are identified.