On Wednesday night, March 19, Media Services facilitated an hour long, high bandwidth videoconference between the Sociology & Anthropology department at Swarthmore College and the Sociology department at the University of Hong Kong.

Participants were able to see and hear each other in a full screen, natural setting using a high bandwidth 384 kbps conference connection over the Internet. Swarthmore Media Services rolled out is brand new Tandberg Edge 85 conference unit with a high definition camera, and a 42″ Sony plasma monitor. The University of Hong Kong connected using a Polycom videoconferencing unit. The Tandberg Edge 85 can transmit and receive at 2MB per second and can host multiple videoconference and teleconference calls simultaneously.

The Tandberg Edge 85 will be one of the many items on display at the Academic Technology Fair in the Scheuer Room on April 7th. Videoconferencing services are available to the academic and administrative community at Swarthmore College. Please call Michael Patterson, Media Services Manager at x6201 for more details, or write us at avbox@swarthmore.edu.