I’ll try to blog anything of interest I find in Europe – but I’ll be pretty quiet until the end of January.

This is an AVerVision 355AF from AVerMedia Information – pictured opposite.

It’s portable with a 5 megapixel camera resolution. It has one-touch audio and video recording without the use of a computer by using a USB flash drive or SD card.

The AVerVision 355AF’s list of features:

All sounds pretty good and the AVerVision 355AF listed selling price is $799.99 USD. Further information can be found here.

The videoconference environment is a visual one. Take advantage of this fact and try to convey your messages visually using words and pictures. You need to think about how everything you do will look on a screen – this includes your own actions as well as any visuals you might want to display.

There are two ways to display visuals in a videoconference – via the document camera (for text, pictures, objects) and via computer eg PowerPoint.

Screen Graphics

Graphics and documents for use in videoconferencing should be designed with the screen in mind. The principles below will help you to achieve effective screen graphics – both on the document camera and with computer.

Print size & font

Use a minimum of 36 point bold for titles.
Use a minimum of 24 point bold for body text.
Use a sans serif font eg Arial, Helvetica, Geneva – sans serif font is easier to transmit & read on screen.
Don’t mix fonts and don’t use too many styles ie bold, italics, underline – they’ll lose their impact.
Use upper and lower case for body text.
Maximum of 30 characters and spaces per line.
Maximum of 7 lines of text per screen.

Page layout

When arranging the page layout, use landscape mode ie page sideways.
Don’t over crowd your graphics. Too much information is difficult to read.
Keep diagrams simple.
Keep all graphics within a ’safe’ area on the page. Leave a 4 cm margin top and bottom and a 6 cm margin left and right.

These tips come from the book: Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Great Videoconferences.

Shane does some gorgeous singing lessons via videoconference with the littlies. There are a whole raft of examples of Shane’s lessons on YouTube. Here’s one of my favourites. (Trade secret – he uses the avatars/characters from his web cam.) I’m sure this will inspire you to get singing via videoconference. Enjoy…

Climate change represents a profound challenge to the lives and livelihoods of everyone, but particularly those living in developing economies acutely dependent on natural and nature-based resources. If the international community fails to act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year, now and forever. (Achim Steiner, Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Under-secretary General of the United Nations) Read more.

According to CARE:

Climate change cannot be addressed by continuing to conduct “business as usual.”  It requires new thinking, new standards and new tools, as well as new partnerships to translate them into decisive action.

CARE has a brochure with Six ways to reduce your carbon footprint they are:

1. Cut back on meat one to two meals per week.
2. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
3. Make it a full – and cold – load.
4. Reduce your “phantom” energy load.
5. Reduce your use of bottled water.
6. Give your car a break.

I think we can add a 7th – Use videoconferencing! Videoconferencing is the ideal way to reduce your carbon footprint & help to limit the consequences of climate change. So use your videoconferencing system in as many ways as you can over the next month instead of travelling.

LifeSize Passport also enables Skype HD audio calls. Mmmm – that has us thinking about the possibility of HD video over Skype???? Read more at the LifeSize website – where you can also watch a couple of videos.

I haven’t seen it in action – but the idea is very appealing

However, since there are well over 200 videos there, I thought I might save you some time by highlighting some of my favourites from time to time. I’ll save them to the category ‘Video’ so they’re easy to find. So….. here’s the first.

This video overviews the Global Nomads Group which is a non-profit organisation that organises fabulous videoconferences with the aim of heightening children’s understanding and appreciation for the world and its people.

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

The focus this year is Climate Change. Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees. Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilise millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.

Read more about Blog Action Day.

There’s no website, but if you’d like to learn more about the program you can download the PDF flyer here.

So of you’re thinking there’s something you can’t do via videoconference – think again!

A multipoint videoconference is connected through a piece of equipment called a multipoint control unit (MCU) – commonly called a ‘bridge’. The bridge is a mass of hardware & software that you might own – or hire on an ‘as needs’ basis. Some videoconference systems have a built-in bridge that will allow you to connect a small number of sites.

There are two basic modes of operation for multipoint videoconferences:

Voice activated

In this mode of operating, any site that speaks will be automatically seen on the screen.  The current speaker is seen by all sites and the current speaker sees the previous speaker. The system will also switch to a site at any continuous sound. This could be tapping, rustling or any on-going equipment noise external to the room eg machinery or loud air conditioning unit. The only way to overcome this is to have all sites mute their microphones unless speaking.

Continuous presence

The screen can be divided into several sections and one site appears in each rectangle. The advantage of this is that everyone can see everyone else at all times. This can also be a disadvantage if participants don’t remain aware of the fact that they can be seen at all times (see this video!!!). The other possible disadvantage is that you will not be able to see a full screen close up of a speaker or documents being displayed. However, some bridges allow you to receive a full screen of the speaker while allowing them to receive a split screen with all sites visible.

Below is a sample Continuous Presence screen (thanks to Seth at the Video Over Enterprise Blog)