Polycom HD camera work in Connect?

[roattw]

Have a high-end point-to-point video conference system we just installed.  Only shortcoming is its ability to work with basic web-based VC solutions like Skype.  Not a huge issue with Skype but may be with more robust solutions like Adobe Connect.  Albeit still web-based, more capable of recognizing higher end camera?

In this case the Polycom camera sends out an S-video signal to computer PCI capture card we are hoping will be picked up and recognized by Connect.  Skype sees and recognized it, just cant display it.

Havent been able to setup a test with Adobe Connect yet so looking for any insights in advance.

Thanks!

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

There are a couple of solutions you may want to try.

First, if Connect doesn't recognize your video card as an input, you may want to look at the DVDriver software, as it will allow your computer to recognize any video input as a "web cam". And it's only $60 (free trial though).

Second, you could look to a licensed deployment of Connect, which allows VTC integration. All you need is a SIP address for your Polycom system. Just plug it in in the Admin section and there will be a pod for it in the meeting room.

[roattw]

Thanks Jorma.  Couple question since Im new to this:

"a licensed deployment of Connect, which allows VTC integration": We are always calling into these event, not hosting them.  Are licensed versions only for the host?

"All you need is a SIP address for your Polycom system"

Its already set with an IP address on the institutions VoIP system.  Works great point-to-point.

Thanks again!

[Jorma_at_CoSo]

Connect is sold in two primary options. You can purchase it as Software As A Service (SAAS), where Adobe hosts your account and you just pay an annual subscription fee. Your URL would be http://yourcompanyname.adobeconnect.com/. You can also purchase the software outright and host it on your own server(s). This is a licensed purchase. URLs usually end up as http://connect.yourcompany.com/.

If you host your own Connect server, then the VTC integration is available. If you have Adobe host your account, it is not.

A SIP address is different than an IP address, I'll leave the description to Wikipedia. If your Polycom system has a SIP address, then it would work with the VTC integration.

[Guest]

I'll add to what Jorma posted that Adobe Managed Services customers can also take advantage of this VTC integration. Adobe's Managed Services offering happens on Amazon's Cloud and is single-tenant. If you opt for this instance, and you allow your Polycom or Tandberg systems access from the internet, and you are using a SIP/H.264 based system, then you are all set.

Please understand though that the integration with VTC systems is a one way connection today with H.264 video and an audio stream come into the special VTC Pod but you cannot send H.264 video and audio back into the VTC system. That two way option is being looked at for a future 9.x version next year or so....to be determined....

For some customers this has been fine because all they want is to be able to broadcast a board meeting, or something important in a meeting room to a larger audience. Those that need two way can easily add a second monitor to the board room along with a laptop that connects to a webcam and Adobe Connect.

If you have an older H.323 based VTC system, then you can use the Vidyo provided Pod for Adobe Connect ($$$ purchase required) and they can provide a link in their pod to Adobe Connect. Unfortunately, you cannot record that video becuase their video pod operates outside of Adobe Connect.

Also, be aware that the Polycom and Tandberg cameras output at a very high quality which will not work with the normal webcam pod in Adobe Connect which is limited to 640x480 VGA 20fps video. That is why there is the special VTC Pod that offers variable speed and HD video support for these cameras.

[roattw]

Wondering if this solution proposed by Adobe will actually work:

http://www.connectusers.com/tutorials/2008/11/using_videoconf/

[Guest]

Yes, but that recording is quite old being recorded in 2009. A lot has changed with Adobe Connect 8.

Connect 8 can talk directly to SIP/H.264 based VTC systems and that allows fully HD quality video streams versus analog audio via that old methid shown.

You can integrate with these cameras if you have an on-premise installation of Connect or if you subscribe to Adobe's new Managed Service for Connect via Amazon cloud (single tenant), ConnectSolutions hosted service (single tenant). At this time, Adobe Hosted customers (multi tenant) cannot use this because of the multi-tenant nature of Adobe's Hosted service. We're exploring future options for hosted customers. Understand though that in order to use these systems via the internet various VTC ports would have to be open in your firewall.

[roattw]

Heyward:  I saw another blog post you had about Xplit (

http://groups.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=post.display&postid=36496 ) - does that pertain in this case?

[Guest]

No. Exsplit would be used to downgrade a local camera. When someone is using Polycom or Tandberg VTC cameras they would access those via the network using SIP/H.264 protocols and not directly connected to a PC/Mac.

[roattw]

Thnx Heyward.  Im bummed I cant

get this high end system to use that darned camera for basic web conferencing.

[Guest]

Well....it's a matter of having your own Adobe Connect Server really then you could do it.

Most customers that have VTC equipment have them inside the firewall so even if we offered or eventually offer this option to hosted accounts, the other issue will be that your firewall would have to open up ports in the 5000-6000 range to the internet. Most IT security folks would never allow that many ports to be open to the internet. So, it really is best to have your own Connect server if you want to do all this inside the firewall.

There are folks that use our Adobe hosted Connect Servers but buy one Adobe Connect server for doing this for those occasions where you desire this integration. It's an option but would cost the price of the server and licenses.

[roattw]

Since Im more IT than AV Im going to take a moment to briefly describe my situation to make sure Im not

leaving out some magic tidbit that might lead to a solution to this situation.

Small conference room with a Polycomm 7200 codec with Polycom HD Eagle Eye camera:

http://www.polycom.com/global/documents/products/telepresence_video/datasheets/hdx-eagleeye-comparis...

This Point to point system works great IP to IP using the codec itself.

Problem is we only do about 20% of VC point to point (but thta number is growing).

We still do a lot of Adobe Connect web based ones as well.

This Eagle Eye Camera has an S-video out and just suprised be cant get Connect (or Skype) to recognize this camera (even thought the PC PCI card sees it).

[Guest]

Ok...now I see the whole picture.

That camera outputs HD video at 1920 resolution. It does have an S-Video port that can connect to your PC if you have a capture card. However, SKYPE and Connect can only handle DVD video quality (640x480) resolution and max of 20 frames per second. The camera is outputting too high a signal for most web conference tools to handle. Recall you are going to be able to re-broadcast any video coming into a Connect room to thousands of attendees so sending that amount of video would overwhlem most networks!

So. to get this to work you need to downgrade the signal to 640x480 and 20fps. Either you camture card software can do this or you can use any number of tools out there such as what I have mentioned before in the forum. Try using XSplit to create a virtual camera that has 640x480 resolution.

http://www.xsplit.com/download/

Then have Adobe Connect use the virtual camera feed.

[roattw]

BTW, I was FINALLLY able to get this to work using the Svideo out to an Osprey 230 PCI card (http://www.viewcast.com/products/osprey-cards/osprey-230) with a software app called DVdriver (http://www.trackercam.com/TCamWeb/dvdriver.htm) that forced the HD camera to be recognized as a web cam. I would suggest to Polycom to make this a little easier as the one thing I learned in all this is that a lot of people go back and forth between full peer to peer VC and web-based. To have one camera easily used for both in the same meeting room is huge.

[Guest]

Great information. Polycom, Tandberg/Cisco are focussed on network based video. That's their focus from my perspective at least. So, using those cameras as webcams connecting to PC's is something that can be done but not the focus as they want desktop VTC type video therefore bypassing the need for web conferencing. Just my view.

[roattw]

Thats a good point I guess.  MAkes sense.  But in my experience in this educational institution only 40% of people video conference calls are tru point to point IP calls.  The other 60% are web-based.  I think Polycomm could sell more codecs/cams is they could also be easily used for web cams.  At the very least they would be fulfilling a broad wish on customer wish lists because in all my investigation everyone said I Wish I Could use the same HD cam.  Polycom - get on that