Video Conferencing at UBC’s Okanagan campus

High-Definition full-room video conferencing is available at the UBCO campus. If you’ve used Skype or Google Chat and want to have the same collaboration experience for off-site attendees in your gatherings here at our campus, we can arrange that for you.

Unlike Skype, full-scale video conferencing doesn’t just automatically work anywhere there is a computer; specific equipment is required for this service to work. We have LifeSize brand video-conference equipment installed in several locations around campus, some in rooms which can be booked by other UBCO users (either through the Central Booking Office or through the departments which oversee the rooms) and some in rooms which can be booked by external groups.

Rooms with built-in video-conference equipment include small meeting and conference rooms such as FIP337 (the WestGrid meeting room, capacity of 8), medium-sized meeting rooms such as EME4216 (Engineering Dep’t, capacity of 16) or EME3112 (Education Dep’t, capacity of 20), and larger meeting rooms such as EME4218 (Engineering, capacity of 20) or EME4116 (Management). For contacts click here.

It is preferable for most video-conference meetings to be held in rooms containing built-in equipment, because camera placements and audio feeds in these locations have been designed for the space.

It could be that you’re needing to video-conference with a person or group of people who don’t have access to video-conference equipment on their end other than their laptops or computers. In this situation it’s still best to be booked into an actual video-conference room here at UBCO, and then IT Services can work with you to book a conference that will work both with the large room system here on campus and with the remote attendees computer (as long as they have a webcam and Internet access). Common web video-chat platforms like Skype or Lync or Google Chat do NOT talk natively to large-room systems used at UBCO or other Universities.

What are the steps in booking a video conference?

1. Find and book a video-conference room through the Central Booking Office or applicable department
2. Find out from your remote attendee(s) where they’ll be connecting in from, and ask them for the “IP address” of the video-conference system on their end. Keep this information and their email address handy for step #3 below
3. If possible, ask your remote attendees to give you contact info for a technician who’ll be supporting the session on their end. If they are planning to connect in with a laptop, ensure they have a webcam, earbuds/headphones and strong Internet access.
4. Submit a video-conference request ticket with IT, Media and Classroom Services on the UBC Self-Service Portal
5. Include your remote attendee’s video-conference IP address (if applicable) and their email address or any other contact info you have for them.