NCSA's Virtual Meeting Room

SHAPE, 23. April 2009.  In the area of the System Management Division both LtGen Wolf  (outgoing D-NCSA) and the new NCSA Director LtGen Herrmann attended the official inauguration of the NCSA Virtual Meeting Room.

NC3A initiated a project to provide Virtual Meeting Rooms (VMR) to NC3A both in Brussels, Den Haag, ACT Norfolk, and the NC3A Rep at SHAPE. The General Manager of NC3A, Mr. Wilhelmsen, and the Director of NCSA, Lt. General Wolf, worked together to bring this capability to NCSA in the hope of increasing the level of cooperation between the two agencies.

After testing multiple products NC3A chose the Polycom TPX HD 306 to create the Virtual Meeting Room capability. This High Definition VTC unit includes three 60” Plasma screens to create life-size images installed in a wall credenza. There are also three HD VTC Codec’s to provide a 720p HD signal to the distant end locations and these will be upgraded to 1080p within the year.

The VMR feeling is further influenced by using similar designed rooms at each location to include wall paint, lighting, and even the same desk and chair furniture. With the inclusion of the HD Video Conferencing equipment from Polycom the overall look and feel is as if all participants are in the same room.

The entire VMR network is currently running over IP between Den Haag, Brussels and SHAPE, and within the next month there will be a sixth VMR installed at Norfolk.

By choosing to work with NC3A on the VMR project and with the installation of a VMR at all of these locations, NCSA will have an increase in the level of communication between the two agencies, and a decrease in travel costs since short meetings will be able to happen in real time without the need to be physically present at any one site.

This will result in more availability of personnel due to decreased travel time, and better use of NCSA personnel’s time thereby increasing the efficiency of the Headquarters.