ISDN Video Is Great, But What If There's No ISDN?

from Communications News May, 1996

Environment Canada, a government department responsible for environmental conservation, protection, conservation and weather forecasting, covers a huge geographical area. Its staff of more than 5,000 people in 120 offices relies heavily on electronic communication. Videoconferencing, in the form of desktop and dedicated systems, is a natural for Environment Canada in the view of Jack Sadubin, director of informatics and systems for the four-province Atlantic region.

"We have found that we can reduce costs and improve time utilization using videoconferencing," says Sadubin, who notes that many meetings that used to take a day of travel and cost $1,200 to $1,800 (Canadian) for airfare and lodging can easily be handled via videoconferencing. Many of EC's offices use PictureTel video systems to conduct remote meetings. The PCS 50 desktop system is used where ISDN basic rate service is available. When Sadubin decided to start conferencing from his New Brunswick facility, he ran into a roadblock.

"ISDN is not currently available in this service area and will not be available in the foreseeable future," he says. "Switched 56 service was readily available and inexpensive so we began looking for ways to use it."

After researching various options, including more elaborate video systems, Sadubin installed a Telesync TS-256 SW56/ISDN adapter to connect his PictureTel PCS 50.

"The Telesync unit uses two 56 kb/s lines to connect to the network. The desktop video system simply plugs into the unit," he says."This provided us with a easy-to-implement solution at a fraction of the cost needed for a larger video system. It is easy to install and transparent to the PCS 50."