As you are probably aware, REANNZ, supported by the AVCC, has been running a trial Video Conferencing Bridge Service, using a Codian 4500 MCU. The trial has undoubtedly been a success and REANNZ have resultantly been working with Members towards the establishment of a permanent service. The goal of the permanent service is to provide increased bridge capacity (ports), and enhanced features for recording, booking and streaming.
Change of Service - Friday 24th July 2009
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the trial period of the current current Bridge is coming to a close more quickly than expected and to provide continuity of service, REANNZ have been busy preparing a new hardware solution to take over from the current hardware this Friday, 24th July at 12pm.
This solution, a Radvision Scopia Elite has undergone testing this last week with AVCC already and we feel confident that in the coming weeks this bridge will far surpass the functionality currently provided to KAREN Bridge users.
Troubleshooting & New Tutorials
Given the unforeseen circumstances which have led to this rapid transition, REANNZ and AVCC anticipate there may still be issues we have not yet encountered with the testing we have done. We ask that users experience difficulties bear with us during the transition period, and remind our community that we offer 9-5 support via our Helpdesk email and toll free number.
In addition, we have set up a special forum for users to discuss any issues they may be experiencing with the new service. This forum allows any registered users to post new topics, and comment on existing ones.
As of Friday when the transition takes place, our website will have full details on how to book meetings, connect to the new Bridge, and more comprehensive documentation of the new features of the service, and issues we have currently encountered. For further details on the new bridge, including results from our testing to date, please view the KAREN Bridge Overview page, as well as the KAREN Bridge Trial forum.
Existing Bookings
As a result of changing the Bridge hardware, all users with CMP booking accounts will have to have new accounts created for them on the new booking system, known as iView once this scheduling website is integrated into the Bridge over the next two weeks.
AVCC will manually transfer all bookings that were scheduled on the Codian Bridge via CMP before they are due to occur. Users wishing to create new meetings on the Bridge will have to register for a new iView account. To do this, please register for an account with the AVCC website, making sure you tick the box titled 'Sign me up for an iView KAREN Bridge Bookings Account'.
Users wishing to create new meetings before 7th August will need to visit the KAREN Bridge Bookings section on our website to find temporary instructions on how to do this.
