Australia’s research and education network

Log in
Fields marked with * are required

AARNet Conferencing Scheduling System

Why do we need a conference scheduler?

Scheduling a video or audio conference can be a difficult, complicated task at best but with the many different types/brands of conferencing equipment and associated conferencing infrastructure this can be near impossible without the necessary training.

AARNet provides the National Video Conferencing Service infrastructure which eligible AARNet customers use to schedule thousands of conferences every year. Without an automated scheduling system for customers to schedule and edit their own reservations, NVCS staff would have to process these requests manually which can lead to delays in peak booking periods and possible transcription errors between systems.

Some of the benefits of an automated conferencing scheduling system include:

  1. Conference scheduling and recording/streaming access by eligible users 24/7 regardless of business hours with no manual intervention needed by NVCS staff
  2. The ability to schedule multiple conferences quickly and easily without needing to remember addresses of conferencing endpoints or dialing manually
  3. The ability to schedule the same conference/rooms on multiple occasions, otherwise known as "re-occurring conferences"
  4. The ability to schedule a conference to be recorded for later playback or for live streaming via a web browser
  5. The ability to send automated email and calendar invitations to multiple participants

Why did we need to change from CMP 1-2-3 to ACSS?

The AARNet Codian Management Platform (CMP 1-2-3) has reached End Of Life (EOL) in terms of support from the system developers prompting the NVCS team to search for a new scheduling platform. The desired scope for this replacement system was one that could support AARNet's current infrastructure as well as provide support for any possible future service offerings that AARNet's may elect to offer it's customers.

After an extended period of research and consultation with the sector, AARNet hosted an  OzeConference  in February 2010 with interested parties to discuss their scheduling requirements. A  background positioning paper  was developed by NVCS to facilitate this discussion and participation of vendors interested in supplying a replacement conference scheduling platform was sought.

Renovo software was selected based on their input and capability positioning after agreement to customisation work to integrate a majority of the AARNet requested features in a future product release.

Some of the major reasons identified for the switch include:

  1. CMP 1-2-3 can no longer be developed or supported
  2. Some features intended for CMP 1-2-3 were never implemented or not finished before EOL
  3. Some features have minor bugs which were not able to be fixed before EOL
  4. Only support for Codian conferencing infrastructure, no open API access
  5. Platform was designed on old architecture and hardware which is also not supported and would not migrate to new hardware easily
This changeover has been in the planning for over two years and AARNet NVCS staff are pleased to be able to offer this new platform to it's customers.

Service eligibility and acceptable use policy (AUP)

AARNet connected customers are eligible to schedule conference bookings with AARNet connected customers or other parties in accordance with the AARNet Access Policy.Video endpoints may join a video conference initiated by an eligible customer, tests prior to join via the automated QA numbers are recommended to ensure any connecting/quality problems can be identified and resolved beforehand.

NVCS conferencing and support services are currently free based on a fair usage policy. Shareholder customers must not schedule more than 30% of HD MCU ports, this equates to 12 ports at any one time (as of July 2011). An exception would be where more ports are required to support a one off or infrequent event in which case NVCS need to be informed ideally 7 days beforehand at support@nvcs.edu.au. Port booking cannot be guaranteed as ports are booked on a first come first served basis, protected by the fair use policy.