A Few Tips On Selecting Video Conferencing Equipment For Your Business

For business environments, video conferencing is not just recommended. This type of technological innovation is also beneficial to the State and the local government, schools, as well as other organisations that render services to the public. The most ideal system allows any kind of organization to perform brain storming sessions, sales meetings, board meetings, conduct training and interviews, among many others. Selecting the wrong system and every conference may experience issues technically that would preclude productivity and effective communications.

So this question comes to mind, "how do you select the most appropriate video conferencing equipment that will suit all your needs?" To begin with, you are going to have to take a look at which type of meeting you usually have. Figuring out which type of system you would like to have for your needs will call for certain questions to turn up and addressing them.

What type of meetings will you be usually conducting? Will it be intended for product development or will it be mostly for corporate team meetings and training? How many people do you think are going to participate in the video conferences? Are those meetings going to need sharing of information like PowerPoint presentations, Excel documents, or videos? Will the meetings you are going to be conducting have participants that will come from multiple locations, as in a multipoint call?

For small meetings where participants make use of laptops with HD video conferencing, iPads and iPhones, some systems will be suitably simple enough. However, there are other systems that are much more intricate, suitable for much larger environments, and have multiple site capabilities. Systems may feature several high-definition displays with HD cameras, dual screen support, as well as wideband audio for crystal-clear sound quality. Once you have determined which type of system you need, then selecting video conferencing equipment will be much simpler, easier and more efficient to do.

In a setup that requires a sophisticated conferencing system, it is always wise to incorporate a boardroom control system which can actually make the whole process of setting a meeting up as simple as touching a button. It is often a great investment when there is a lot going on in a room.

Naturally, if your needs are not as massive as, for instance, a multinational corporation, then you might only a more simple set up that can still deliver high quality calls and be easy to use.

You would want to make sure of reliability as well as security, apart from the system being easy to use, no matter what type of network your video conferencing equipment operates in. You have to be able to communicate, share ideas, and resolve issues in a network that is secure and is an efficient system.

By Oliver John Adams

Camera Verification - Why Should You Care?

Camera data verification is becoming more and more a requirement when purchasing printing equipment, direct mail equipment, and packaging equipment. If you thought you wouldn't need it, think again. If your customers aren't asking for it, they will soon. If your competition doesn't offer it, they will soon. Why? Because some government regulations already require it... especially in the financial, insurance, and health industries. And if you want a piece of those industries, you'd better be able to provide it.

But what is camera verification? In the case of data verification (which is what we're talking about here), it is when a computer reads and confirms printed information. A digital camera looks at a name, number, address, etc., and verifies certain things. It might be the order and sequence in which the record shows up, according to the database the computer is matching the information with. It will also verify that each record (page) of a document is present, thus completing an entire job. And, of course, it might verify that barcodes, IMB, or 2D codes are present, correct, and readable.

Some of these things save money, some are absolute requirements. Here are a few examples of how camera and data verification is used with packaging, printing, and mailing equipment:

Matching: Banking and financial statements, health care records, insurance statements... all of these are filled with personal information. If there is a flaw somewhere in the printing, collating, and inserting of these records, camera verification can catch it. The computer will look at personalized information on each page (front and back) and make sure the right people are getting the right records. This could be barcodes, names, addresses, and/or record numbers. Without camera matching, a person could easily end up with someone else's statements-a severe violation of personal and corporate privacy.

Output Verification: With all the different direct mail equipment involved in putting together a mail piece, it's very easy for at least one link in the chain to weaken. This might mean missing pages, garbled print, or pages being out of order. Electronic output verification gives you, your customer, and government regulators proof that each package is complete, addressed properly, and in order. It also proves that the IMB and other barcodes were printed according to spec.

Read-Print or Read-Write: Other than matching and output verification, there's another easy way to make sure data printed in two different places match each other. In matching, both pieces are printed and then matched together. With a read-print setup, each printed record is based on a document or record that's already been printed. For example:

1. An insert with personal information is printed.
2. The camera reads that information as it runs through the machine.
3. The computer matches it with a record in the database.
4. The inserter puts the document in an envelope.
5. A printer prints the address for that envelope.

In this case, there is no need for output verification. The software has already guaranteed the information will match.

Bindery Applications (stitchers, polywrappers, booklet makers, folders, collators): In binding and packaging industries, data verification can make sure that signatures end up in the right places, that document sets get the proper covers (with the right signatures and personal information), and detect missing or duplicate pieces within a set.

Without camera verification, any number of things could go wrong in the examples above. Even if you can say for sure that each printed piece has the right information, checking and correcting mechanical malfunctions could be time consuming and costly without camera verification. What's more, in the customer's mind, the proof of accuracy and quality is what's important. Camera verification is the easiest way to provide that proof.

By Rick K.

Back to the Future With IT!

In the movie series Back to the Future, Marty McFly jumps back and forth through time in an awesome time-traveling DeLorean to save his existence and others near him. Throughout the movie series, especially the second which takes place in 2015, we get to see a variety of fun and imaginative guesses as to what our world will be in the future. The movie included things like suspended animation kennels, holographic movie theaters, chiropractic hoverbelts, and more. One of my favorites was the sunglasses that were small, portable personal phones. I'm wondering when I'll be able to buy a pair.

The movie reminded me of the evolution of information technology (IT) and how much it's changed over the years. In 1945, a draft report on the EDVAC was written describing the concept of a stored program and is the blueprint for computer architecture to this day. When I first graduated college, mainframes were still heavily used and all the computing power was centralized in the data center. (Gee, isn't that similar to cloud computing?)

Within a year of starting my job, I was fortunate to stumble into one of the first local area networks at Exxon which took advantage of yet another IT breakthrough-Ethernet. While Ethernet was invented at Xerox in 1973, it took many years for it to be widely adopted. About the same time I was rolling out a LAN at Exxon in 1989, across the Atlantic Ocean at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee shared a document entitled, "Information Management: A Proposal" which outlined a global hypertext system (a.k.a., the World Wide Web). Travel forward 25 years and my how things have changed!

I recently had the privilege to hear futurist Mark Goodman (you can check him out on YouTube) talk about the explosive development of information technology. He goes on to explain the concept of accelerating returns and how it applies to IT. The example he used: A picture of Apollo 11 and an iPhone. What's the common link? There are more computing cycles in an iPhone today than were available to all of NASA at the time of the Apollo space launch. Each year, computing capabilities double, and then double again, and then double again, and so on. Just imagine what your iPhone or Droid will be in 20 to 30 years. It seems unfathomable to me.

So, what does all this mean to you and me today? Information technology is changing and as business people, we need to leverage it to its fullest potential. In particular, the cloud computing trend has brought many benefits to businesses that simply were out of reach 5-10 years ago. Benefits such as bullet-proof data center technology, access from anywhere, anytime and more. It's imperative to keep yourself abreast of these changes in IT and adjust your technology strategies to achieve your business goals.

Whether it's in the clouds or still on the ground in your own office, we at IT Radix stress the importance of getting "back to the future" using technology.

As a seasoned IT professional and business owner at IT Radix, Cathy Coloff enjoys working with small-to-medium sized businesses on getting the most out of their technology dollars. Technology is serious business, but she likes to have fun making I.T. work for you.

By Catherine Coloff

Putting a Face on Accessibility

Keith is a father and grandfather, a minister, and has been counseling troubled youth for over 30 years. He's a diehard sports fan and spends his nights and weekends announcing games for the local college's football, volleyball, basketball, and baseball teams.

As a self-described technology buff, you'll never find Keith without his iPhone. He loves taking pictures, especially of his new grandson. If you were to add Keith on Facebook, you could practically watch the boy grow up in his news feed.

Few people are as well traveled as Keith, who's forever on a mission to become "mayor of everywhere" on Foursquare. Accompanying him on his adventures is his guide dog, a beautiful Black Labrador Retriever named Mercury.

Keith is blind.

Too often we forget to put a face on the people with disabilities. We lump them into categories:

• Blindness or Low Vision
• Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing
• Learning Disabilities
• Medical Disabilities
• Physical Disabilities

While these categories are conditions, they do not describe the individuals. They certainly do not describe Keith.

Accessibility is something that is relevant for everyone working with websites regardless of whether you are a web designer, web developer, web manager, or web editor. As website specialists, we like to think we are pretty good at defining our audiences.

Did you know that 20% of your users have some form of disability? One person out of five visiting your site has to do something out of the ordinary to get the information you've made available. Let's look at this a different way-for every 1000 visitors, 200 may have difficulty with your site, or need an alternative way to get to your information. Alternative ways may include screen readers or screen magnifiers, braille readers, or keyboard only navigation.

When you and your team redesigned your site the last time, did your UX designer include people with disabilities in the personas used for the site's redesign? If you are not familiar with a persona, here is a brief description from Wikipedia:

"In marketing and user-centered design, personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way."

Personas are just one tool that can help with creating websites; to be effective your personas need to accurately reflect your visitors. If possible, engage a person with a disability to assist with persona creation, then re-engage your expert when it's time to start testing the changes you've made to your site.

When you meet Keith, (or Bill, Sarah, or any other disabled person) for the first time, be sure to ask how much the grandson is growing, how their favorite sports team is doing, or about their latest hobby. If it's Keith, be prepared to stop and chat for a while. He's got some pictures to show you!

By Jessica A O'Sullivan

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) Are Not Created Equal: A Basic Guide to LED Related Terms

All Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are not created equal, and it's important for the consumer to distinguish quality lamps from sub-par product. At a very minimum, consumer need to understand basic terms. The following LED related terms are a good start:

Efficacy- With high end and commercial grade products, efficacy will often be listed on packaging or on a cut sheet (information sheet). Efficacy is defined as lumens per watt. The higher a lamp's efficacy, the more efficient it is. Look for numbers higher than 80 in PARs and A19s and higher than 90 (or higher than 100 in the case of new technology) in LED tubes and panel lights (wall packs, security lights etc.). A higher efficacy equates to doing more with less, greater lumen output with fewer watts.

Kelvin- Kelvin temperature, or Kelvin, actually refers to the color a lamp provides. More specifically Kelvin refers to the color emitted by the diodes inside the LED lamp. Lower numbers indicate a warmer (more yellow) color, while higher numbers indicate a cooler (more blue) color. Daylight white tends to be 5000-5500K. Spaces lit with incandescent lamps tend to range between 2400 and 2700K. In my experience, clients who have been working under fluorescent or incandescent lamps are initially most comfortable with 3200-3400k. That being said, color does have an effect on productivity. 4100-4500K tends to be most pleasant and to have an energizing effect.

CRI- Color Rendering Index or CRI indicates how closely a light source mimics natural sunlight. A higher CRI typically indicates a higher quality product. CRI should not be confused with Kelvin. A high CRI does not mean a lamp is putting out a blue-white light. Warmer colors can have a high CRI as well. Think about the sunset: If I were to walk outside with a color meter and take a reading at sunset, I might find a Kelvin rating of 2600. The question of CRI is raised based on how I perceive colors and clarity at that 2600K under natural sunlight versus how I perceive color and clarity under artificial light. CRI is about perception.

Heat Sink- A heat sink is the portion of the LED lamp that is often made of metal and will typically look like fins or folded metal. Heat sinks can be made of almost any material and their purpose is to dissipate heat. Consumers and even some "experts" will assume and express that LEDs do not heat up over time as they continue to function. That isn't true. The actual diode produces some negligible quantity of heat as compared to other types of lights (like an incandescent), but the driver and internal components of the LED lamp can get quite hot and even melt.

This is where a good heat sink comes in. A good heat sink pulls heat away from the driver and internal components of the LED lamp. The cooler the components are while functioning, the longer they will last. Heat kills lamps. A very good LED lamp will operate at ambient temperature with the driver components and heat sink dissipating heat to maintain a temperature of 75 to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Aircraft-grade aluminum has been the material of choice for heat sinks in high quality lamps. Currently, some lamps use alloys. Cheaper lamps will either have no heat sink at all, or will have a heat sink made of plastic. Size is also an issue. While larger heat sinks can dissipate more heat, this functionality is self-limiting. A PAR30, for example, should not have a heat sink so large it won't fit in a recessed can. Also, the heat sink tends to be the most expensive part of an LED lamp, so lamps with larger heat sinks are generally more expensive. At some point, this ratio becomes cost prohibitive.

Diode- The diode is the component that actually emits light. When the diodes are initially produced, they emit a very blue (perceived as harsh) light. The diode is then coated (usually with phosphor) to produce a warmer color. Each coating of phosphor reduces the K rating by some uniform (hopefully) measure. Simply put, the difference between a 2400K lamp and a 5500K lamp is the density of the coating. A different process is used to create color-changing or colored diodes. For the sake of simplicity I won't address it here, but I am happy to answer any specific questions about it. Quality diodes (such as those manufactured by Cree) have three primary characteristics:

- The diode wafer is cut from the center of a semiconductor sheet.

- The diodes for each lamp or board come from the same bin, so they share characteristics (this is also true for the coating process).

- Diodes are coated using an automated, consistent, regulated process that ensures as much as possible that K ratings are uniform and that there are no irregularities in coating densities.

The best material and a uniform production process are what differentiate high quality diodes from their less expensive counterparts.

Driver- In an LED system, the driver is what supplies and manages the energy to the board the LEDs sit on. Quality control is crucial here. A bad driver means a failed lamp. Toshiba and Philips both make a pretty good driver. I won't dig too far into this here because drivers can be a fairly complicated topic (dimmable versus non dimmable, types of dimming, 12V vs. variable volt vs. 120 volt, etc.). I welcome any specific questions you might have, though.

Lens and beam angle- These concepts are complicated. Beam angle basically means the light spread on the ground and the angle of light as it travels in its straight line (not to be confused with oscillation or spectral length) when emitted from the lamp or diode. Lenses control the beam angle when they are placed over the end of a diode or diode array. A narrower or tighter lens means a more concentrated beam of light. A wider lens means a more diffuse beam of light. Think spot vs. flood. Not understanding lensing can lead a consumer to misjudge the light output of an LED lamp. A 10W LED with a narrow 45-degree beam angle will appear to put out more light than a 10W LED with a wide 120-degree beam angle. The efficacy of both lamps as well as the lumen output at the diode and lamp face could be identical.

Lumen output- Lumens are the unit of measure for light output. The higher the lumens, the greater the light output (not to be confused with intensity- intensity can be affected by multiple factors, like beam angle).

As you can see, there is a tremendous amount of consideration that goes into choosing an LED lamp. When searching for the best residential LED lighting products, It is very important to choose wisely.

David X. Smith is a graduate of MIT and a freelance blogger & journalist. David covers technology independently & enjoys reviewing LED products, management systems, and generally all things tech. David's goal is to better educate the public so that the individual will become a more educated & conscientious consumer.

By David X. Smith

Why I Still Need a Desktop Computer

Laptops, tablets, smartphones - we have all of these mobile devices. What about the good, old desktop computer? Do you still need it and what are the unique characteristics that make it better than the mobile devices?

What are Desktop Computers Missing?

There is no doubt that desktops are missing one thing - mobility. A laptop can deliver a great performance and it can be carried around. Ultimately, these characteristics make it a very practical pick for both personal and professional computing.

Tablets are even lighter and easier to carry around but they miss many functionalities that desktop computers and laptops come with.

Can the Laptop or Tablet Offer the Same Functionalities?

The laptops of today have a lot of storage space and excellent performance. Many of them can compete with the desktop PC in terms of numerous basic characteristics and functionalities.

Still, a laptop that has all of the desktop PC's characteristics will be very expensive. Additionally, it could be large and relatively difficult to carry around. In terms of performance, there are some things that the desktop computer is still doing better.

What is the Biggest Advantage of the Desktop Computer?

Desktops have two big advantages over all other options - speed and power. Internet surfing is faster. There are numerous upgrades that optimize the desktop PC and speed up its performance even further.

The processor of the PC is much more powerful than the corresponding processor of a laptop. The processor of the portable device is designed to make the battery last longer, which ultimately affects performance.

What about Price?

Today, desktop computers are still a cheaper possibility than the corresponding class of laptops.

When it comes to repairing a computer, you will also have to spend a smaller amount than doing laptop fixes and modifications. The components and parts of the laptop are smaller, which makes repairs more complex and ultimately - more expensive.

What are Some Other Important Benefits?

Though some claim that the desktop computer is already redundant, there are numerous reasons why the desktop PC will always be around.

The computer allows for the connection of more peripheral devices than the laptop. When it comes to gaming, the desktop personal computer is still the best and the most affordable possibility. Gaming laptops can cost a fortune. Finally, creative software is much easier to run on a desktop computer, in case you are a graphic designer or another professional that needs to use such programs.

Having a good desktop PC is still a good idea, despite the numerous alternatives. The better price and the performance are yet to be matched by any of the mobile devices.

By Eric Murray