Since 1995 IPP and RZG, the Joint Computing Center of the Max Planck Society offer videoconferencing services. Through this portal you will find information about videoconferencing in general as well as detailed information about our various systems, facilities and services we offer. For special questions you can submit a form in case of any problems. If you need any further help please contact:

Ulrich Schwenn (RZG)
Frank Hinterland (RZG)
Sonja Amannsberger (Garching-VAD)
Nicole Fuehrer (Garching-VAD)
Karl Behler (Garching-AUG)
Rene Klatt (Greifswald)
Or just send an email to vc@rzg.mpg.de.

The videoconferencing infrastructure of IPP and MPG has been presented on various occasions (see publications). The steady evolution of the IPP approach from the ITU standard H.320 (Videoconferencing of ISDN) to H.323 (Videoconferencing over IP), garantees a robust, cost- and manpower-effective framework. Currently some 20 regular videoconferences per day between IPP-Garching and IPP-Greifswald take place. ASDEX-Upgrades weekly European meeting is run via H.323, where an increasing number of EFDA sites (up to 8 by Q2/2003) is participating. IPP being an Associate of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft (HGF), regular conferences include HGF sites like AWI, FZJ, FZK and others. DEISA runs several multipoint conferences per week and EFDA and ITER are switching to H.323 right now. P)

The IPP sites run currently 3 lecture halls, 14 seminar rooms (H.323 & H.320) and about 30 desktop systems (H.323 only). The following three scenarios are covering almost all requirements:

Restriction to these scenarios minimizes the manpower for first level support and overall operating and maintenance effort. Outsourcing is done wherever possible, costs are approximate for complete solutions including media-control, beamers etc.

RZG has its own GDS (Global Dialing Scheme) zones. An OpenSource H.323 gatekeeper/proxy combination routes all H.323 traffic through RZG’s firewall.

The Gatekeeper zones are defined by two reserved areas in IPPs telephone extension numbering, namely
0049 893299 6001...6999
for Garching and external systems and
004938348 1001...1999
for Greifswald respectively. These numbers are not to be mixed up with, or used as phone numbers!
The DFNVC (DFN Videoconference) service of the national IP provider DFN-Verein in the German Gigabit network (GWiN) is used for larger (>4 sites) multipoint conferences installed (Q2/2003).
Common systems for sharing presentations are VNC (see download section) and H.239.

Since July 2006 two LifeSize Highdefinition systems are in test. The resolution is 720p (1280x720 pixel). After an evaluation phase they could replace the old systems used by the Wissenschaftliche Leitung.