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2008
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Video Conferencing System
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ViPr
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North America
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USA
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The county of Crawford is in northwestern Pennsylvania, USA. With a population of around 100 000, the county covers nearly 1 000 sq miles. The public officials who run the county’s courts are committed to the swift delivery of justice, without overburdening the taxpayers. This philosophy means they are happy to use technology for initiatives where it can be an advantage.
Crawford County is a large area with courts and offices widely spread. Tim Kelley Director of Information Technology, Crawford County Court, explains the situation the organization faced: “We've had video conferencing for nearly a decade. But the quality, especially the lack of synchronization between audio and video, made it difficult for people to communicate.”
Video conferencing which was too complicated to use, or to learn, or took too long to set up, was never going to be widely used. Also, the quality issues the court faced, particularly issues with video/audio synchronization, meant that people were reluctant to use the system when it came to something as important as legal proceedings.
The decision was made to seek a solution that would ensure the video conferencing system is a true asset to the county. Kelley evaluated next-generation video conferencing technology to see if there was a service capable of achieving these goals. Based on cost, quality, and ease-of-use, Crawford County chose the Ericsson ViPr™. Tim Kelley describes the decision making process: “We paid close attention to the quality of the video, especially the system's ability to maintain synchronization between the video and audio. ViPr™ was the only one that had that fixed.”
The quality of fully synchronized video and audio transmission provides what traditional video conferencing products have failed to deliver, true presence. With ViPr™, users react and interact as they would in face-to-face communications.
ViPr™'s graphical user interface is easy for non-technical people to learn and use. The desktop terminal is controlled by a touch screen instead of a complicated remote control device. ViPr™ is on a cart and is used in any courtroom, on any day of the week, sometimes in all three courtrooms in the same morning. ViPr™ can be used in the courthouse or the jail — anywhere a network connection exists. Tim Kelley sees the simplicity of the solution as a benefit: “It is so simple to use that really anyone can use it. If you can set up a conference call on a telephone, you can set up a video conference with ViPr™.”
Read the Success Story (PDF)
