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NIWA Looks for Video Conferencing Technology Refresh

By Alicia Young Web Editor

All successful businesses know that collaboration is key, and if you don’t have the right tools to facilitate collaboration on hand, you need to get them. That’s what the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand is doing. The organization has opened a tender process for a video conferencing technology refresh, and it is calling on specific Skype (News - Alert) for Business channel expertise.

As of now, there are 36 meeting rooms across the NIWA organization. In the spirit of making collaboration as easy and efficient as possible, the Crown Research Institute of New Zealand is seeking to replace core conferencing solutions in these meeting rooms, along with the bridge and gateway at the back-end that support this service.

Applicants putting forth new technologies need to make sure that their solutions are tightly integrated with the existing Skype for Business desk collaboration tools. They must also support external H.323/SIP Video Conferencing communication.

The organization is going to start small with this revamp. NIWA IT projects manager, Geoff Latimer, stated, “We are also looking to replace the video conference endpoints in five collaboration rooms with Skype for Business compatible equipment.” Essentially, the company will begin by replacing the solutions in five conference rooms to ensure that everything runs smoothly, before making changes to all 36 meeting rooms.

Latimer went on to discuss what exactly the company would like to see from this solution by saying, “NIWA would like to create a single virtual meeting environment that could be joined easily from any meeting room video conferencing system or via any Microsoft (News - Alert) Skype for Business client (standard to all NIWA staff), either internally or externally.”

Additionally, according to the tender, which closes on Oct. 31, the new technology needs to include a single touch to join, easy to use touch panel interface. The system must also provide all gateway, recording, webcasting, bridging, endpoint management, content translation and scheduling services. Needless to say, all supplies systems and services have to be supportable in New Zealand with local support staff and services. 

Edited by Stefania Viscusi