University of Southern California

Videoconferencing

This page describes the various options for videoconferencing at USC. These options, which are available only to USC faculty, staff, and students, include free videoconferencing from designated locations; videoconferencing in studio classrooms; and videoconferencing services, available at ITS facilities for a specified fee.

Free Videoconferencing

USC provides self-service videoconferencing at most USC Libraries and remote sites at no charge to USC faculty, staff, and students. These videoconferencing systems support point-to-point connections.

To place a request for videoconferencing services at these sites, please visit the Reserve a Library Space page.

Studio Classrooms (Equipped for Videoconferencing)

In addition to the facilities provided by ITS and the USC Libraries, studio classrooms in the following schools on USC campuses are equipped with integrated videoconferencing capabilities, including high-quality microphones, cameras and transmission/receiving equipment. These videoconferencing systems support one to four IP (H.323) connections and can connect to one site via ISDN (H.320).

The primary purpose of these rooms is to support teaching and learning. Sixteen were built under the Provost's Technology-Enhanced Learning and Distance Learning initiative in 2006.

Studio classrooms are owned and managed by the schools. For information about videoconferencing from the studio classrooms, please call the IT contact listed.

This information is provided by the Technology-Enhanced Learning and Distance Learning initiative. It will be published to http://tel.usc.edu at the beginning of the Fall 2007 semester.

*32 in the courtroom, 49 with judge and jury seats.

ITS-Provided Videoconferencing

ITS can provide videoconferencing services in our facilities located at 3434 S. Grand Avenue (CAL) Rooms 330E, 330T, 340G and 340T for the rates below. The videoconferencing systems can switch between sending a laptop presentation, such as PowerPoint, and the audio-visual from the system's camera and microphone. These services are only available for USC faculty, students, and staff.

We are also able to support multipoint (three or more participants) connectivity for any University endpoint via our Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), aka, "bridge". We can support and convert between H.323 (IP), and H.320 (ISDN), and SIP (IP) protocols.

To place a request for videoconferencing services or to have a representative discuss your specific needs in more detail, please contact Mike Walker at 213-740-6311 or walker@usc.edu. All charges will be billed via an internal requisition.

Videoconferencing Rates

The cost for a Base Videoconference covers up to one hour of preparation, setup, and testing. If the preparation requires more than one hour, the additional preparation, setup, and testing will be billed at the Extended Preparation rate, $125/hour additional. Scheduling a conference after business hours, on holidays, or on weekends costs an additional $125/hour.

After a conference has been set up and has started, the technician may be unavailable. To have the technician actively monitoring the conference costs an additional $125/hour during business hours (1 hr min.). The rate is $187.50 after business hours, on holidays, and during weekends (1 hr min.). To have the technician kept onsite at the conference costs an additional $125/hour during business hours (3 hr min.). The rate is $187.50 after business hours, on holidays, and during weekends (3 hr min.).

To place a request for videoconferencing services or to have a representative discuss your specific needs in more detail, please contact Mike Walker at 213-740-6311 or walker@usc.edu. All charges will be billed via an internal requisition.