Czech scientists carried out a multipoint videoconference in HDTV quality attended by the US president's adviser

Dr. Jack Marburger, Science Adviser to President George Bush, was the most prominent participant in yesterday's HDTV quality two-point videoconference connecting San Diego, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Brno, Czech Republic. This high quality videoconference was implemented by experts from Masaryk University in Brno and the CESNET Association on the basis of a request from the American party. Several days ago, Czech experts successfully performed a multipoint transmission within the scope of the iGrid2005 workshop organized by University California in San Diego (UCSD) and StarLight (Chicago).

During the transmission of a non-compressed HD video between the three cities – San Diego, Baton Rouge and Brno – data flow with a capacity of 1.5 Gbps was sent from each place. Each flow was replicated in Chicago (on computers at the StarLight optical network hub) and then sent to the remaining two interconnected places. Thus, each site sent 1.5 Gbps in one direction and received 3 Gbps, the StarLight ports were filled with 4.5 Gbps sustained traffics. This required high capacity (10 Gbps) connections to enable a transmission of such good quality and high speed data that the participants of the multipoint videoconference had a feeling of direct contact in all three places – lectures as well as the subsequent discussions were conducted in real time. The organization of the transmission even attracted the attention of Louisiana's media – for instance a local Baton Rouge newsletter reported on it on the front page of its economic section.

Yesterday's transmission achieved the same quality. It was an extraordinary opportunity for the Czech experts to present their skills to a prominent and very influential representative of international science. As well as his engagement in President Bush's administration, Dr. Jack Marburger is Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the United States. He is a world-renowned physicist interested in, apart from other things, international collaboration in the field of complex network applications. On account of the posts that he holds, he has great influence on the development and general aspiration of American science and research.

The scientists from the Czech Republic – namely doc. RNDr. Luděk Matyska, CSc., and Mgr. Petr Holub from Masaryk University in Brno – were asked to organize yesterday's videoconference by Prof. Edward Seidel, Director of the Center for Computation & Technology of Louisiana State University.

More on the iGrid2005 workshop at http://www.igrid2005.org/

The technical description of the actual videoconferencing setup is included in the attached .pdf file.

The CESNET association was founded by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is currently financed primarily by its members and the Research and Development Council. The association operates and develops CESNET2, the national gigabit optical network intended for research and education, and participates in the research and development of information and communication technologies. Thanks to its research activities and achieved results, the CESNET association represents the Czech Republic in the European GN2 project, as well as in other international projects. Among other countries, the association currently cooperates with Canada, the Netherlands, and the USA on the construction of GLIF (Global Lambda Integrated Facility), a global lambda network whose Czech section is called CzechLight.