Videoconferencing Resource Scheduling and Management System for UK Education

In July 2014, Vscene, the Resource Scheduling and Management System Azeus UK successfully developed for Jisc went live. Jisc is a not-for-profit organization that provides digital services and solutions to higher education, further education and skills sectors across the United Kingdom. Part of the service offering of Jisc is a video conferencing service which enables academics to meet remotely or lectures to be broadcast between institutions.

Most video conferencing services require those participating to be on the same video conferencing system. Jisc required a system that enabled organizations with different types of video conferencing systems to be able to participate in conferences together. Aside from different types of video conferencing systems, participants could join a conference via their browser or telephone. To achieve these, Jisc commissioned Azeus UK to develop a system that would create a resource connection at an infrastructure level and then facilitate booking and connection of the various video conferencing systems into one virtual room. The system allows users to access and control the centralized video conferencing facilities that Jisc operates online. Also, it offers all the functionality of the existing Janet Videoconferencing Service, and extends and improves upon different areas, including the graphical user interface, federated authentication and countless more.

Azeus UK were awarded the contract after a competitive tender. The system took seven months to build and test and was launched into production in July 2014 as scheduled. Since the system has gone live, Azeus has been maintaining the system, and is at the same time delivering various additional features to continuously enhance the system.

The system Vscene is now being used by all universities and over 700 higher- and further- education institutions in the United Kingdom, including but not limited to North East Scotland Region, London Region and Northern Ireland Region.