127 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
127 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
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VIDEO CONFERENCING
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BEN & JERRY'S SAVES MONEY, ADVANCES OFF-BEAT
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CORPORATE CULTURE
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Clear-channel T-1 video conferencing service links company
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sites
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Where else but at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream would you find a
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"Communications Queen?" What other corporate headquarters
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features blue jeans as the style of choice? And where else
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would you find people actually having -- brace yourself --
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fun with their video conferencing system? OK, where else
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outside of California?
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The fact is, employees at Ben & Jerry's corporate
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headquarters in Waterbury, Vermont and their colleagues at
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the company's Springfield, Vermont manufacturing site some
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74 miles away, have time for fun because their serious
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video conferencing time is so productive.
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The system, which is based on PictureTel hardware and a
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New England Telephone Superpathsm 1.5M bps T-1 line, provides
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special advantages for a company based in such a rural and
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rugged location.
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"Video conferencing allows us to meet more frequently
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without interrupting our schedules," says Communications
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Coordinator (a.k.a."Communications Queen") Maureen Martin.
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"And, as we get into winter, it will get used even more,
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helping us avoid the drive between Waterbury and Springfield,
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which is about an hour-and-a-half."
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LIVE, FROM "THE FOOTBALL FIELD"
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A typical Ben & Jerry's video conference includes between 10
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and 13 people. However, sometimes high-ranking company
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officials will use the system for one-on-one meetings.
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Although two rooms at the Waterbury headquarters site are
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wired for video conferencing, the conference room (referred
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to affectionately as "The Football Field"), with its circular
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tables and room-length "white board" is the site of choice.
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There are two cameras in the room. One is fixed on top of
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one of the system's 32-inch monitors, and the other sits on
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a tripod that can be automatically moved to focus on fixed
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settings such as the white board or speakers. The monitor has
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a small "window" that allows the transmitting site to see
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what's coming out at the other end. There are no special
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unit's keyboard, from which it comfortably picks up commentary
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from anyplace in the room.
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The system uses a clear-channel T-1 configuration, which
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allocates 64K bps for each of the 12 channels dedicated to
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video transmission. Another 10 of the remaining 12 channels
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are used as voice tie lines between the two locations.
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According to telecommunications specialist Melody Plante,
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"Another channel is used to transmit data, eliminating the
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dedicated 56K bps line we had. We're leaving the last channel
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open, anticipating future growth."
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THE VIRTUAL OFFICE IS CREATED
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On the voice side of this configuration, the Springfield
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location is a virtual extension of the Waterbury site,
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meaning there are no toll charges for calls made between
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them. This also means anyone at the Waterbury site can be
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paged from Springfield. This virtual extension also creates
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a phone-mail system between the two sites.
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Plante says that an initial bandwidth problem was solved when
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New England Telephone agreed to supply the clear-channel T-1
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link. Beyond that, the major obstacles consisted of getting
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all the participating vendors to decide on dip switch settings
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and video parameters. Those vendors included New England
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Telephone, PictureTel, GTE, the Southern Vermont Telephone
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Company and Telesource, a muliplexer manufacturer.
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Plante lauds the role played by New England Telephone
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technicians, who acted as "testers." "All the vendors relied
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heavily on New England Telephone," Plante states. "They were
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great."
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Savings accumulated via reduced toll and private line charges
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will enable the multiplexer unit, which was installed during
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March of 1992, to pay for itself within 14 months. The
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system's value increases even more when time and travel
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expenses are factored in.
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POSSIBLE BOSTON CONNECTION
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Martin says the Ben & Jerry's video conference system will
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reach out beyond Vermont. "Eventually, we will want to hook
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up with outside video conference users, such as our attorneys
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in Boston," she notes.
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A visitor need not go beyond the reception area of the
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Waterbury headquarters building to get, ahem, a flavor of
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the Ben & Jerry's corporate culture. Every wall is plastered
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with some brightly colored piece of Ben & Jerry's bric-a-brac.
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The video conferencing system can be an inadvertent
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purveyor of this color culture. "One time when we got done
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with a conference, somebody in Springfield noticed that we
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had a new promotional piece on the table," Martin remembers.
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"It had just come out that morning, but they wanted to get it
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as soon as possible."
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And just where does the fun, what is known within the company
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as "Ben & Jerry-izing" it, come in? Although such activitiies
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are not yet observed on a company-wide basis via video
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conferencing, "We've done everything from Barry Manilow's
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birthday to Elvis day," Martin observes. It seems only
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fitting that the Queen of Telecommunications would commemorate
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the King of Rock and Roll.
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