Random access: I'll see you later teaching long distance, Star Trek style.

During the 2002 MTNA National Conference, I witnessed an extraordinary event. On center stage was a piano professor from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). He sat at a large grand piano with a computer monitor facing him from the treble side of the keyboard. A video conferencing camera and microphone were perched atop the monitor.

A large screen stood to the left of the stage. A student from CCM was clearly visible on screen. In fact, she looked a bit larger than life, sitting in front of a piano a few miles away from our venue. Despite the actual distance, it seemed as though I was looking at this student through a large doorway.

The professor, who had never given a long-distance piano lesson, proceeded to conduct a lesson in his usual manner. Technology issues never seemed to be a factor. The student and teacher appeared to interact with each other in their normal fashion.

The technology behind this lesson worked just as naturally and effectively as the long-distance communications I am accustomed to seeing on television when I watch Star Trek. I was amazed!

Does Video Conferencing Actually Work?

Good quality video conferencing traditionally has involved considerable expense. The Internet connection used at the MTNA Conference costs hundreds of dollars per month, and the video conferencing hardware they used is in the $2,500-3,000 range--for both ends of the conversation!

Fortunately, the situation has improved dramatically during the last few months. In fact, I now use video conferencing almost every day as part of my professional activities.

Affordable and Useable Video Conferencing

I have spent the last few years hunting for an affordable, high-quality video conferencing solution. Until recently, my experiments have been very disappointing. I have found video quality to be poor, motion to be jerky and audio to be problematic.

All these problems miraculously disappeared when Apple computer released its new iChat (www.apple.com/ichat) video conferencing program for OS X this past summer. Using this free program and a $150 camera, I could connect easily to anyone in my "buddy list" and enjoy a comfortable video conferencing experience--at least most of the time!

What You Need to Know

There are many different video conferencing options for both Windows and Macintosh. Each option involves some combination of computer, webcam, microphone, speaker or headphone, video conferencing software and a high-speed Internet connection. There are innumerable combinations of these items that result in nothing more than frustration. Very few combinations result in a pleasant and effectively useful experience.

The good news is you already may have on hand most, or all, of the ingredients for video conferencing.

Internet Connection

We often refer to cable modem, DSL and T1 Internet connections as high speed when, in fact, we are not concerned with the speed at all. What we are concerned with is how much information can travel at one time, that is, broadband.

When you are engaged in a video conference, your computer and camera must send digitized video from your location to your partner's computer. Imagine the challenge by following me in this brief, mathematical exercise:

Ideally, we would like to send full-frame video, normally defined by a window that is 640 by 480 pixels. Therefore, our computer needs to create an image comprised of 307,200 pixels, or dots.

To send a single-frame image in pure black and white, our computer must use a total of 307,200 zeroes and ones (i.e. binary numbers). To send our image in full color, we need 24 zeroes and ones to describe the color value of each pixel. In other words, we need 7,372,800 binary digits for each frame of video.

To achieve what we normally call full-motion video (i.e. 30 frames per second), we actually have to send 221,184,000 binary digits per second. In computer lingo, our ideal data rate needs to be 221,184 kilobits per second (or 221,184 kbps).

Unfortunately, our broadband Internet connections do not come anywhere close to this data rate. For example, my cable modem Internet connection typically gives me a data path of 1,000 kbps to 1,700 kbps for incoming data. My outgoing data path is normally much lower, usually in the 250 kbps to 280 kbps range.

Given these statistics, it should be obvious that video conferencing from home, using current technology, requires the widest broadband connection we can get and some techno tricks to lower the data rate.

Note: My statistics above did not include any data for the audio component of the video conference. Fortunately, the data path requirements for digital audio are very small compared to that of the video. Nonetheless, audio poses similar issues.

If you use an Internet connection at a school or large business, you may have access to a T1 line. If so, your data path may be in the 700-1,500 kbps range in both directions. If you use the cable modem or DSL connection many people have at home, you can expect data rates more like mine.

Regrettably, most cable modem and DSL providers give us substantially more bandwidth coming in (so web pages draw quickly and file downloads are fast) than they do going out. Worse, some providers may give you as little as 100-150 kbps in the outgoing direction. Any number under 200 kbps is poor; 384 kbps is very good, and anything higher than 500 kbps is great.

You can test the "speed" of your Internet connection in both directions at BroadbandReports.com (www.broadbandreports.com/tools). Click on "Speed Tests."

Computer

The computer number-crunching requirements are significant. The computer must digitize the incoming video from the camera and compress the video data into fewer numbers so the data can be handled by your Internet connection.

Data compression is a miracle of computer science. Very clever people have come up with a variety of schemes to take a lot of data and reduce it to much less data, usually with some quality loss.

Real time compression requires a fast computer. Recent model Pentium 4s as well as Apple G4s and G5s all are good candidates for this purpose.

Camera

A good quality camera is important. If your original video signal is poor, the image you send will be worse than poor because of the compression.

Most webcams connect to the computer via USB or Firewire, also known as IEEE 1394. Traditionally, Firewire cameras provide a better signal. However, a newer USB standard, version 2.0, is now emerging that rivals Firewire.

An auto-focus feature is indispensable for serious video conferencing. Few webcams under $150 have this feature. However, a few video conferencing programs now will work with Firewire DV cameras (i.e. digital video cameras that record video to miniDV tape). These cameras may be more awkward to mount on top of your computer monitor, but they do have auto focus and can be used on a tripod.

I have been using Apple's iSight (www.apple.com/isight) Firewire camera with excellent results. It has autofocus, a convenient mounting device for placing on the monitor and a built-in microphone.

Microphone and Speakers

The simplest microphone solution is one that is built into the camera. Few webcams under $150 have this feature. DV cameras, however, do have built-in microphones that typically work on both computer platforms--if they are supported by your video conferencing software.

Other alternatives include computer microphones and headsets. Headsets are cumbersome, but they do avoid audio feedback, If you use a microphone and computer speakers, you may need to experiment a bit to appropriately separate them from each other. A good video conferencing software program will take care of a lot of the potential feedback problem for you.

Video Conferencing Software

A good program has these minimal features:

* produces good video and audio at normal cable modem and DSL data rates

* is simple to configure

* transparently handles the issue of audio feedback

* provides a simple method for connecting to another person

* works with firewalls and supports industry standards for Internet-based communication

Let's look at these issues in order:

1. To work within practical data rate limits, video conferencing software usually gives you a small window, reduced frame rates and lower audio quality. Many programs actually reduce the window to something very tiny with frame rates as low as four to eight fps.

Apple computer has set a new standard of quality. On my system, iChat gives me a data rate of around 180 kbps out of the available 250 kbps, and I regularly achieve good quality video in a half-size frame at fifteen fps. This frame rate constitutes the low end for what we would consider to be reasonably smooth motion. I can artificially enlarge the window if I choose. Although the audio quality is fine for speech, it is lower than what I would like for music.

Microsoft provides a similar, free program for Windows users called MSN Messenger (www.messenger.msn.com). Although I prefer iChat, I think MSN Messenger provides similar quality.

2. Many video conferencing programs are complicated to configure; iChat and MSN Messenger have set new standards of simplicity.

3. Apple's iChat, when used with the noise-canceling microphone in the iSight camera, provides the most robust audio feedback control I have experienced. MSN Messenger also is pretty good.

4. Connecting to another person is a potentially torturous process. For the person who initiates the call, it traditionally has been necessary to know the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the other computer. IP addresses are assigned by your Internet service provider. Most computer users don't know how to determine their address. (Try going to www.whatismyipaddress. com.) Worse, many IP addresses are changed by the service provider from time to time.

Some software programs require you to enter an IP address to place a call. Others give you and your friends a website where you can locate each other and establish a video/audio connection.

The latest--and best--approach to this matter is the approach taken by both iChat and MSN Messenger. These programs use an already established, text-based chatting system to enable you to connect with anyone in your "buddy list." For example, if you have an AOL account, a free AOL Instant Messenger account or an Apple .Mac account, you can set up a buddy list in iChat. The screen names of your friends who have one of these accounts will appear in the list. Initiating the call is as simple as clicking the camera icon next to a person's name.

Unfortunately, iChat, MSN Messenger and similar chat systems do not interoperate with each other.

5. Most businesses and schools have an Internet barrier known as a firewall. The idea is that the firewall prevents unwanted, incoming computer intrusions. Regrettably, video conferencing calls usually appear to the firewall as an unwanted intrusion.

You may have a firewall at home. It may be a default feature of your routeria--a device used to share a single Internet connection among several computers--or it may be a feature of Windows XP or Mac OS X, or it may be a third party piece of software you have added to your computer.

If you try to video conference and find the call cannot be established or the video or audio does not work in one direction, you may have run into a firewall problem. In these cases, you will need to determine which "ports" are used by your video conferencing program. Then you must change your firewall's configuration to "open" these ports.

Video Conferencing for Music Instruction?

Video conferencing still has a way to go before it offers a practical alternative for giving lessons or checking up on students. Nonetheless, I recently received an e-mail announcement from an MTNA member stating, "I'm looking to recruit the first piano student I'll teach via video conference.... [F]or one term, I'll be offering this student a 10 percent discount on tuition."

Times are changing!

George F. Litterst is a nationally known music educator, clinician, author, performer and music software developer. He is co-developer of the intelligent accompaniment software program Home Concert 2000, from TimeWarp Technologies.