SIPA: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

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Video Conferencing

SIPA has two videoconferencing (VC) facilities:

Dean's Conference Room -Room 1415 seats a maximum of eight people.VC is available over ISDN lines and IP.

Room 409 IAB is a registrar classroom. VC is available over IP only.

Access to these facilities depends on the availability of the room and technical staff. All requests must be made through the office administrator after making room reservations with appropriate offices. SIPAAV does not handle room reservations. Video Conference facility is available to SIPA community only for a fee.

The cost of videoconferencing varies on the user's affiliation with SIPA and whether the VC call is initiated by SIPA or received from the remote site. A $75 + phone charges (# of ISDN lines per minute) for SIPA units and $125 +phone charges for all other affiliated users. If receiving a call from the remote site, there are no additional phone charges.
Note: Any requests with less than 3 business days notice will be charged a $250 expedite fee.

Video Conference Equipment

Polycom Viewstation 4000H, 37" Hitachi Plasma Monitor, Sony EVI D-39 NTSC camera, microphone and Quad BRI interface for multipoint calls over ISDN. ISDN line speeds available are 128/256/384 kbps. We also support Video Conference over IP.

You should have the following information when requesting this service:

  • The phone number/IP address to call the remote site, if they are not making the call to our site

  • E-mail address and/or phone number of a technical person at the remote site

  • Speed at which they will connect

  • Make sure to arrange for a test before the event—you must have alternate times for when our conference room is free

Videoconference Request Form - Dean's Conference Room

Videoconference Request Form - Room 409 IAB