A unique type of video conferencing facility will be offered, for the first time, by the University of Bristol for commercial and educational use.  The facility uses grid technology and advanced networking which can be used for making weather forecasting more accurate.

The innovative new technology, known as the Access Grid, is video conferencing on a larger scale. It allows up to 256 sites to connect at once anywhere in the world enabling projects to be displayed and worked on simultaneously.

For any organisations involved in collaborative work it has many logistical, cost, efficiency and timesaving benefits.  The Access Grid is currently used by the Centre for e-Research Bristol (CeRB) as a new way of conducting interactive large-scale collaborative research remotely.  It has already proved to be successful in other sites across the world, resulting in one project carrying out two years of work in one month.

The facility reduces the need for travel and makes collaborative projects more viable. Users are only limited by Internet connection and the amount of wall space available to project images onto.

Dr David Wallom, Operations Director, CeRB said: "With modern research increasingly featuring national and international collaboration it is becoming essential to have realistic methods of 'ad-hoc' conferencing. During the last ten years this has essentially been through the use of telephone conferencing with video being the preserve of large businesses or large pre-planned meetings. The Access Grid allows 'drop in' meetings whenever needed, with the University facility being able to hold up to 20 people."