14 August 2006

Today's Hyderabad-Toronto link-up is first of a week's 'advo-casts' from the developing world.

Aids activists in Hyderabad, India, today (14 August 2006) took part in a live three-hour video discussion with experts who are in Toronto for the world’s biggest HIV and AIDS conference.

By the end of the week, AIDS campaigners and community groups in six countries will have linked with Toronto, using standard laptop computers and internet connection speeds as low as 384 kilobits per second, all for a fraction of the cost of videoconferencing over international ISDN lines. Video highlights of the discussions can be seen here.

ActionAid, the charity responsible for the four-continent link-up, is using existing computers and projectors and free software. It spent less than £2,000 on new equipment including professional-standard webcams, microphones, speakers, cables and, the most expensive single item, a Bosch multichannel digital video recorder normally used in the security industry.

"Sound quality is more important than picture quality. We found that Skype gave us stable connections and clear voice quality," said ActionAid web editor Nathaniel Ashford. ActionAid carried out trials with Adobe Breeze, MS Communicator and MSN Messenger before settling on Skype.

"The world’s leading AIDS researchers, healthcare experts and policymakers are in Toronto this week, but only those who could afford to come," said Simon Wright, head of ActionAid’s UK AIDS campaign. "Our pioneering of this technology ensures that poor communities have a voice in meetings that affect their lives."

The week’s schedule includes two-way ‘advo-casts’ to Toronto from India, Nigeria, Malawi, Bangladesh, Honduras and Mozambique. Highlights of the international discussions can be seen here.

ActionAid’s standard advo-casting kit includes a Logitech Quickcam Pro 5000 webcam, a Samson C01U USB  condenser microphone, both on USB extension leads for mobility, and a Logitech Z-2300 three-piece, 200-watt computer speaker system.

Two laptops are used at each site, so that the people running the equipment can communicate by instant messaging without disrupting the advo-cast.