Change of Behaviour towards higher Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Media Conference held by CODEMA in Dublin, Ireland - 17 October 2002

Main event, Modena, Italy

Introduction

A workshop on "Change of Behaviour towards higher Energy Efficiency in Buildings" was held in Modena, Italy and organised by Managenergy. There was an informal media conference held by CODEMA in Dublin, Ireland, where a web-based broadcast of the conference was viewed on a large PC screen. Local people with an interest in the workshop were invited to participate.

Participants

Ms. Geraldine Cusack, Manager, Meath Energy Agency
Edel Giltenane, CODEMA

Technology available

• Laptop PC with windows XP
• Real Video format
• Windows media player
• 128Kps ISDN internet connection
• modem connection

Results

17 October 2002 (15.00 - 17.30)

Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to join the virtual conference for the majority of the conference. A standard message was displayed indicating that due to technical difficulties the broadcast would not be available for at least an hour. This did provide us with adequate information as to when we would be able to reconnect. When we connected first, however, there was no message to explain that difficulties were occurring. An email address was available on the technical support page, however, when we sent an email to this address it bounced back immediately.

We were able to view the broadcast over a period of approximately 30 minutes. We viewed a part of Dr. Nora's contribution 'Local Action for sustainable development after Johannesburg' in Real Video format using our ISDN connection.

Friday 18th 2002

I (Edel Giltenane, CODEMA) joined the virtual conference over a short period on the second day and found that the technical difficulties had been resolved and quality had improved a little. I initially tried to view the conference with modem connection and was unable to connect. However, I was able to view the conference with ISDN line connection and found that the quality of video was superior with Real player.

Most of the above problems still existed but quality had improved. Slides were available and facilitated the speaker greatly. The Chat Room was working perfectly and this provided very useful information.

A phone was received from Katy Hall (ManagEnergy webmaster) Friday morning apologising for the previous day and informing us that the conference was broadcasting that morning. This phone call was greatly appreciated. The office also received an email from data@managenergy.net explaining the difficulties encountered and informing us that the webcast was functioning again. This email was appreciated also, however, it was sent late morning when the virtual conference was almost complete.

Problems

• Video quality using Real Video, and a 128Kps ISDN connection. Was not as good as previously experienced with ManagEnergy virtual conferences (Sustainable Transport and Renewable Energy)
• The speaker was clearly seen, however the frame rate was poor.
• The quality of the audio was not good; the speaker was not clearly heard.
• No slides were available which would have helped to combat the audio difficulty.
• The video often became jerky or the audio would stop. Stopping and restarting playback fixed the problem, however, as this happened quite regularly, it made it impossible to concentrate on the speaker.

Conclusion

It was quite disappointing that we were unable to participate in this conference, but do understand that such last minute difficulties do arise. We were quite relieved, however, that we had organised an informal media conference rather than a large formal one as was previously planned.