2.3 Expanding the system

Video conferencing could play a greater role in both internal and external communications than it does now. A modest investment in new equipment, and in making more NRAO staff familiar with the system capabilities, could contribute significantly to increased awareness of the NRAO as one organization and to sharing expertise between sites.

We plan to add permanent auditorium installations at the AOC, Charlottesville and Green Bank, and to extend video conferencing to the VLA Site and to smaller rooms at other NRAO sites. We will also add further hub capability so that, for example, Socorro could host a meeting between staff at the AOC, VLA and Tucson independently of the video hub in Charlottesville.

The direct costs of an expanded role for video conferencing can partly be offset by reducing travel costs and time overhead associated with face-to-face meetings.

Video conferencing cannot substitute entirely for face-to-face meetings, however. The multiple one-on-one interactions by which NRAO staff get to know colleagues at other sites personally will always be an essential component of inter-site co-operation and mutual understanding. Our goal should be to use video conferencing to reinforce these face-to-face interactions, not to supplant them.

The following sections discuss use of video conferencing in more detail.

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