Precinct Feb 06 Q5 - University of Liverpool

New video conferencing room
open to staff
THE COMPUTING SERVICES
DEPARTMENT (CSD) HAS
INSTALLED AN ACCESS GRID
VIDEOCONFERENCING FACILITY
ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF ITS
BROWNLOW HILL BUILDING.
This has been part-funded by the
Liverpool branch of the
Northern Institute for Bio
Health Informatics. The facility will
enable staff to take part in video
conferences over the Internet,
particularly with other teams involved
in large national and international
projects which involve several HE and
research establishments.
The room will seat up to 15 people and
is equipped with four cameras, two
speakers, eight desktop and two ceiling
microphones. The video images from the
conference sites are projected on to a
large wall area so that all participants can
be seen simultaneously. Sound is picked
up from all areas of the room and this
means that the experience is reasonably
close to that of being in the same room as
the remote participants.
Access Grid videoconferencing facilities
are very useful for research communities
where conferences are between several
people at each of several sites - so-called
group-to-group, multi-site conferencing.
Conferences with more than 20 sites
participating are often held though ones with
four to six sites are more common.
The goal is to provide a richer multimedia
experience than that given by the traditional
talking-head videoconferencing systems.
Facilities are available for giving Powerpoint
presentations and for sharing software
applications such as Word or Excel. It is also
possible to project the contents of a laptop
screen to the other participants and, in the
future, the facility will be connected to a
document viewer.
The Access Grid videoconferencing room.
09
NEWS
The facility will be run day-to-day by the
CSD Helpdesk and a booking system for
the room will be available through the
electronic diary system.
When booking the room for a
conference, one person should be
nominated as the conference leader. All
new conference leaders will need to attend
a short informal training session given by
Helpdesk staff before the conference
begins.
For further information of when the facility
will be open and for booking details
please contact the CSD Helpdesk.
Name change for Personnel
SOME MAJOR CHANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE
IN THE DEPARTMENT FORMERLY KNOWN AS
PERSONNEL.
As of February 1, their name has changed to Human
Resources (HR), and they have moved from Senate House
to the Foundation Building. The move will allow 4 of it’s 5
key activities to be under one roof.
These are Employee/Relations/Recruitment, Equality and Diversity,
Payroll and Pensions, which was also based in Senate House, and
the Role Evaluation team, previously located at 19 Abercromby
Square. Staff Training and Development will remain in the
Foresight Building.
The changes mean that the University’s staff, which totals
almost 4,700 will be able to get all the information they need on
pay and pensions, staff recruitment, and equality and diversity
from one new shared reception area on the third floor.
Susan Rutherford, Director of HR, said: “Our staff are our most
important asset and we are, as a department, very respectful of
that important fact. These changes will allow everyone working for
the University to access the services, advice and information
available from the Human Resources Department as quickly and
conveniently as possible.
“Professionally the HR title is now used by the majority of our
comparable institutions and the service goes way beyond the
traditional Personnel focus of Welfare and Administration.
The Human Resources Department is located on the third
floor of the Foundation Building. General enquiries can be
made by calling 0151 794 6771/6773.