Video conferencing is now made available on SarawakNet, the State Government Intranet. With the launching of the Multimedia Conferencing System (MCS) today, it is expected that the Sarawak State Government offices will benefit significantly from the enhanced communication channel.

MCS is proudly brought to the State Government by SAINS, the ICT arm of the State Government. Adopting the proven technology from Mlabs Systems Bhd (MLABS), a technology partner of SAINS, MCS is a full-fledged multi-point video-conferencing system that is set to greatly improve the way meetings are held; from the conventional coming together face-to-face discussion to conferencing face-to-face without actually having to be in the same room.

The State’s Secretary of Sarawak, YB Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz bin Dato’ Haji Husain, a strong champion of video conferencing in State Government administration, make time out from his busy schedules to launch the system today. He said “The launching of MCS for the Sarawak State Government is timely, for those government agencies having multiple offices throughout Sarawak. We can save on traveling time, enable faster decision-making and lower our cost of operation. The recent global as well as local events that result in disruptions and higher cost of air travel are enough impetus for us to use multimedia video conferencing over the SarawakNet Wide-Area-Network”.

YB Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz bin Dato’ Haji Husain when launching the system, shared his earlier experience that motivated this move to include the MCS as part of the new work culture that should be adopted by the State Government.

“In November last year, I took part in a joint technology discussion between MLABS, and Microsoft Malaysia. At the same time, I witnessed online, using MCS in SAINS Kuching HQ, a MOU signing ceremony that took place at Technology Park in Kuala Lumpur. I was very impressed with the quality of the MCS video conferencing system and it is my wish that the MCS video conferencing system become a part of the normal everyday format of meeting for our State administration,” he said.

“We have been piloting MCS internally among some Ministries and Resident’s offices as well as my office, the State Financial Secretary’s office and the State Attorney General’s office. I am generally very pleased with the results and would like to see a full rollout to all State Public Service offices and Government Link Companies (GLCs),” he added.

Datuk Amar was convinced that with some practice, the system could be widely used just like emailing, applying leave online and the many other e-Government applications that have been rolled out on SarawakNet.

More and more organizations are starting to look at video conferencing for meetings and ad-hoc discussions as a cost effective alternative to time-consuming travel. Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz, who is also the Deputy Chairman of SAINS, described MCS’s apparent benefits: “We have look at other similar systems currently available in the market. MCS is more than the usual video conferencing. The chairman of a meeting can call upon other participants to attend the meeting if he wishes. Pertinent documents can also be shared, swapped and viewed online by all participants at the same time. He can also decide to conduct a private online chat at the same time with his secretary. In essence, MCS combines audio, video, document, images and messaging within a secured networked environment”.

MCS offers virtually unlimited multi-point-to-multi-point interaction for notebook, desktop, boardroom and wireless environments. It runs on any network that support IP or Internet Protocol, be it Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN) like the SarawakNet or the Internet.

This allows many types of types of multimedia conferencing to take place at maximum effectiveness regardless of geographical constraints, be it desktop-to-desktop conference, boardroom-to-boardroom, and desktop-to-boardroom.

With MCS, not only can you hear, see and talk, you can also swap or transfer files, presentation slides, reports or watch videos while conferencing. This enhanced feature is essential and very practical in today’s meetings in which immediate results or decision-making is needed.

The next question users might ask is whether MCS is secure, seeing that it allows data, voice and images to be transferred across the ubiquitous shared IP network. MCS has a built-in security feature whereby the conference administrator can authenticate users and give permission for connection via this tool.

As it runs on existing networks, MCS can be implemented with minimal infrastructure cost. MCS also requires only one conference server to manage all your conferencing needs, as opposed to the conventional expensive multipoint control unit (MCU). This has brought down the investment cost immensely and at the same time increases the effectiveness tremendously. Using the multicasting transmission technology, MCS proves to be a bandwidth-friendly product even when the number of concurrent users increases.

With the smart partnership of SAINS and MLABS, more enhancements through research and development are expected to take place to cater to the varying degrees of needs within the State Government and other private organisations in Sarawak.