Unified Communications
Unified Communications (UC) is the combination of Telephone, Video and Data Services into a comprehensive organization dedicated to meeting all of your voice, video and online communications needs. We provide the infrastructure that gives you dial tone, the data jack for your computer, the Wi-Fi signal you use with your laptop and smartphone, and the video network that enables teleconferencing with others around the world. Unified Communications enables you to efficiently interact with others here on the Ball State campus, in the community, and in the global Internet community.
Telephone service is provided to faculty and staff via digital multibutton, analog single-line and VoIP sets. The voicemail system gives callers the ability to listen to a personalized greeting when you're away and gives them the option to leave you a message. The voicemail system provides e-mail notification when these messages are left in your voice mailbox. For audio conference bridging service, Meet-Me Conferencing allows six callers to dial a single number and be automatically connected. For parties larger than six, Meet-Me Plus connects up to 25 callers.
Telephone service to students is automatically provided to those living in campus residence halls. Students living in University Apartments can also receive this service by contracting with Ball State Housing and Residence Life and paying a monthly fee. Additional services such as callerID, voicemail and long distance are found under the BSUConnect suite.
Wired network access provides the Ball State campus with the fastest, most secure connectivity to computer and Internet resources. Most locations have 100Mbps access available. A few locations (mainly older residence halls) that support only 10Mbps. Faculty and staff can request access via the Communications Services Request (CSR) form with approval from their department chair. The Housing and Residence Life office provides wired access in every residence hall room, so students do not have to ask for that access. Students living on campus should reference the Housing Network page requirements for more information.
The Wi-Fi network provides 802.11g access in all major academic, administrative and residence buildings. Many high-use outdoor areas are provided with 802.11n coverage. The bsusecure network provides secure (encrypted) network access for faculty, staff, and students, allowing access to all resources. The bsuguest network provides semi-restricted (unencrypted) network access for our campus visitors.
Unified Communications provides video conference services for Ball State. One of the exciting features we offer is the solutions page, allowing an individual to answer a series of questions and then see recommendations for a variety of communications solutions. In our video conferencing area there are documents for how to implement a Movi product for desktop video conferencing. Release forms are available if the need is to record a guest speaker for on-demand purposes, or for live streaming of an event.
In our communications area, we also offer the ability to conduct webinars for small audiences with a maximum of 24 members or a larger platform that will allow up to 98 people to connect. There are three different platforms for offering webinars at Ball State. They are: Go To Meeting, Go To Training, and WebEx.
We have a convenient request form that allows, faculty, staff and administrators to submit request for a variety of communications technologies.
Please see the UC staff directory to contact a member of our staff.