AccessGrid Node and Services

The AccessGrid Node is located on the ground floor at 723 Swanston Street, Parkville, and is one of the few nodes in Australia to achieve “Quality Assured” status (as recognized by AGCentral). It is hosted by the IT Research Computing Services group and was launched in August, 2004. The facility is open to all University of Melbourne staff and post-graduate students, as well as external parties involved in collaborative projects with the University. Normal support hours are 8:45am to 5:00pm, Monday to Friday, however depending on the requirements of an AccessGrid meeting, access to the facility out of hours can be arranged

The facility provides a high-quality echo-cancelled audio configuration and a 6m x 1.5m projection screen, which allows many video streams to be displayed simultaneously.  The underlying network is 1Gbit and multicast enabled, as well as allowing VNC connectivity.

Other services include Technical Support and Training.  Users who have had basic training in the use of the facility may be authorised to use the facility on their own.  Also, we can assist users who wish to install a “personal” version of the AccessGrid on the own desktop or laptop computer.  However, those who don’t wish or require training may avail themselves of high-quality technical support.

Also provided are unicast bridging and venue services. Unicast bridging allows users on a non-multicast enabled network to participate in AccessGrid meetings, which is currently true of most of the University of Melbourne network.  Venue services allow the creation and maintenance of a new venue for a specific requirement or group of users.

Finally, some faculties and departments may be considering AccessGrid enabling meeting or tutorial rooms, or even lecture theatres in their area.  Our staff can assist this process by providing advice on hardware and configuration, as well as technical support during the establishment process.

For more information or to request use of the AccessGrid Node, please contact the Service Desk via http://servicedesk.unimelb.edu.au 
or continue to the AccessGrid http://www.hpc.unimelb.edu.au/bmeade/rcs/agn web page.