Ministry of Justice Multipoint-Videoconferencing service

Ministry of Justice Multipoint-Videoconferencing service

Videoconferencing service - Introduction Service starts between 1996 and 1997 to support the hearing of repent criminal organization witnesses collaborating with Justice. By the end of 2 years the Administration had set up almost 1200 videoconferences. Positive feedback from this kind of service and the enforcement of the Italian law 11/98 bring to life the Videoconferencing service to remotely hold for trial penal proceedings.

Videoconferencing service Goals Service goals were set as follows: Create videoconferencing rooms in Prison premises where witnesses subject to Italian Law 41bis are confined; Connect them to the Court room where the Trial is scheduled, equipping the Court room with equal setup; Monitor the Trial minute by minute, using a centrally located Control Room, to guarantee necessary support to Court Room demands;

Videoconferencing service Critical points Service had to replicate the same interactions that are legally guaranteed in a traditionally held Trial such as: All actors involved in a Trial must be able to take part in the Trial itself; Video and audio quality should resemble real Court hearings; Private conversation between convicted and lawyer in a confined way must be ensured;

Videoconferencing service Main services Project is made of two subsystems: Multi-videoconferencing (MVDC); Encrypted phone service; Inmate MCU Prison Lawyer Control Room Communication network Videoconference traffic Encrypted call Court

Videoconferencing service Main services Multiple Videoconferencing Service is based on a Control Room, located in a high security enforced site, where are located the MCU (Multipoint Control Unit) handling the VDC sessions; In every room, either Prison or Court located, are installed: VDC codec, network connections to the Control Room and audio/video devices; Crypted phone calls This service guarantees private conversation between convicted and lawyer in a confined way by means of voice encryption; A call details record printing system has been developed to let the Judge add it to the proceeding s record;

Videoconferencing service Sites To these days the number of sites where it s possible to remotely hold Trials are: 65 Bunker Court Rooms; 136 Court Rooms; 20 Correctional Institutions equipped with a total of 136 videoconferencing rooms; Prison and Court rooms totals 337 VDC rooms.

Servizio di Mutivideoconferenza Statistics Sessioni di Videoconferenza annue 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Over 76 000 VDC Sessions in 11 years. Ore di Videoconferenza 30000 Almost 250 000 VDC Hours in 11 years. 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Videoconferencing service Numbers Service is designed to normally guarantee 30 concurrent videoconference Trials with a possible extent to 45 simultaneous Hearings. Considering prison and Court rooms a maximum of almost 200 VDC rooms can be contemporary connected to variuos Trials. Each monitor in the VDC rooms can show in parallel, by cascading images, up to 16 different sites connected to the same VDC session. Service is ordinarily operated between 8:00 to 20:00 from Monday to Saturday.

Videoconferencing service Evolution MVD Service started in 1998 based on a ISDN communication network and all related technology, both on the site s side and on the Control Room s side, was ISDN based. The Ministry of Justice has started, since the beginning of 2010 a major service renewal plan to migrate the infrastructure to an IP based technology/network. Migration is planned to last 18 months.

Videoconferencing service Evolution (2) The following steps are carried over in this evolution: Upgrade MCU system to comply to IP network transmission and guarantee High definition videoconferencing (VDC); Renewal of the almost 600 ISDN VDC codecs with the same number of IP High Definition codecs; Renewal of the PABX phone service with IP based VoIP gateway to deliver encrypted phone communications; Deploy a resilient IP VPN network to transport integrated VDC and VoIP traffic; Include a centralized recording and archiving of VDC Court Trials.