# Military sets up video-phone link to Afghanistan



## GAP (29 Mar 2007)

Military sets up video-phone link to Afghanistan
Updated Wed. Mar. 28 2007 6:41 PM ET Canadian Press
Article Link

HALIFAX -- It's hard to have an intimate conversation with the ones you love when a roomful of reporters, half a dozen television cameras and a forest of microphones are recording every whispered syllable. 

But Warrant Officer Chris Saunders, who is posted to Afghanistan, and his wife Lori back home in Halifax with their five-week-old son, gamely gave it a try Wednesday. 

The couple helped showcase a new real-time video-teleconferencing link the military says will allow families to stay in closer touch with those serving overseas. 

As Chris sat in a small, humid booth thousands of kilometres away in Kandahar, Lori sat on a couch at the Military Family Resource Centre in Halifax, gently rocked a sleeping, blissfully oblivious Liam in her lap. 

"I can see everybody," Chris said as a black-and-white image of the young soldier sprang to life on a video screen about three metres away from his wife. 

"Hi honey, how are you? How are things?" Lori asked tentatively, mindful of the audience of reporters and military officials in the room. 

After a few moments of awkward silence, shy greetings and small talk about the weather, they finally plunged in, mostly responding to questions posed by the media. 

The Canadian soldier was home for his son's birth last month but has seen him only in e-mailed photos for a couple of weeks. 

"I can't believe how much he's grown. He's so much longer," said Saunders, whose platoon is charged with base security in Kandahar
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## mudrecceman (29 Mar 2007)

Well now isn't that funny!  (I know Chris, and spoke to him and Lori not 2 weeks ago).  

Good to see that they are providing this, "seeing" the person is so much better than just hearing them.  

Unless I read the article wrong, Eastlink is providing this FOC??


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## reccecrewman (29 Mar 2007)

I'm a tad confused........... I recall this service being available back in 2005 when I was there. Am I out to lunch or is this something entirely different than what we had? I don't see the difference.........

Regards


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## GAP (29 Mar 2007)

From the article:



> The video-conferencing system, including hardware and a 10-megabit Internet connection, were given to the military by Eastlink, a Nova Scotia-based telecommunications company.
> 
> Company spokesman Dan McKeen said the project evolved from a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League broadcast they streamed to the troops in Kandahar in January.
> 
> ...


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## MikeM (29 Mar 2007)

reccecrewman said:
			
		

> I'm a tad confused........... I recall this service being available back in 2005 when I was there. Am I out to lunch or is this something entirely different than what we had? I don't see the difference.........
> 
> Regards



As far as I can tell it's the same service we had on ROTO 2.. guess it's just making the news now?


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## 241 (29 Mar 2007)

We just got a system installed in the armouries in Red Deer, to be used for video conference calls, distance learning, "O" groups etc, but we where also informed that we are able to let members of our unit that will be deployed to Afghanistan in the future talk to there families back home using it, apparently all the MFRC's have had these for a while and now all armouries are getting them. The guy that was showing us how to operate it was saying that they are up to somewhere around 200 or so in the CF.  By the looks of things it will be a very handy tool, he was saying that during the SARS crisis Health Canada came to the CF looking to use them to conference with other world health organizations.


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