China's Shanxi province is a large mountainous region with over 19 cities and 119 counties. This vast region’s roadways are not as developed as other parts of the country, which lead to many county officials taking an average of 10 to 12 hours to reach the capital TaiYuan for critical government meetings. Shanxi is one of the poorer provinces in China, so the expense of a province wide meeting was quite a burden to their budget. Due to these hardships the Shanxi government decided to implement a video conferencing system to help reduce costs and loss of productivity caused by extended travel schedules.

Due to the importance of government matters, Shanxi officials wanted a solution that was both extremely stable and secure. They needed a product that could handle their 130+ connections while allowing the highest ranking government official to control the conference. Government officials tested many products from multiple vendors over a period of two months.

Finally they choose DST’s MCS for their video conferencing needs. The Shanxi government purchased and installed 13 MCU’s in a three tier system. The first layer was composed of the main government office in TaiYuan, the second layer composed the 12 major cities of Shanxi province and the third layer composed the other 117 counties of the province.

Since its installation the DST video conferencing system has saved the province of Shanxi millions of RMB in travel expenses. It also greatly improved their efficiency in day to day operations and enhanced their emergency preparedness. Shanxi government uses the video conferencing system for almost all meetings within the province.