need I say anything more - free newsletter
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tele/Presence Brings Focus to the Problem like the BP Oil Spill, Not Just People
Tele/Presence is a tool that brings focus to the problem when people can't go there and to bring advisors who can help solve problems. This is situation where "immersion" of the technology or problem can bring communications to people.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
8 Specific Tele/Presence Room Design Configurations
Top Story - Tele/Presence Room Design Considerations
By Thomas B. Cross
go to http://www.presenceforum.com for Newsletter & Expo
In this issue, the focus is on "room design." However, room design is just part of an overall plan. The planning, engineering and implementation of a teleconferencing system can be a complex process requiring expertise and experience in some or all of the following areas:
- Audio engineering/acoustical analysis
- Telecommunications and satellite networks
- Devices such as computers, audio graphic, archival and video retrieval, cameras, headsets, speakerphones, monitors, hardware and more
- Video compression techniques and television production
- Designing high-performance or high QoS networks
- Human factors, user training, executive interviewing
- ROI and cost-justification
- Equipment specification and selection process
- Room design and buildout
- Scheduling systems and operational issues - "one touch"
- Support "room attendant" and technical support
We have discussed audio engineering in previous issues and in future issues; we will present ideas on these other topics. Without bias, here are some various rooms and suggestions for your consideration. To begin with or rather, in the beginning a long time ago, I visited (and still do) a large number of video rooms in the U.S. and Europe, interviewed users and room managers, spoke with industry experts and put together one "model" room - below.
The room I designed has a number of features not found in other planning documents, then or now. You should, in any case, look at your own needs, physical limitations and budget to determine what works. One of the key issues to be discussed at greater length in the future is onsite "room attendant(s)" and technical support. While the room below is not drawn to scale, there is a room at the back. It could also be at the front of the room for a room attendant as well as equipment storage, replacement parts of all kinds, cables, network management tools, supplies (paper pads, pencils, etc.) and even a coffee bar. The point is that a tele/presence meeting should be everything and more than any executive meeting and should be treated as such. That is, focus on all aspects of the meeting not just the audio/video network. The next recommendation is to record all meetings. This allows for later retrieval by participants unable to attend and presenters to review how they can improve their "tele-skills."
Next, none of the systems mention an overhead camera. This is ideal for showing documents, broken parts, body parts and others. Again, "focus on the problem, not the person" should be the mantra for all meetings. However, if the person is the focus, then train them for video and have rehearsals. I did a lot of video for a major telecommunications company and when the executives tried to "wing it," they failed. When they wrote a script before the video and rehearsed it then night and morning before, they often did it perfectly with "one take."
I will present more in future newsletters, however, this came out this week from the Chief Scientist from Accenture (click for full article), "Do you have executive telepresence?" Among the many great issues put forth by Mr. Kishore S. Swaminathan is "Videoconferences have a different conversational rhythm." He mentions the need for presenters to "manage the rhythm" which refers to having an understanding of the communications protocols and nuances in telepresence. One last comment is to always have a monitor showing you and your room to yourself. In a F2F-face-to-face meeting, you can always look around and see what you look like, so why not have the same experience in a tele/presence meeting.
Here are just few examples of tele/presence rooms I selected. Remember your needs and YMMV-your-mileage-may-vary, so these are just ideas for consideration.
The first one is from Polycom. I like this room as is shows not just a "sit down" meeting but a person "standing up" and presenting. You may want to have different rooms for these two specific activities since they are the most common but also very different in their design. The next part of this example was the use of "fill lighting" to add in more lighting on the presenter. This is also an example of portable, as needed, AV-audio-visual equipment which can be used and moved inside or out "on location." From my experience, you can install great lighting but like with any television studio, the lighting may need to be increased, decreased or just moved. In fact, this is a good time to recommend you get a tour of your local television studio to see all the equipment they used even for the news and weather as well as field broadcasts.
The next two examples are small tele/presence rooms. The first from Polycom is like the first one above but designed for small groups ideal for branch offices, factory floors, or even temporary and can be used as your "template model" for many installations. Note, see the "dry erase" board on the wall. You will need a video camera aimed and lighted appropriately at it.
Both of the Cisco rooms show a "side monitor" used for additional video sources or as I suggested to show the video image of the room. Both have a "greyed" image to show the "coverage area" of the camera. A good idea is to plan the coverage area desired in order to accommodate all the occupants. Too often the presenter has to move in order to be seen or, more typically, one person arrives late and there is no chair and may have to sit in a corner and may not be seen by distant participants. Images courtesy Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals - click here for book.
The next two are from Polycom. They are good examples of Large Conference and Classroom configurations. I especially like the classroom with the document camera. I would have added a monitor at the back of the room so that the teacher could see themselves and while it is not shown, additional fill-lighting on the teacher.
The last example in this series is from Cisco. I added it because it was the only reference to HVAC-heating, ventilating, air-conditioning. I am always amazed at how much money tele/presence is spent on video systems, network, etc. but forget the "tornado" noise generated by HVAC systems which can disrupt any meeting, video, audio or even a traditional meeting. Also, HVAC personnel rarely have any training on "quiet" air-handling systems, so they are often a hindrance to tele/presence rooms. In addition, there is generally a lot of heat (explained later) by the video and all the computers/people in the meeting. Simply, this means that most tele/presence rooms should have their own temperature, humidity and HVAC systems inside the room and are designed for extreme quiet conditions.
In summary, in 1,000 words I wanted to present an introduction to tele/presence room configurations and ideas on how to design them to suit all kinds of needs.
Polycom uses a portion of the book Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design: Revised Edition, Chapter 12, "Videoconferencing" written by Scott Sharer, CTS, and Jim Smith, CVE, CTS, copyright 2003, with permission of InfoComm International®. For more go to www.infocomm.org. Here is just one example of excellent design considerations presented in the paper, "In architectural terms it is not uncommon to find a rule-of-thumb applied that allows for up to 15 square feet of floor space per participant in a traditional presentation or meeting room. If there is a front-of-room presenter position at a podium, and if there is some use of in-room technology (projection devices, whiteboards, etc.), then this figure may increase to as much as 20 square feet of floor space per participant, but rarely any more than that."
By Thomas B. Cross
go to http://www.presenceforum.com for Newsletter & Expo
In this issue, the focus is on "room design." However, room design is just part of an overall plan. The planning, engineering and implementation of a teleconferencing system can be a complex process requiring expertise and experience in some or all of the following areas:
- Audio engineering/acoustical analysis
- Telecommunications and satellite networks
- Devices such as computers, audio graphic, archival and video retrieval, cameras, headsets, speakerphones, monitors, hardware and more
- Video compression techniques and television production
- Designing high-performance or high QoS networks
- Human factors, user training, executive interviewing
- ROI and cost-justification
- Equipment specification and selection process
- Room design and buildout
- Scheduling systems and operational issues - "one touch"
- Support "room attendant" and technical support
We have discussed audio engineering in previous issues and in future issues; we will present ideas on these other topics. Without bias, here are some various rooms and suggestions for your consideration. To begin with or rather, in the beginning a long time ago, I visited (and still do) a large number of video rooms in the U.S. and Europe, interviewed users and room managers, spoke with industry experts and put together one "model" room - below.
The room I designed has a number of features not found in other planning documents, then or now. You should, in any case, look at your own needs, physical limitations and budget to determine what works. One of the key issues to be discussed at greater length in the future is onsite "room attendant(s)" and technical support. While the room below is not drawn to scale, there is a room at the back. It could also be at the front of the room for a room attendant as well as equipment storage, replacement parts of all kinds, cables, network management tools, supplies (paper pads, pencils, etc.) and even a coffee bar. The point is that a tele/presence meeting should be everything and more than any executive meeting and should be treated as such. That is, focus on all aspects of the meeting not just the audio/video network. The next recommendation is to record all meetings. This allows for later retrieval by participants unable to attend and presenters to review how they can improve their "tele-skills."
Next, none of the systems mention an overhead camera. This is ideal for showing documents, broken parts, body parts and others. Again, "focus on the problem, not the person" should be the mantra for all meetings. However, if the person is the focus, then train them for video and have rehearsals. I did a lot of video for a major telecommunications company and when the executives tried to "wing it," they failed. When they wrote a script before the video and rehearsed it then night and morning before, they often did it perfectly with "one take."
I will present more in future newsletters, however, this came out this week from the Chief Scientist from Accenture (click for full article), "Do you have executive telepresence?" Among the many great issues put forth by Mr. Kishore S. Swaminathan is "Videoconferences have a different conversational rhythm." He mentions the need for presenters to "manage the rhythm" which refers to having an understanding of the communications protocols and nuances in telepresence. One last comment is to always have a monitor showing you and your room to yourself. In a F2F-face-to-face meeting, you can always look around and see what you look like, so why not have the same experience in a tele/presence meeting.
Here are just few examples of tele/presence rooms I selected. Remember your needs and YMMV-your-mileage-may-vary, so these are just ideas for consideration.
The first one is from Polycom. I like this room as is shows not just a "sit down" meeting but a person "standing up" and presenting. You may want to have different rooms for these two specific activities since they are the most common but also very different in their design. The next part of this example was the use of "fill lighting" to add in more lighting on the presenter. This is also an example of portable, as needed, AV-audio-visual equipment which can be used and moved inside or out "on location." From my experience, you can install great lighting but like with any television studio, the lighting may need to be increased, decreased or just moved. In fact, this is a good time to recommend you get a tour of your local television studio to see all the equipment they used even for the news and weather as well as field broadcasts.
The next two examples are small tele/presence rooms. The first from Polycom is like the first one above but designed for small groups ideal for branch offices, factory floors, or even temporary and can be used as your "template model" for many installations. Note, see the "dry erase" board on the wall. You will need a video camera aimed and lighted appropriately at it.
Both of the Cisco rooms show a "side monitor" used for additional video sources or as I suggested to show the video image of the room. Both have a "greyed" image to show the "coverage area" of the camera. A good idea is to plan the coverage area desired in order to accommodate all the occupants. Too often the presenter has to move in order to be seen or, more typically, one person arrives late and there is no chair and may have to sit in a corner and may not be seen by distant participants. Images courtesy Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals - click here for book.
The next two are from Polycom. They are good examples of Large Conference and Classroom configurations. I especially like the classroom with the document camera. I would have added a monitor at the back of the room so that the teacher could see themselves and while it is not shown, additional fill-lighting on the teacher.
The last example in this series is from Cisco. I added it because it was the only reference to HVAC-heating, ventilating, air-conditioning. I am always amazed at how much money tele/presence is spent on video systems, network, etc. but forget the "tornado" noise generated by HVAC systems which can disrupt any meeting, video, audio or even a traditional meeting. Also, HVAC personnel rarely have any training on "quiet" air-handling systems, so they are often a hindrance to tele/presence rooms. In addition, there is generally a lot of heat (explained later) by the video and all the computers/people in the meeting. Simply, this means that most tele/presence rooms should have their own temperature, humidity and HVAC systems inside the room and are designed for extreme quiet conditions.
In summary, in 1,000 words I wanted to present an introduction to tele/presence room configurations and ideas on how to design them to suit all kinds of needs.
Polycom uses a portion of the book Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design: Revised Edition, Chapter 12, "Videoconferencing" written by Scott Sharer, CTS, and Jim Smith, CVE, CTS, copyright 2003, with permission of InfoComm International®. For more go to www.infocomm.org. Here is just one example of excellent design considerations presented in the paper, "In architectural terms it is not uncommon to find a rule-of-thumb applied that allows for up to 15 square feet of floor space per participant in a traditional presentation or meeting room. If there is a front-of-room presenter position at a podium, and if there is some use of in-room technology (projection devices, whiteboards, etc.), then this figure may increase to as much as 20 square feet of floor space per participant, but rarely any more than that."
Friday, May 14, 2010
Tele/Presence Newsletter - Top Story - Video Tele/Presence
Top Story - Video Tele/Presence Configuration Options
The graphics with this story can be found in the Tele/Presence Newsletter here.
Here are just a few of the various types of tele/presence systems for your review and consideraton. This presentation focuses more on office and portable video tele/presence that other types of collaboration systems such as slow-scan, whiteboards, computer (wiki, blog) and others.
What I am trying to show is that most tele/presence video systems focus on people, rather than the problems the people are discussing. In my humble opinion, the focus should be on the problem, not people. There are many reasons but one of them is that most people don't feel comfortable being on video and really don't like the way they look (partially or largely due to the Aspect Ratio*). For example, I was looking for systems that show a problem such as quality control situation on a manufacturing assembly line, transportation disaster, environmental hazard, poor health conditions in food processing, or something like the situation on an oil rig and cleanup, to name but a few of the problems that businesses face. Here is a medical example, a medical diagnosis of a sick infant where bringing the "person (doctor) to the problem" is critical.
Below is a more recent example of tele-medicine, from Cisco. Please excuse the size of the image.
Tele-consultation is more than than using the video image of the to show medical problems, yet, provide "doctors without borders" to patients anywhere. However, both Polycom and Cisco interface medical systems such as from AMD Telemedicine and others. For example, in the Polycom system allows the Polycom Practitioner Cart HDX "to easily connect to medical peripheral devices with integrated switch box and connection panel (digital in-band stethoscopes and video scopes)."
Overview of Video Tele/Presence Options
The first example (below) is an overhead video system where documents, parts, objects and almost anything else can be placed and the problem discussed without ever showing a person.
In this example, the user sets up a portable video system easily and can again "bring the system to the problem."
NOTE: The following are examples of various kinds of systems. There is no bias as to which one is more useful or advanced than the others. Simply let the "function drive the features." However, I do like portable systems. Here is one from Polycom showing the user presenting in an outdoor setting.
Next, again from Polycom, we see an office desktop video situation. I liked this as it uses a large screen intended to give the "immersive-effect" of life-like images on by both parties.
This next one is a new approach. Originally, created and developed by Microsoft called Roundtable, now sold by Polycom is integrated with Microsoft Office Communicator part of Microsoft Communications Server and provides group video with 360° panoramic view of the conference room. In additon voice, and instant messaging are brought together into one seamless experience connected easily via a USB port and record the meeting using Microsoft Live Meeting.
The next one is from TelePresenceTech intended to provide for person-to-person conferencing with "eye contact." While it is often perceived that "look em in the eye" is a critical component in video conferencing, our research has indicated it is less important because one-to-one video conferences are nearly always done with people already known, even well-known to one another. That is, the vast majority of personal and small group teleconferences are done with people they have already met face-to-face. More on this issue in future newsletters.
This one is from Cisco. I selected this one as the unit moves away from the desktop opening up the system for more than one person on either end.
Here are three other options from Cisco: Wall-mounted, Free-standing single-screen and Free-standing multi-screen. I selected these as offering options as "flexible inplace" installations of video conferencing systems. That is, when the system is needed is can be installed without the cost of expensive room design and preparation. This also suggests that the "message is more important than the media."
Below from Asstra, is another variation of a free-standing unit. This unit can combined "live" broadcast video feeds from various television sources, prerecorded video feeds, including DVD and VCR, live and/or prerecorded security and surveillance video and PC-generated presentations, documents, and spreadsheets onto the presentation screen.
Next, are two of my favorite ideas, not necessarily these ones. That is, "rollabout" systems can be moved to the hospital operating room, to the assembly line, flown out to sea on a ship or oil rig and shipped almost anywhere. The first one is from TelePresenceTech.
This one is from Polycom brings the "expertise to the problem." That is, a group of subject matter experts can gather and send in the system to the problem or person for discussion, exploration and problem-solving.
Below in a portable slow-scan video system from long ago. The ease-of-use, portability and single-button use made this system for nearly all video teleconferencing situations because in most instances "nothing is moving." That is, nearly all PowerPoint presentations, business settings, crisis conditions, there is no motion, so there is no need for full-motion video.
This next set of examples moves into small group then large group. Here is an example from Cisco of a small group lecture where the presenter is live with one group and other students are remote but both groups can lecture-slides.
From TelePresenceTech, is a 3D lecturer designed with "aligned eye contact" in order for the viewers to get the "immersive-effect." While I like "immersive" video, there is little evidence, in my thirty years in this business, to suggest that it is required or even desired by the audience. We all watch TV and don't feel the need to be "immersed" with the newscaster or television program. Certainly 3D brings us closer in movies but may also have negative impacts in business meetings.
Speaking of "immersive-video," here is an example Cisco. Having used their single- and three-screen systems, it is very effective for small group meetings.
From Polycom, is another approach to "immersive-video." Both companies offer a wide range of solutions for small group (under 30, typically less than 15 people).
Here is one more example of group video teleconferencing systems (source: stock photo).
The last example is the Polycom's "cinematic video wall" with 16 feet of seemless; every participant is shown in high definition, true-to-life dimensions.
This has been a brief introduction to various video tele/presence systems (video conferencing, or teleconferencing, if you prefer). While the focus has been primarily on "room" systems including those that offer movable room-to-room systems, from my long-time experience, should give you an idea of what "car make and model" you could make a good choice to select for effective person-to-person or group meetings.
*Television suffers or rather television adds 33% more "weight" to you because of the Aspect Ratio. That is, television puts on the "pounds." The two standard Aspect Ratios are 4:3 or 1.33:1 referred to as Standard is used in home video which means the width is 33% wider than its height. The other standard Aspect Ratio is Widescreen used in HDTV-high definition television is 16:9 or 1.78:1. In other words, Widescreen nearly doubles your "weight." If you don't have a lot of experience with being on television or television production, you can understand why people don't like the way they look on it.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Building Resilient-Survivable SIP Customer Solutions
Click here for MCS Forum web site where there is animated tutorial of this written explanation.
One of the biggest concerns customers have when deploying SIP telephony is with the uptime of the solution. Uptime depends on many things including: reliability of the components, the resiliency of the hardware, software and network design and complexity-diversity of testing. In the SIP telephony world where this business critical applications have to transit through a multi-vendor world to be effective, resiliency aka survivability is a key differentiating feature in system performance.
1st Level Stateful Failover via Memory Shadowing where only one Media Server aka Gateway is managing thousands of endpoints and PSTN and/or SIP trunks.
2nd Level Multiple port/interfaces multiple and dual-homed interfaces from the servers to the media gateways.
3rd Level provides separate signaling and network bearer (voice) interfaces in the form of control LAN/H.323/SIP Proxy/Gatekeeper functions modules for signaling and resources for bearer traffic.
4th Level Enterprise Resilient Server(s) (ErS) solution allows up to n-number of backup/cloud servers which automatically distributed configuration modifications.
5th Level provides redundancy for Announcements and Queue Music critical to onsite or virtual contact center environments.
6th Level proactive monitoring and redirection capabilities of network management for multi-path redirection with split-second failover when WAN failures or power surge/sags (brownouts).
7th Level provides inbuilding gateway capabilities to protect against both LAN & WAN outages and can be provisioned for some/all users with zero administration, telephone brand neutrality, all features (including E911) support and other services.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
"Market Dynamics Shaping the Adoption of Telepresence" Bob Preston - Chief Collaboration Officer Polycom
Tele/Presence Forum announces new Keynote Speaker talk on
"Market Dynamics Shaping the Adoption of Telepresence"
Bob Preston - Chief Collaboration Officer Polycom
For more on the Tele/Presence Forum Expo and weekly newsletter go to http://www.presenceforum.com
Here are highlights from Mr. Preston's presentation:
• Organizational
o Global economy
o Recession reset
o Do more with less
o Efficiency of operations
o Fast ROI
• Social Trends
o Gen Y life style
o Road warriors
o Instant communications
o Virtual & remote workers
o Green / CO2
o Social media
• Technology Enablers
o Unified Communications
o Open Standards
o Real time connection from single point of access
o Presence
Presenter: Bob Preston is the Chief Collaboration Officer at Polycom, Inc. His role at the company is to help organizations understand the application and benefits of voice, video, and telepresence collaboration solutions within industries and vertical markets such as healthcare, education, government, and enterprise. Bob is an expert resource in the area of increasing productivity and efficiency through collaboration solutions. He also leads the Industry Solutions group on a global basis - a team of industry experts developing strategic initiatives in targeted industries. Bob is a blogger and frequent public speaker on the topic of business value of collaboration solutions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
