This node is a three computer, small conference room node. One Windows XP machine with a quad-headed video display, one Debian/GNU Linux with ALSA audio, and another Debian/GNU Linux machine with 3x pci video capture. Rack mounted audio equipment, three ambient desk mics, three video cameras and three video projectors complete the experience.
Node operators should be prepared for their sessions. Double-check meeting times taking into account timezones and day-light savings time. Read over all meeting schedules and details. Keep in touch with other operators through email and chat.
All meetings should be coordinated through the AGSchedule site. If other locations you are meeting with are not on the AGSchedule list of sites, encourage them to register their node. Having a central information page eliminates a lot of email and logistical confusion.
Please also schedule the "GEaRS/Access Grid/RM 140B CB/UP" resource in Penn State's Calendar to avoid conflicts and overlaping sessions. Please also keep all email conversations about scheduling and technical issues CC'd to to keep all Penn State node ops informed.
Node operators should arrive at least 15-30 minutes before a session is scheduled to start testing audio and network functionality, and possibly implement fixes. Install VNC software and configure networking on laptops if required.
Obtain a copy of all slides and other presentation files before the meeting, either downloaded off of the meeting's website or from your presenters directly on CD-ROM or USB floppy. Please keep files for each session in a separate directory under 'My Documents' on ag-display.
Before important meetings or a series of meetings, all participating sites should schedule a test cruise. A test cruise is an Access Grid session for node operators only, to iron out technical details, to test audio, video, vnc and other presentation graphics. Try to schedule these sessions a week before the event in order to give adequate time for problem resolution.
Watch your timezones! Schedule meetings when all sites have work hours. When quoting times, make sure to include AM/PM and timezone.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl
Penn State is currently EDT, UTC/GMT -4:00
Computer workstations and rack mounted equipment should remain powered on and logged in. Power on workstations, audio equipment, and then the speakers and projectors as needed.
Log into each of the Access Grid workstations: ag-display, ag-audio, & ag-video as the 'ag' user. These are computers 1, 2, & 3 on the KVM switch respectively.
On ag-audio & ag-video, run the desktop shortcut "Access Grid Service Manager", which executes 'AGServiceManager.py'. On ag-display, run the desktop shortcut "Access Grid Service Manager and Node Services", which executes 'AGServiceManager.py --nodeService'. All the service manager apps should display a url after a few moments. Run the "Access Grid Venue Client" desktop shortcut on ag-display last, which executes 'VenueClient.py'. A gui will open where you can select your virtual venue from the 'My Venue' pull-down menu.
You should now be logged into your selected virtual venue. Video windows will begin to open and tile on the projection display.
Text chat is your friend! This is where node operators coordinate meetings and take care of setup and problem resolution. There is a chat panel in the Venue Client, but Jabber is the main method of backchannel chat at the momment.
By navigating the Virtual Venues exits, all programs will automatically start and stop via the Service Managers on the three computers workstations, configured for the new venue/virtual-room.
If other video sources are not visible, particularly in the lobbies, multicast may be down and bridging should be enabled.
There are two wall-mounted cameras, one tripod mounted hand-cam or one desktop document camera. Video is capture on ag-video via the VIC applications launched from ag-video's service manager.
One monitor and three ceiling mounted projectors display the four-headed Windows desktop of ag-display. Video is displayed on ag-display with VIC launched via ag-display's service manager.
Projectors are powered on with their remote. Turn the switch on the side of the remote to on, hold in the power button and angle the remote to point at the top of each projector.
The two wall-mounted cameras at the front of the room can be controlled by using their remote. Select the number button of the camera to control on the remote and then power each camera on. Pan, tilt, zoom and occasionally backlight are the only options to worry about. Adjust room lighting to best effect.
If the AG session has a large number of participating sites, say over five, it is recommend to only sending one video stream. Stop all but one video source with the Venue Client menu "Preferences --> Manage My Node...". Click once on ag-video under "ServiceManagers" then right click the desired video service and disable.
During a session, arrange video windows of presenters and speakers near the wall mounted video camera and resize by hitting the 's/m/l' keys for small/medium/large size. This creates pseudo eye contact within the meeting.
There are two monitor speakers to either side of the room. There are
three desktop mics, and two wireless mics. Most meetings only require
the desktop ambient mics. Audio is capture on ag-audio via the RAT
application launched from ag-audio's service manager.
By default, the audio is configured for listen only. Enable microphone recording by selecting the "talk" button in RAT on ag-audio. When your node is an audience member during a lecture-like session, keep "talk" turned off until questions-and-answer time to minimize audio noise, and mute potentially embarasing comments and off-topic conversation. Let people at your node know when they are transmitting and "on the air".
Do not adjust volumes with the RAT gui sliders. There is a bug with RAT & ALSA. You may adjust volumes with the 'ALSA Mixer' instead. To reset the mixer to a known-good state run the command '/usr/sbin/alsactl restore' on ag-audio.
Test audio with a local loopback before connecting to a meeting by using a packet reflector. Run the following commands:
ag-video:~$ reflector 10000 &
ag-audio:~$ cd ~ag/.AccessGrid/local_services/AudioService ; ./rat -allow_loopback ag-video/10000
You will then hear what your audio actually sounds like over the network with a slight delay. When done testing, close the loopback rat and reflector.
If you encounter audio problems such as local echo, check the audio
mixer settings on ag-audio. Open the desktop icon "ALSA Mixer".
Record from "Line" should be selected. Turn "AC97" and the "Line"
level all the way down to prevent a feedback loop on the soundcard.
The "Capture" and "AC97 Cap" adjust the record level.
The rack mounted Gentner unit is the heart of the audio system. The Gentner AP400 does echo cancelation, mixes and adjusts audio levels, and drives the microphones and speakers.
You shouldn't have to adjust anything on the Gentner during normal operation. If audio isn't perfect the second you join a meeting, give it a few minutes, as the Gentner automatically adjusts. The AP-Ware program is used to config Gentner settings. Within AP-Ware go to File -> Open Site -> PSU AG NODE.APD, and then select Connect -> Connect -> Unit(s).
Background noise can be compensated for by raising the Manual Ambient (dB) setting under Gate Parameters. If you have alot of background noise, or the gate is too high, your presenting speakers audio will get clipped and jump all over the place. The solution for a lot of background noise is a localized hand-held/lapel mic, or simply eliminate the noise. Also make sure that silence suppression is turned off in RAT.
Click the Matrix button to show audio gating and echo cancelation. All microphones are automaically gated with transmision to net. Receive from net and a ghost output are crosspoints for echo cancellation. The Ghost Output is an output that does not go anywhere with its gain boosted to eliminate all echo.
Microphones can be controlled by clicking on Inputs 1-4.
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RealVNC provides a client and server for shared desktops. Almost anything on a computer desktop can be shared interactively to multiple clients in a meetings. The VNC server is ran on the presenter's machine, which would be personal laptops ag-laptop[1-4]. VNC viewer is ran on other client machines, where the presenter's desktop will appear in a window. Shared mouse and keyboard can be enabled for interactive viewers, or disbled for a view-only mode.
To connect to a VNC session as a viewer, run "VNC viewer" and then enter the server's network address provided for the meeting. Make sure to select the "shared" option to avoid disconectiong other users, then click "OK".
Participant laptops will most likely be used as a VNC server. Node operators must configure networking on the presenter's laptop, and install the latest stable version of VNC. Once configured, what the presenter sees on their desktop will be visible to all connected clients. It is recommended that the desktop be resized to 1024x768.
Laptop ports are located at the end of the front table. Participant laptops may be configured with the following addresses:
common settings for ag-laptop[1-4]:
Windows XP laptops can configure multiple network locations.
To share the desktop, start "VNC server". Right-click on the tray icon for VNC to select "Properties", then set a password and "Disable Remote Keyboard & Pointer". Tell other participants the address to conect to, selecting the "shared" option, and provide them with the password.
It is a good idea to open a local VNC viewer and place it on the projection display of ag-display for the local audience for feedback, to ensure everyone is seeing what is expected.
Bridging is a fall-back solution and only needed if multicast networking is down or behaving poorly. Symptoms of poor multicast are: broken audio that sounds like blips and other digital noise, jerky pixelated video, no video/audio from some or all participants. If a bridge is enabled, you will be able to select "Preferences --> Use Unicast" from the Venue Client gui.
Log into percolator via putty ssh and execute the following command, leaving the terminal open:
ag@percolator:~$ BridgeServer.py -c /home/ag/bridge.conf
bridge.conf:
[BridgeServer] id = PennStateCB name = Penn State Computer Building location = University Park, PA, USA qbexec = /usr/bin/QuickBridge # Penn State virtual venue on Institutional Venue Server [https://ivs.mcs.anl.gov:9000/Venues/00000100b40804b6008c00dd000a005ac3a] type = Venue portMin = 30000 portMax = 30010
If the venue server is down, or you have only been provided with IP addresses for the meeting, you may manually connect to the meeting by editing and running a scripts on each machine.
bridge-display.bat:
@echo off echo Connecting to Access Grid venue: Penn State "C:\Program Files\AGTk-2.3\NodeServices\VideoConsumerService\vic" -C "Penn State" 233.2.171.148/59570 rem echo Connecting to Access Grid venue: Big Horn rem "C:\Program Files\AGTk-2.2\NodeServices\VideoConsumerService\vic" -C "Big Horn" 224.2.134.109/60672
bridge-audio.sh:
echo "Connecting to Access Grid venue: Penn State" cd /home/ag/.AccessGrid/local_services/AudioService ./rat -t 127 224.2.236.8/53380 #echo "Connecting to Access Grid venue: Big Horn" #rat 224.2.214.49/24474
bridge-video.sh:
echo "Conecting to Access Grid venue: Penn State" cd /home/ag/.AccessGrid/local_services/VideoProducerService ./vic 224.2.241.20/52032 -t 127 -B 2048 #echo "Conecting to Access Grid venue: Big Horn" #vic 224.2.134.109/60672
Before leaving, make sure to close the Venue Client, power off the projectors, cameras, wireless mics and speakers. Turn off lights and lock all doors. You do not have to log out of the workstations, as you will just have to log back in again next time.
Please send any questions or problem reports to .