[AG-TECH] AG Hardware Specs

[Emilee J Patrick]

hi joshua

you wrote:

> We are currently looking into building an Access Grid node.
> Right now we are considering a small node audio configuration
> with a few modifications, but we have a few questions we'd like
> to ask before we start buying equipment.

the answers to your questions about how much "multimedia" equipment is
really necessary depend heavily on how you plan to use your node.

projectors, cameras, speakers and microphones support the audio and
visual channels of communication between people in remote locations,
and skimping on these may mean inadequate support for that
communication. you should first ask yourself (and others responsible
for building your node) what type of activities you want to support,
and how many people you expect to involve at any given time -- both
remotely and locally.

for example, i strongly urge you to use more than two microphones. you
will probably need at least two for "audience" members -- you will
certainly need a third for the operator. depending on how many
audience members there are, and the type of microphone you buy, you
may need more to get complete coverage of the area of the room where
you expect people to be.

people tend to have a hard time understanding where they need to be in
order for a mic to pick them up -- you'll probably notice audience
members leaning over into a mic to talk because there is no feedback
for where the edge of the mics range is. it is best just to get as
complete coverage as possible to support the interactions of your
users. until video size, resolution and compression (or processing
power) dramatically improve, audio will continue to be what people
rely on most to communicate with remote locations.

-em

Emilee Patrick, Senior Human Factors Engineer
User Centered Research, Motorola Labs
Rm. 2230, 1301 E. Algonquin Rd. Schaumburg, IL 60196
phone: 847.538.6886  fax: 847.576.3240