[AG-TECH] Idea: AG Remote Control Device

[Allan Spale]

I was in a thinking mood this morning, and I thought about why a node-op
is needed for AG sessions.  Now, I know that the eventual goal is to
lessen/eliminate the role of the node-op or at least put the node-op into
more of a maintainence / on-call role.  So, I thought, how can people just
use the AG assuming that everything is configured properly?

I thought that the AG needs a universal remote control (almost like what
the Polycom devices have).  This could be implented on a PDA.  It would
allow users to call up different remote control panels on this PDA that
would allow users to change positions of windows on the plasma display on
vic, adjust cameras, adjust vic video settings for each camera, adjust
gain on rat, start powerpoint, etc.  The important thing would be to
abstract the technical details and just allow people to adjust user
relevant settings.  If technical details needed to be changed, then the
node-op or some knowledgeable person could go and make the changes on the
respective machines.  Maybe having some way to do backchannel chat on the
PDA would be useful too.

This is just a thought; maybe it will be useful.


Allan
EVL / UIC  node-op