[AG-TECH] Thoughts on an initial experience of the access grid

[Chris Greenhalgh]

Here are a few thoughts on first use of the AG (drawing on previous use of
VR teleconferencing) - hope they are helpful; not novel I suspect...

* VIC windows would benefit from a visual indication of associated audio
stream activity (like you get from looking at the main RAT window).

* They might also benefit from auto resizing to give bigger views of current
speakers (a common admin activity at the site I was at, but more problematic
in terms of 'getting it wrong' and/or distracting), especially if they can
also shuffle up to make room...

* the banner on (one of EVLs) VIC streams was nice - better than the window
captions

* the window captions/titles were not apparent used consistently or to give
as much/accurate information as they might.

* there was a moderate amount of off-camera activity/input which is
disconcerting. Video view framing was generally a bit hit and miss.

* VIC windows would benefit from an explicit order (i) within a site (so
that when people walk off one side of one camera they walk straight onto the
next one - as seen on each viewers layout of windows) and (ii) between all
sites (so that everyone can agree who is 'next'), e.g. see the hydra
multi-party desktop video conferencing system, which maintains a 1D ordering
of all sites/cameras.

* hand layout is labor-intensive and error prone, and requires continuous
attendance (to cope with new arrivals, and enlarging reducing current
presenters/contributors).

* room lighting was pretty variable, e.g. use of collimated downlights tends
to cast people's faces in eerie shadows! A bit more front fill light might
help in some places (trade off with eye strain/harder to view screen - i.e.
who's benefit is most important...)

* dppt would benefit from automated selection of files (and downloading if
appropriate)

* dppt would also benefit from a tele-pointer to let people indicate
features within a slide.

* Other shared tools could enhance the large-group interaction, e.g.
vote/tally, signal/attract attention, queue for recognition/'floor',
especially as many people were reluctant to use the audio channel in open
situations (e.g. 'any questions?' 'is that ok?' - justifiably as there tend
to be a lot of collisions and the latency makes recovery hard(er)).

* would benefit from shared (visual?) indications that (i) site outgoing
audio is live or muted (so you know when/how to speak, what is private) (ii)
a remote sites audio is live or muted (so you know when it is broken and
when they are ignoring you)

* might benefit from on-screen indication of network/beacon connectivity and
loss rate for local confidence management.

* would benefit from dynamic sub-group formation for smaller conversations
(needing a way to ask for this and to represent to all parties including
excluded bystanders!)

* there was a nice example of a site in trouble (without their usual admin)
able to get partly into the session, but with help channels limited to audio
when one might have liked screen sharing, etc.

Cheers,
Chris Greenhalgh
University of Nottingham