[AG-TECH] Conference XP vs AG

Derek Piper dcpiper at indiana.edu
Wed Aug 31 10:00:48 CDT 2005


	Hi Chris,

	The only reason as far as I know for having multiple machines control 
services like audio and video is performance, namely bandwidth of PCI 
bus etc. and number of PCI slots for the different devices. Also, since 
some nodes (like ours) have multiple large displays there's the CPU 
performance to consider of having one machine handle everything. With 
faster processors I guess it's less of a consideration than it was. I've 
installed some more recent nodes with just one Windows machine since 
that's all that was needed but larger nodes sometimes have more than one 
machine. Anyone else care to comment about that?
	I was wondering too about what ConferenceXP is like with many 
participants? How many is it designed to handle? I was unable to find a 
venue similar to the NCSA lobby which has probably on average at any one 
time has at least 15 video streams from various people.
	I've been unable to test by using different machines too since it seems 
you can't change the 'identity' you're given and since I have to use the 
same network login, I guess it comes up as the same. So that makes it 
difficult to evaluate.
	My apologies if discussion of this doesn't belong on this list. Is 
there a mailing list for ConferenceXP, Chris?

	Derek

Chris Moffatt wrote:
> Hi Derek,
> 
> I am the program manager for ConferenceXP at Microsoft Research.
> 
> Unfortunately the interop story remains the same, and we don't have any
> bridging capability at the moment.
> 
> Regarding audio/video - you are correct that you can't logically tie a/v
> devices across multiple machines, and I'd like to better understand the
> scenario that this serves? We can however support multiple cameras per
> computer.
> 
> You comments regarding venue service configuration are valid and I will
> add this to our wish list for the next release.
> 
> I would certainly be interested in participating in some testing with
> anyone who is keen. I think Bob Riddle would be as well - right Bob :-)
> 
> Regards
> Chris
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On
> Behalf Of Derek Piper
> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 8:49 AM
> To: Douglas Kosovic
> Cc: Wan Sin NG; ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Conference XP vs AG
> 
> 
> 	Is that still the story on interoperability? Those posts you
> linked to 
> are years old. Is there a VRVS style bridging thing somewhere?. Sorry to
> 
> resurect an old thread, I'm getting back into reading the list after 
> vacation.
> 	I've taken a look at Conference XP and it's very slick to
> operate, just 
> run it and go like Bob said. Also does shared applications, including a 
> 'screen streamer' too. The only thing slightly unweidly is the venue 
> stuff, you have to add a venue server to a list of entries and then 
> select it to go to it, as far as I can see there's not the 'url bar' 
> style that AccessGrid has, there are also many less venues, as far as I 
> can tell.
> 	Audio and Video seems limited to the client machine, i.e. you
> can't 
> have multiple machines running cameras and audio and tie them together 
> like AG does, and of course it's Windows only.
> 	Running a Venue server is simple enough, and like I mentioned
> you have 
> to add the url to a drop-down list and then select it to access that 
> server's venues.
> 	I'd enjoy doing some distance/conference tests if anyone else
> wants to 
> play with it too. It'd be interesting to see how it handles many 
> participants. If anyone wants to play with it, email me off-list and let
> 
> me know.
> 
> 	Derek
> 
> Douglas Kosovic wrote:
> 
>>Hi Wansin,
>>
>>
>>>Can ConferenceXP and AGTk interop?
>>
>>
>>See:
>>
> 
> http://www.conferencexp.net/community/messageboard/Thread.aspx?tabindex=
> 12&id=71 
> 
>>
> http://www.conferencexp.net/Community/messageboard/Thread.aspx?tabindex=
> 12&id=149 
> 
>>
>>
>>Doug
>>
>>
> 
> 

-- 
Derek Piper - dcpiper at indiana.edu - (812) 856 0111
IRI 323, School of Informatics
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana




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