CSCW & SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Transcription

1 University Duisburg-Essen Faculty of Engineering - Computer Engineering - Dr.-Ing. Stefan Werner Pascal A. Klein, M.Sc LAB CSCW & SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT 3 Videoconferencing Studio Name: First Name: Matriculation Number: Group Number: Supervisor: Antestat: Date: Trial: As preparation to this experiment: Study the research paper given as appendix to this manual Study this manual All questions in section 4 (marked with ) are to be answered as preparation for the experiment. Please write the solutions into the designated fields as far as given and bring them to the practical. During the experiment: Answer all questions in the Hands on section After the experiment: Extend your produced report from Experiment 1 with the new results

2 1. Introduction Conference systems cover a wide range of interaction between team members. That can range from computer conferences to video and desktop conferences. There are four types of conferences: Non real-time computer conferencing: Asynchronous Conferencing, e.g. via , of the group members from their desktop PC. Real-time computer conferencing: Synchronous computer conferencing without direct audio- or video connection. Primarily limited to data exchange and processing of electronic data. Desktop conferencing: Combines by using the desktop PC and multimedia network the properties of realtime desktop conferencing and tele conferencing. The videos are integrated on one screen. Teleconferencing: Supports the interaction of a group by telecommunication (audio- and/or video connection). Between the conference rooms, an audio- and potentially a video connection exist. The shared processing of electronic media is not possible. In the following we will focus on video conferencing. Video conferencing is a CSCW application type which supports explicit, synchronous, distributed communication between group members. In principle there are three categories of video conferences: o video conferences held in special meeting rooms o video conferences supported by picture telephones o computer-supported video conferences between offices and respectively desktop computers - so called desktop conferences. Within this experiment we will focus on video conferences held in special meeting rooms aiming at the provision of approximately the same high quality for personal interaction with geographically dispersed people as found in face-to-face meetings. Aspects that have to put into account are o telepresence o protection of privacy o eye-to-eye contact o subconversations o positioning of cameras o size of video images Apart from this, conference management is an important aspect. A conference can be initiated either explicitly by invitation or announcement from the initiating person, or else by establishing a permanent communication channel. The above mentioned aspects shall be examined during this experiment

3 2. General description of the videoconferencing rooms at the University Duisburg-Essen The Videoconferencing Rooms At the Universität Duisburg-Essen Campus Duisburg the rooms BK 009 and LB 237 were equiped as videoconferencing studios. The provided equipment supports several scenarios of use: Conferences intended as meeting or hearing Lectures with a lecturer and locally distributed students. Seminar or colloquia with a refferent and audience at different locations The connection of one studio with an external partner (even if this is within the University) is called a Point-to-Point-connection. In this case, besides an ISDNtransmission, a transmission via internet is possible with up to a data rate of 768 kbps. The quality of the ISDN-connection is relying in principle on the available numbers of lines (S0-interfaces) of the external partners. Each S0-interface provides a data rate of 128 kbps. The system installed at Duisburg provides up to 4 of these S0-interfaces. figure 1 Both of the video-conferencing rooms presented here, enable to connect with up to three external partners with the so-called Multipoint-connection. At this, for the quality of the Point-to-Point-connection, the principles given prior, rule with the addition that all external partners have to be connected with the same data rate. The following figure shows the possible schemata of a connection between the video conferencing studios with the corresponding data rate for three and four distributed sites. As media, ISDN-lines are used

4 figure 2 figure 3 With the example of the room BK 009 the fields of operation for the lecturer as well as the possibilities of the communication for the audience are explained. At the videoconferencing studio BK 009, a dual monitor display is used. The next figure shows the schematic of this display mode: figure 4 The tools supporting the lecturer shall be presented in the following. Here, the view is differenciated towards lecturer and audience

5 Camera2 Mikrophone Camera Control monitor 2 Control monitor 1 Control monitor 1 Control monitor 2 Touchpanel Remote Control Mikrophone figure 5: Room BK 009 from lecturers view figure 6: Room LB 237 from lecturers view The parts of the videoconferencing studio focussing the lecturer are: Microphone to transmit audio to the connected locations. Control monitor 1 to control the video by the lecturer, which is transmitted to the remote locations. Control monitor 2 is used to display the local video of the lecturer. Touch panel for the mobile control of the connected devices. Camera 2 is the camera, which is taking the picture of the lecturer. The video recorded here is transmitted to the connected remote sites and, as written before, shown on control monitor 2. Beamer Top-Microphone Camera Control monitors figure 7: Room BK 009 from the view of the audience The parts faced towards the audience of the videoconferencing studios are: (Top-)Microphone for transmitting the comments of the audience to the connected locations. Beamer to present the referee at the other location or to present the conference partners at the other location. Camera to transmit the picture of the audience to the referee or audience at the connected locations

6 2.2. Connecting a videoconference To establish a video conference connection between the two used locations, the touch panel/remote control located at the front desk will be used. In the beginning the system will be initialized by the tutor, thus no setup of the hardware is further required Connecting at LB 237 The video conference facility in LB building (LB 237) is LifeSize Video System consists of a camera, a remote and a microphone, as parts to be used in a video conference call. The video during the call is displayed on Sony HD screen. figure 8: LifeSize Video Conference Main Screen The camera can be rotated and adjusted according to your requirements using the remote. The microphone has a button in the middle. When the microphone is switched OFF, the light is red in color. When turned ON, the light turns blue to show that the microphone is active and other conference participants can hear you. The microphone needs to be switched ON for every received video conference call. The remote has all the functionalities required to place and end the call. It can also assist with all the necessary features that may be needed during the video conference. It is shown in the figure below: figure 9: LifeSize Remote Control - 5 -

7 To see the main menu: Press Home button. To place a call: To dial a number manually, select the video call option on the main menu screen. The main menu screen can be seen using the home button. Press the OK button. Enter the phone number or IP address. Press the call button. To access a number from the Redial list, select the number to call using the arrow keys and press OK. To select and dial a number from the address book, press the button to view the address book. Select the desired number using arrow keys and then press OK. To answer a call: Press the OK button. To end a call: Press the Hang up button. During the call: During the call, you can adjust and pan the camera on your side (near side) and on the remote side (far side), to whom you are calling. To select a camera for adjustment, press the button to select from near or far camera. For near side, symbol will appear on your video on the display in red color and for far side this symbol will be blue in color. Then select the near far button to see all the possible list of cameras on the selected side. Select a camera from the list. Then you can zoom the view using the zoom buttons and and pan the view using arrow keys. The arrow keys will rotate the camera right, left, up or down. The key shows layout options for display on Sony HD screen. So you can switch the HD display either to your video, or the video transmission from the far side or video of the both sides on the screen with split-screen display. Similarly volume and mute buttons are also there on the remote. For further ease of use, the mute button is also present on the microphone. is the back button of the remote Connecting at BK 009 To start, the touchpannel has to be activated by tipping softly on the surface. After touching the field start, a type of connection has to be selected first of all. Two options are given: Vorlesung, which means lecture and Videokonferenz, which means video conference For the purpose of this lab, only the option Videokonferenz will be used and regarded in the further explanations. After choosing the type of connection, the sources for the local displays have to be selected. Hence, now touch the field Quellenwahl Projektor 1. The display will alter to the assignment of sources for the displays. Select the button 1 for Hauptmonitor and 2 for Monitor 2. (Touch them even if they are preselected!). Now the display of control monitor 1 should view the interface of the video conferencing software and the local video should be displayed on one of the beamers (at BK). Use the field zurück zum Hauptmenü to leave this option and return to the main menu

8 figure 10: video conferencing main interface Having prepared the local video sources, the connection will be established in the next step. From the main menu (Hauptmenü) select Steuerung Videokonferenz to open the connection management window. Select Ruf/Auflegen from the upper left of the menu to initialize the connection interface. Enter now the IP-Address of the opposite partner, which should be contacted. To enter the IP, touch the field Tastatur Zahleneingabe and enter the address. to insert a dot., touch the field, to delete a digit or dot, touch the field, to finish, press the circle in the middle On the Control Monitor 2 you can view your entries. Moving with the up and down arrows, other fields can be selected on the output of Control Monitor 2. The current selection is highlighted by a yellow frame. Besides IP, the data rate is an important field in this menu. Select the field Datenrate and choose one of the offered connection speeds. The conferencing system is configured to automatically accept incomming calls, thus the other location does not have to undertake additional steps. Before finally running the conference, the source displayed by the beamer needs to be changed a last time to the remote location. Select the field Steuerung Videokonferenzen from the main menu hauptmenü. Select the entry Nah to alter the local display of Eingang 2. Select the source by touching the left or right arrow for the remote source and confim by touching. To close a connection, select again Ruf/auflegen from the main menu and confirm the question, if the connection shall be saved, by selecting nein.? - 7 -

9 3. Technical Specifications Point-to-Point-Connections ISDN / Ethernet/Internet/Intranet - 128, 256, 384, 512kbps (by ISDN) - up to 768kbps (Ethernet/Internet/Intranet) Multipoint-Connections ISDN - Connections with 2 external partners each with 256kbps or 128kbps, if one of the partners has only one S0-Interface avialable. - Connection with 3 external partners with each 128kbps Further specifications: - Speechcontrolled camera - Single- or dual monitor mode - interfacial microphone with a 360 sphere - Connector for a second camera (S-VHS) and a VCR or Visualizer (S-VHS) Technical Standards - Videostandard H.261 / H.263, H.320 / H Audiostandard G.728 / G.722 / G Multimedia Standard T.120 for Application Sharing in Point-to-Point- Conferencing - 8 -

10 4. Preparation For preparation of this experiment, the following tasks have to be done at home in advance for a successful participation in the lab: 4.1. Literature Work Read the paper given in the appendix and discuss it with your team members What are the differences between video conferencing and usual faceto-face meetings? Search the Internet and create a list During the Experiment you shall discuss with another group via videoconferencing the pros and cons of the usage of videoconferencing technology in software engineering. Prepare answers and pros & cons with regards to the following questions/aspects a.) Which project phases seem to be well suited for conducting a video conference? b.) How should the teams be structured to guarantee an efficient discussion via video conferencing? c.) What are the advantages of using video conferencing technology instead of face-to-face meetings? d.) What are the drawbacks of using video conferencing technology instead of face-to-face meetings? The prepared material should be taken to the experiment in printed and electronic format on USB. As further preparation, the functional aspects of the conferncing studios shall be focussed. Answer the following questions upon the documentation of the video conferencing studios as given in chapters 1, 2 and also in additional literature from Internet or library

11 4.2. Conference-management For the setup of a video conference, several organisational steps need to be done. These steps need to be done a priori to the conference connection are focussed in the next questions The participants of a conference need to be invited by the conference initiator. How will this be done for the experiment? Differentiate if the conference is a long term planed or adhoc conference Further, a permanent connection has to be established. Which social protocol is used in this experiment to establish the individual contact? How can a participant of the conference signalise the mode of interaction and how can it be announced to the others? Refer your answer explicitly to the environment given for this experiment Think about the group composition for conducting a video conference. Which workflow is suitable for an efficient discussion via video conference? Should there be any rules or discussion structure?

12 4.3. Functions and Parts of the Videoconferencing Studios List the components, which are the minimum requirement to run a video conference. Give a short explanation on their function Describe the connection for a conference with lecturer and students at different locations. How does the connection be set up (according to equipment and displays) if the rooms LB 237 and BK 009 are used?

13 5. Hands-On 5.1. Introduction Connect - supported by your tutor the two rooms. Use initially a connection with the highest data rate (768 kbps) Document the required steps you undertook to establish the connection After establishing the connection, each member is asked to present himself/herself to the other group at the remote location Discussion in a virtual conference To fulfil the overall goal, the testing and documentation of the groupware technology, it is crucial to understand and to document the processes and functions during the video conference. Create if not done so far a video conferencing connection with the highest datarate. Discuss with the participants at the remote site the following questions and write down your findings. For every of the following subtasks determine a new discussion leader who will guide the conference and note the outcomes and remarks of your discussion. The focus should not be on the actual result, but on the dynamics of the discussion (How did you come to a solution?)

14 5.2.1 Each group shall present the prepared list which they produced according to the preparation in Discuss the prepared list according to the following topics: - similarities - most interesting aspects - critical aspects - aspects for further research - etc. Discuss the following points independently from the tutor (You may agree on a moderator) The group in BK building shall present their answer to preparation question a.) which project phases in software engineering - seem to be well suited for a conduction via video conferencing? Discuss the answers and make notes The group in LB building shall present their answer to preparation question b.): How shall the software engineering teams be structured to guarantee an efficient discussion via video conferencing?? Discuss the answers and make notes The group in BK building shall present their answer to preparation question c.) what are the advantages of using video conferencing technology instead of face-to-face meetings? Discuss the answers and make notes The group in LB building shall present their answer to preparation question d.) what are the drawbacks of using video conferencing technology instead of face-to-face meetings? Discuss the answers and make notes Which fields of CSCW are covered by the used video conferencing infrastructure? Document management Yes/no Explanatory statement

15 WYSIWIS Telepointer Floor-Control History Awareness Support by Tutor

16 6. After the Lab Writing the report After accomplishing Lab 3, in order to present your results, experiences and basic aspects to your company, the report you ve written in lab 1 and lab 2, should be extended by a new chapter about video conferencing systems. Put together all results and experiences into a chapter, which could be used as a recommendation for the possibilities, the group supporting aspects, the future use of video conferencing and the preferred group structure to accomplish the task of the creation of a groupware. The new chapter should have 4 sections: Section 1 shall give a basic overview about video conferencing in comparison to face-to-face meetings. Section 2 briefly describes the infrastructure in LB and BK and focuses on the possibilities. In Section 3 you shall highlight on your experiences. Discuss especially aspects like floor control and turn taking, verbal/non-verbal communications and eye-contact, quality of connection, delay and video size, awareness, protection of privacy and camera positions, etc. How did your behaviour change during the conference? What worked out well, what didn t? How could it be enhanced? Section 4 shall conclude with your main results with special focus on software engineering as field of application. Point out limitations of the technology and propose ideas to enhance the environment. (min. 800 words) For this, you can also use the results from the section 4.1, 4.2 and 5.2 Bring this Report and all other created materials from last experiments to the next laboratory experiment

17 7. Appendix