Transcript CERN_Collaboration_Toolsx

Thomas Baron
User Communities and Needs
 Audioconference
 Videoconference
 Webcast
 AV Recording
 Chat
 Indico
 General Public Information

2300 staff people in 10 departments
 >10000 users
 2 sites CH/F

 257 physical meeting rooms!

Typically in a collaboration ~70-100
(official) meetings per day
“Collaboration is working together to
achieve a goal”
Wikipedia
Sharing Information
Debating
Analysing
Deciding
Voting
…
Physical meeting
E-communication
Remote meetings
…
Building (accelerators, experiments…)
Operating
Discovering (new physics etc.)
…

Remote collaboration
 Textual e-communication
○ Synchronous: chat etc.
○ Asynchronous: email, blogs, web etc.
○ Medium: IP
 Audio
○ Telephone; point2point, multipoint (audioconferencing) (medium: copper wire)
○ VoIP (medium: IP)
 Audiovisual
○ Synchronous: videoconference, webcast
○ Asynchronous: video recordings
○ Medium: IP
Audioconference

Phone conferencing
 3-way directly from the traditional desktop
phone
 Via the PBX (29 participants max) through
the PSTN phone
 Via the CERN standard (for the
organisation), needs booking
 Via the Alcatel Audioconference system
Audioconference extended

Web conferencing: sharing data
 Chat
 webEx
Videoconference


A natural evolution
Visual as opposed to strictly audio
 Better presence feeling, clearer understanding (body
language…)


Usually on public IP networks
Efficient if
 Good quality (resolution, framerate etc.)
 Low latency ( < 250ms ); impact depends on the
interactivity
 On any network condition (jitter, packet loss, net
latency)
 Excellent audio required (echo cancellation, lip
sync…)
Videoconference




Cost saver (travel, hotel, food…)
Time saver (travel…)
Fast and efficient
Green! (reduces CO2 emissions)

Example: one person from Chicago
needing to travel 5 times per year to
Geneva:
 10000kg CO2
 93 hrs productive time lost
 2500 EUR
Videoconference: Rooms
Since about 10 years
 Currently 60 equipped rooms… and
growing!
 Industry-standard equipment: H323/SIP
compatible

Videoconference: Rooms

Various sizes and configurations
 From 6 people (small meeting rooms) to 100 + people
(amphitheatres)

Homogeneity of interfaces
 Tandberg/Cisco equipment


System reliability
Remote Administration/Support
 Centralized H.323 endpoints manager: TMS
(Tandberg Management Suite)
○ Usage statistics
○ Diagnostics and Alarms
○ Software update
Videoconference: H323

H.323-based Videoconference
 Industry Standard
 Point to point (direct connection from one endpoint to the other)
 MCU (multipoint control units) – expensive hardware units on
which the H.323 endpoints can connect for meetings with more
than 2 sites
○ Embedded small MCUs in VC codecs (<5 sites)
○ MCU services
 EsNet in the USA
 RMS in France
 DFN in Germany
 CERN recently purchased a Tandberg MSE8000 MCU
 Additional Features
○ Data sharing (H.239)
 Scale:
○ Limited by the number of ports (usual average of 10 to 20 sites
per meeting)
Videoconference: H323

Routing
point to point
Videoconference: H323

Routing
Embedded MCU
Limitations:
-Scale
-Quality
-Compatibility
-Latency
Videoconference: H323

Routing
MCU
Limitations:
- Scale
- Latency: transcoding,
Multiplexing, rate matching
- Topology: single point of
Failure; cascading is difficult
Videoconference: H323

“Telepresence”
Videoconference: H323

Pros:
 High quality
 High reliability
 High compatibility

Cons:
 Latency
 Topology
 Room-based mostly!
Videoconference: EVO
Videoconference: EVO

Desktop videoconference
 Java based: multiplatform (win, mac, linux)


Compatible with the H323 world (gateways)
Created by Caltech in the 90s based on CERN
needs
 Now 90% of all LHC VC sessions
 ~ 40 meetings per day

Scale
 Hundreds of people connected (peak 800) overall
 Peak of >350 people connected to the same
meeting!
Videoconference: EVO

Integrated features:
 Chat
 Presence
 Recording

http://evo.caltech.edu
Videoconference: EVO
Shared files
Desktop
sharing
Recording
Participants
Buddy list
Chat
Whiteboard
Video
window
Videoconference: EVO
Videoconference: EVO

Flexible and extensible routing/topology
 Inherited from the research computing grids
 Transparent server failure recovery

MonALISA Evo client
Test !
Videoconference: Vidyo
Desktop VC
 Ongoing pilot

 Potential future alternative for CERN

Globally same routing strategy than
EVO but introduces an interesting tech
change: H.264 SVC (scalable video
coding)
 Better resilience to network problems
 Latency reduced to the minimum (no
transcoding!)
Videoconference: Vidyo

Demo
Videoconference: Vidyo

Supports
 H323 devices
 Phones
 PCs (mac, win, linux)
 Mobile devices (Android, iOS)
Test!
Videoconference: Future

“Cloud”-based services
Videoconference: Use Cases

Remote Operation Centers
Videoconference: Use Cases

Distance Learning
Videoconference: Use Cases

Masterclasses
Videoconference: Use Cases

ATLAS Virtual Visits
Videoconference: Use Cases

Collaboration Meetings
Videoconference: Use Cases

Mobility
 Stay connected everywhere with mobile
devices (wifi, 3G)
 Airport, planes, trains!

Recruitment interviews
Webcast

Powerful and cost effective alternative to
VC for large audiences and one-way
addresses.
Webcast

Typical audiences (simultaneous
connections):
 Around 50 people for seminars
 100 for collaboration meetings
Using CERN servers
 1500 for AMS live launch
 15000 for LHC startup in 2008 (several
hundred thousands unique Ips)
Using streaming
companies
Webcast: Infrastructure

4 Flash Media Servers
 1 “origin” (master); 3 “edges” (slaves), load-balanced

12 encoder PCs (= rooms equipped)
LAN
WAN
Edge #1
encoder
Clients
origin
Edge #2
Edge #3
Webcast: Acquisition
Needs same inputs as VC: Reuse!
 VGA + Camera

Audio + video
Osprey 240e audio/video
acquisition
VC Device
VGA
Presenter PC
Epiphan DVI2USB
Webcast: Acquisition
Encoding (live+recording): Flash Media
Live Encoder
 Added home made web layer for
operation

Webcast: Monitoring
Flash Administration Console
 Live statistics

Webcast: Use Cases

LHC First Beam:
 Date: 10th September 2008
 Duration: 9.5 hours
 Audience:
○ ~2-500.000 webcast
○ 2488 TV news reports
 Servers: initially CERN then
GroovyGecko (partner)
 Location: CERN Control
Center
 Communication: Satellite uplink (Eurovision/EBU) +
videoconference (experiments CRs)
 View
Webcast: Use Cases

LHC First Physics:
 Date: 30th March 2010
 Duration: 6.5 hours
 Audience:
○ ~700.000 webcast
○ ~800 TV news reports
 Servers: GroovyGecko
(partner)
 Location: CERN Control
Center + experiments Control
rooms
 Communication: Satellite uplink (Eurovision/EBU) + fiber
(experiments CRs)
 View
Webcast: Use Cases

AMS Launch :





Date: 16th May 2011
Duration: 1 hour
Audience: 1500/3300
Servers: CERN
Location: CERN A/V Studio and Kennedy Space
Center
 Communication: Satellite downlink+uplink
(Eurovision/EBU)
 View
Webcast: Use Cases

ATLAS Live
 6 permanent TV channels
○ Internal information
○ Outreach
 Servers: CERN
 Format: web + Android + iPhone
Web Lectures
Video on demand
 Live webcast recordings
 Publishing system developed in
collaboration with the U. of Michigan
 https://micala.cern.ch
 Lectures published on CDS
 New player under development
 Project with iTunesU

Web Lectures

Processes:
 Recording 2 videos full frame
○ Camera
○ Slides
 Automated change detection on Slides
 Manual slides check
 Creation of XML file
 Transcoding to web formats
 Publishing on CDS
Chat
New service for CERN
 Synchronous text-based interactions
with presence information
 Based on jabber (XMPP compliant) and
Jappix (web client)

Indico: What is it?
Integrated Digital Conference
 Data repository:

 Long term archival of events related material
(slides, minutes etc…)
Event organisation web app
 Live event support tool
 Hub for CERN collaboration services

Indico: History

Started as an European Project (2002):
 First time used in 2004
In production at CERN:
http://indico.cern.ch
 And in > 90 institutions around the
world:

 GSI, DESY, Fermilab,…

• Free and Open Source
Indico: History

Stats:
 140k events
 620k talks
 800k files
 ~10.000 visitors per day
Indico: Features
Indico: Conference Management

Supports the whole event lifecycle









1. Fully customizable web portal
2. Programme definition
3. Call for abstract and reviewing
4. Registration, e-payment, badge creation
5. Agenda creation
6. Submission of slides and papers
7. Paper reviewing
8. Evaluation survey
Ex.: OAI7, iCHEP 2010
Indico: Simple Events
Timetable, material storage and …
 Collaboration Services bookings
 Ex.: ISEF2011 students at CERN!

Indico: Room Booking
General Public Information
General Public Information
Network of connected information
screens (LCD screen + PC)
 One central server
 Implemented using the Scala solution
 Central management web interface

GPI: Use Cases
Conference Rooms attached screens
 4 Panels outside Rooms B, C, D, E

 Display the next 4 events in each meeting
room
Ground
Floor
First
Floor
GPI: Use Cases
General Meeting announcement
 2 Global Directions Panels

 Display events of the day in rooms A, B, C,
D, E and F
Ground
Floor
First
Floor
GPI: Use Cases

CERN Club Interactive information Point
Ground
Floor
First
Floor
GPI: Use Cases

General Information Screens