status of collaborative tools at cern

CERN - IT DepartmentCH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/it

Status of Collaborative Tools at CERN

13th June 2007Tim Smith

IT/UDS


Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/it ACCU - June 2007 - p2

Integration

• Goal: maximize the ease of use of all collaboration tools offered in the service

• Video and phone conference integration:– Avoid the duplication of the IO devices in the

room (microphones, loudspeakers)– Provide a coherent connection interface– Through the same hardware

• Video: standard IP H323 connections (ESNet, Hermes, VRVS, EVO)• Audio: SIP connection (IP) to CERN PABX (direct phone call, eDial

system)

– Mixed (bridging): possible if the room device has MCU (multipoint control) capabilities



Service Activities

• Meeting room equipment– Equipment testing (Polycom, Tandberg, Aethra)

• New features: HD; People on Content…– Standardization:

• Tandberg• Supports both video and phone conference with same system (SIP)• Offers both performing table and ceiling microphones

– Possibility to add electronic whiteboards (Smartboards for remote lecturing)

– Provide advice on room equipment, supervise installation– Provide advice on room furniture (carpeting, curtains, lighting)

• Online status display– http://it-multimedia.web.cern.ch/it-multimedia/Rooms/

http://it-multimedia.web.cern.ch/it-multimedia/Rooms/



Service Activities

• Recently refurbished

40-R-B10 (CMS)40-4-C01 (ATLAS)936-R-035 (AB)CCC glassbox (AB)513-1-024 (IT)3-R-002 (DSU)



Service Activities

• Meeting room equipment maintenance– Use of management tool for video-conference endpoints: TMS

• Monitoring and alarms (SMS, email, etc)• Management: Central push of SW updates• Reset the settings (nightly) using templates• Statistics of usage

– Use of software management tool for VC room PCs: CMF• Management: Central push of SW updates• With MOM package for PC status monitoring (adapted from CC)

– Monitoring and alarms (SMS, email, etc)– Projection devices

• Network connected (devices more expensive)• Bulb life-time and life-cycle



Service Activities

• User Support ([email protected])– On-call first line support; debug problems (service contract, 1 person), or

to help start meetings– 2nd line support (1 fellow, 1 PJAS)– Increasing number of rooms should lead to reinforcement of 1st line

• User Training– Developed to decrease the need for 1st line support and improve the user

experience• Room equipment tutorials: 3x ATLAS, 2x CMS• EVO tutorials to be timed for its lunch (1 each for ATLAS/CMS)

– Developing new supports:• Room printed guides• Online tutorials• Live tutorials

• Hiring a VC engineer



Event Management

• Indico: Meeting management Hub– CDS Agenda migration completed

• Integration of VC features ongoing– VRVS done (Aug 2006)– EVO soon– CRBS: Physical room booking done (May 2007)– HERMES and eDial booking soon

• World-wide installations– FNAL, IN2P3, ILC– Collaborative developments

• e.g. Time-zone awareness



New CRBS

• Booking process requires less actions• Easy access to:

– You bookings and pre-bookings– The rooms you manage

• A lot of parameters by which to find a room meeting your needs



VRVS/EVO Infrastructure• VRVS

– Manage 4 VRVS reflectors• 2 for internal CERN

• EVO migration June– Robustness, modern

interface, ease of use– Fully redundant

architecture; mirrored at CERN (DB, web server)

– Manage 2 Panda reflectors• Support and operation

provided by CERN/Caltech agreement– PJAS: World-wide

VRVS/EVO system operation

VRVS Meetings for HEP collaborations up to May 2007

collaboration

2004 2005 2006 2007

CMS 758 1676 1842 758

ATLAS 336 357 488 169

LHC 339 400 512 112

GLAST 216 364 357 177

D0 467 251 186 86

ALICE 46 129 180 129

CLEO 193 189 160

LHCb 105

PHOBOS 218 225 100 56



H.323 Infrastructure

• ESNet– Hardware change: All Codians MCUs (which our oldest

rooms setups are not able to use - ESNet or Hermes); Tandberg gatekeeper

– Outsourced support• HERMES (aka RMS)

– Operate MCU in collaboration with IN2P3, CNRS and INSERM (and INRA)

– Hosted by the ccIN2P3 in Lyon (72 ports)– http://cern.ch/it-multimedia/HERMES.htm – New videoconference recording device

http://cern.ch/it-multimedia/HERMES.htm



Audio Conferencing

• Alcatel PBX and eDial system (IT-CS)– Automatic audio conference system (24/7)– Fully redundant architecture– Integration with VC via SIP gateway– Scheduled and ad-hoc meetings

PABX 1

PABX 5

SIP Gateway

Automatic audioconference Server Backup

150 ports

PSTN

SIP Communication

WebConference

windows

audiocommunication

GeneralPurpose network

ExternalPhone

150 ports

PRA

PRA

Automatic audioconferenceServer main

Data replication

SIP Gateway

800 organizerlicences



Select/Recommend: DeskTop

• Desktop videoconference (under study)– Tests of audio devices, webcams in view of

standardization and distribution through the stores• To be added to CERN stores catalogue and advertise

– Tests of desktop videoconference applications (eg. Polycom PVX, Tandberg MOVI)

• Possible discussion for group licences• Web conferencing (WebEx, MS Office Live

Meeting…)



Service: Webcast & more

• Webcast– Study of the replacement/improvement of the

existing CERN webcasting infrastructure• Replace current HW with newer, redundant, more

performant HW• Review the choice of download format

• Issues– Obsolete rooms (and lack of available ones)– VRVS bad audio setups with no echo suppression– VRVS frequent overload (db server)– ESnet overload (all ports used)– ESnet gatekeeper instability– Fine-tuning of the newly installed equipment

status of collaborative tools at cern

Documents

room microphones

room device

physical room

chitmultimediarooms

vc room pcs

cern pabx direct phone

room furniture carpeting

service activitiesuser