Polycom - "Large Scale Video Deployments with CMA"

This is a transcript of notes of a webcast by Polycom, demonstrating the new CMA product and desktop client.

John Palaszynski Medical upstate NY, Vermont govt, health-care and education rep.
Bill Torrey - Sales Engineer

CMA - Polycom Converged Management Application

It is a little ironic, but I'm attending a Microsoft LiveMeeting web presentation about Polycom's new video client, which is a web-based client (Windows only for now), which will supplement or replace Polycom's PVX desktop software application.

The irony is that we're dialing in to an 800 number for the audio portion of the program, and they are showing PowerPoint slides on the LiveMeeting. (later.... the demo is very interesting. )

CMA has Management and Gatekeeper functionality and a downloadable desktop client

CMA Desktop Client looks like

CMA is a server (Dell rack-mount server, running Windows 2003 server)
Control endpoints

Polycom has a MPLS network worldwide

No specific talking points when comparing with Tandberg Movi 2.


Control bridges
Control recording and streaming devices

Can tie into active directory (as a read-only application)
Can assign rights and privileges (scheduling conferences, monitoring conferencing, troubleshooting)
Provides XML and XMPP (provisioning endpoints.

Buddies list - status of everyone in the list
Start a chat
Escalate to a video call

Dell rack-mount server
Server 4000- 200 seat license, can scale up to 400 seats
Server 5000 500 seat license and can scale up to 5000 seats
5000 has additional hardware redundancy

Gatekeeper
Policy and bandwidth management
Participant admission
Least cost routing (if you use ISDN)
RTP statistics
OneDial (E.164) four-digit dialing plan

Scheduling via Outlook and Lotus Notes

Video client
Licensing - if it is inactive for a default 30 days it automatically pulls the license back into the license pool. This is unlike PVX, where those licenses are essentially "gone" after they are distributed.
MSI installs are supported.
Can receive HD video assuming you have the bandwidth available. It will transmit at 4CIF and is limited to that for transmission for now.
This is an H.323 client - can call into any other H.323 client.
You can do far-end camera control.
CMA does not include T.120 support for data sharing, (and actually the latest PVX client doesn't support it either...as the standard is considered obsolete)
Recommend the Logitech 9000 camera

The Polycom Communicator is also helpful for 22Khz audio. (This is a USB microphone/speaker with built-in echo cancellation)

The CMA client will NOT work if you don't have VPN or Polycom firewall product (the S/T5300 ad S/T6400 line)
CMA has "deep integration" with Microsoft Office Communication Server/Client

CMA is an upgrade to the SE200 (management/gatekeeping box). There is an upgrade path.

Demonstration: -- The setup screens look very similar to PVX
Shows the desktop

Lost Packet Recovery (LPR) error recovery code

CMA 500 server management application

Think of the CMA clients as just another endpoint. The main difference is that the PVX client doesn't require connections to a licensing server. So, for multipoint you need to have access to an MCU.

The CMA replaces the MGC manager. This means you can use a web interface instead of the loaded MGC manager.
Right now CMA t won't go into the bridge and hard reserve a port that the MGC manager does. (Available at the end of the year December).

Discussion of created "Meeting Rooms" configured on the bridge.
Sounds like you still have to use both the MGC and CMA together to be able to reserve ports.
RMX is the more recent Polycom bridge product.

Flow - A Mind Map for your document flow

There is a public beta available now of Flow, which is sort of Mind Map for files.

I'm not a design professional, and while I don't produce projects with hundreds of files, I do indeed produce projects which take up, say, tens of files such as grant applications, Keynote and PowerPoint applications, html files, etc, and Flow looks like it would provide a terrific way of managing the files. Software developers have had applications like this for years...they are called source code control applications.

My tactic now is to create a mind map using Mindjet's Mind Manager, and link in all the files on the map. Of course this doesn't address versioning, and only addresses the top level file names; I can't expect to keep track of graphic files, for example which are inserted in a iWork Pages file. Also, all my "mind mapped" files usually get converted to .PDFs, or Windows files at some point, and so the number of physical files on disk doubles or triples as soon as I start working with other people on a project because of all of the conversions, and then the real version problems start.

After playing with FLOW for an hour so far, I submitted the following issues to the beta forum.

1. Support for iWork 08 is stated as a supported application list, is '09 supported?

2. In opening a Keynote '09 file, I didn't see that Flow found the component files for the project.

3. Wondering how this will work with multiple users on a network, and/or over the web. I"ve got my iDisk indexed in Flow, and this seems to be working Ok, but I don't know how it will manage a sync between my Macbook and my iMac.

4. Would like support for Microsoft Visio Files. I haven't found an equivalent drawing program on the Mac.... if I had I could dump Microsoft Window and Parallels.

5. Would like to be able to start a "new project" in Flow.

6. How do we delete obsolete files? For example, my map shows a .pages temp file that was downloaded from my mail program. This then got saved to a folder, and became my starting point....but the temp file stays in the map, and I don't know how to delete it.

The beta is currently available only for the Mac, but the Windows version is on the way. Pricing looks very reasonable. While the beta doesn't pass the five minute test, it bears further investigation; in the long term this could become an essential, "how did I get along without it" tool to your document work flow.

Call Centers from Hell and Customer Contempt

Especially during a recession, it amazes me the utter contempt company call centers show toward their customers. I spend a lot of time on calls with technical support people, and it remains as irritating as ever to get to them. Once I get a live person, however, I can usually calm down.

I really hate hearing that "This call may be monitored or recorded for training or quality control purposes". Especially right at the outset of a call. Maybe for my broker... (what broker?) when giving financial instructions. For all the "training" that is going on sitting in phone tree hell doesn't seem to be getting any easier. And quality control purposes? It makes me uneasy that I'm being recorded at all.

On hold, I really hate hearing every 15 seconds that "We appreciate your patience, and thank you for waiting during this brief delay". and "We know that you are very busy, we appreciate your call". Or worse, blabbing on about the web site, or the new product, or alternate ways to contact us, or whatever. These constant interruptions makes it impossible to concentrate on other work while waiting. What ever happened to playing Vivaldi and not inserting commercial messages?

While there are "secret" phone numbers floating around the internet for various services, I can't imagine a company would want these internal numbers published; they would get spammed quickly.

So, I'm holding for Fairpoint right now, and have had 5 dumb "Thank you for holding messages" in the previous minute.
"Thank you for holding, your call will be answered in just a moment"
"We know your time is important, and appreciate your patience while on hold"
"Every effort is being made to ensure that your wait is as short as possible... Thank you"
"Thank you for holding, someone will be right with you."
"Your call is very important to us. Thank you for waiting and bearing with us during this brief delay".

And then the cycle starts again. All this accompanied by ear-splitting muzak (tacky fake FM-synthesized saxophones.)

Email Transition: Verizon to Fairpoint

All of a sudden I've lost eMail contact with lots of friends who had verizon.net eMail accounts as Verizon abandons their landlines in three New England States, and Fairpoint takes over.

There is an official site provided by Fairpoint which will help people transition... but it is for Windows only. The site checks to see what your browser and operating system are, and if you have Windows XP or Vista, and are using Outlook 2000 or later, you can download a little program (ActiveX control) which will change your settings.

If you don't use Internet Explorer, the automatic setting won't work. The manual instructions are on the next page of the web site. I had a friend go through this with a technician, and this is what he came up with.

User or Account Name:
Your new myfairpoint.net email address
Example: ([myusername]@myfairpoint.net)

POP Server: mail.myfairpoint.net (i.e. incoming mail)
SMTP Server: mail.myfairpoint.net (outgoing mail)

Account name - on incoming mail server
[myusename].myfairpoint.net

Check My Server Requires Authentication
Settings next to it. �Use Same Settings as Incoming Server�

The technician also suggested that you change the outgoing mail port change from 25 to 1025 (WTF?)

I do have Fairpoint phone mail, and this no longer picks up when I'm on the line. Sigh.

If you have anything non-windows, and non-IE (Linux, Macintosh, Safari, FireFox) , you have to use the manual instructions.

Simile of the Day

From David Pogue's recent post about iMovie '09:

The killer app, though, is image stabilization. It takes a long time to apply to a clip�several minutes each�but it winds up making jerky footage smooth, even if you were filming while hiccuping on a camel ride during an earthquake. You control the degree of smoothness; that�s lucky, since 100 percent steady looks almost freakishly unnatural.

He also has an interesting take on Twitter.

Comcast: Sense of Irony

Odds and Sods: iWork Update

iWork '09
Apple has updated iWork from '08 to '09, and after working with it for a couple days, it appears to have been a terrific balance between new features and minor fixes. Here is a succinct description of iWork '09 from CNET

Always Connected, Seldom Communicating
Why is it, that will all the cellphones, blackberries, eMail, Twitter, chat rooms, VoIP, Wifi, satphones, batphones, and saxaphones it is so difficult to get ahold of people these days? You'd think that people would be easier to reach. Here are my rules:

• If somebody is paying me money, usually as a consulting or project client, then I will return calls within two hours, or eMail back within the business day.
  
  
• If somebody is taking my money during a project, i.e. if they are a vendor or contractor or employee, then I would like to feel that I'm on their radar screen as a courtesy during the project. I'm not sure what the frequency of contact should be exactly, but at least once a day if there are issues. Is that too much to ask?
  

There is a Ph.D. thesis in here somewhere. Inverse Proportionality: The Damping Effect of Hand-Held Electronic Connectivity on Communication Efficacy.

Introduction: February 2009

Welcome to Tech for Non-Profits, and the pending Tech for Home Health Care. This is the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting. Part lab-notebook, part brain-extension, it is a repository for new and evolving ideas and projects that we stumble across as we move our former exclusively database development and network support company into startup mode for a technology-based home health-care delivery service provider. Being grant funded ourselves, we're very much looking over the the grant landscape.

Upcoming: I will be giving presentations at the Freedom to Connect conference March 30 and 31 in Washington D.C. and at the American Telemedicine Association annual meeting in Las Vegas at the end of April. Both presentations will focus around the technical (boxes and wires), aspects, rather than medical aspects of one variation of home tele-health; two-way interactive, multipoint videoconferencing, with examples from our ongoing pilot studies delivering supervised exercise classes with senior patients who have fallen or have a fear of falling.

We are located in the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologiesa technology incubator affiliated with the University of Vermont. Our major extracurricular activity is the Vermont Software Developer's Alliance, a non-profit trade group which promotes economic development in our area, primarily for software development companies. Both organizations, by the way, are looking to encourage high-tech businesses to start up and/or relocate in our state. As software developers, we are pleased to be working in one of the few areas of economic growth.

Save $100's with Do It Yourself Loadspeaker Refurb.

Ok, so the title sounds like an ad from Popular Mechanics. Just about the one thing left from my first (and only) marriage...apart from the spouse, is a pair of "Smaller Advent" bookshelf loudspeakers, ca. 1972. At the time they cost about 75.00 each, and I bought the smaller version because I didn't feel at the time that I could afford the larger version at $90.00, each. The speakers have been in constant use since I purchased them. Eventually, however, the sound was so fuzzy and weird that I figured that something had to have gone seriously wrong. Popping off the front grill, I found that the foam ring that surrounds the paper cone had deteriorated.





Enter Simply Speakers. These folks specialize in parts and assistance for repairing and restoring older loudspeakers. They seem to be particularly helpful with brands from the 70's. For example, the Boston area provided a New England sound with KLH, Acoustic Research (AR), Advent, JBL, and Bose. Simply Speakers has parts for fixing any of these brands. A brief telephone call, and I had ordered a re-foaming kit, which consists of two foam rings, and some cement, similar to model airplane glue. Complete instructions were included, and they are also available on the Simply Speakers web site, so you can see what you are getting into. Here's what it looks like after the repair.




The results were spectacular. The original foam had been deteriorating for years, which resulted in gaps between the speaker cone and the enclosure. This contributed to a gradual loss of bass response. Now that both speakers are completely tight again, they sound terrific with a tight bass and a smooth midrange. My favorite instrument to compare speakers is a 'cello. The speakers sound warm and mellow.

The one tricky part of the repair was unsoldering and resoldering the wires that connect to the speakers themselves. This probably could have been avoided by simply leaving some slack, and cutting the wires, so that they could be wound back together and covered with electrical tape.

Cost for the kit was about $27.00. I probably spent a total of four hours total taking things apart, doing the actual repair and reassembling everything. Because I noticed the problem just before Christmas, I was eager to have a backup in place, so I went out and bought a pair of Boston Acoustics HS60s for about $320. While these sound Ok, they don't compare with the Advents at all.