Computing Services

How to Use the Access Grid

This Guide is for the NCAR/ACD Access Grid system. Access Grid is a technology which allows us to join our physical conference rooms at CG2-2122 and ML-490 to "virtual rooms" for teleconferencing. It is a technology implemented in several places at UCAR, and also at research institutions throughout the Internet. Access Grid is based on the Open Source Access Grid Project at Argonne National Laboratories.

UCAR's implementation of Access Grid

The UCAR Access Grid system consists of several nodes located throughout the institution. ACD has two of those nodes -- one is located in the ACD Council Room (ML490) and the other at the Center Green Building 2 Conference Room (CG2-2122). While Access Grid itself is an open source project with participants throughout the Internet, our implementation is based on nodes and software which is packaged and provided by Insors Technology, a commercial provider.

Access Grid is primarily a conference room technology. The node itself is simply a PC running Windows XP. Additionally, to join the grid, a conference room must have a data projector, noise-cancelling microphones, speakers, and a video camera. Multiple conference rooms can join a "Virtual Room". UCAR has set up a number of "Virtual Rooms". These are:

UCAR Lobby: Lobby rooms are mostly for testing. They allow anyone to connect. We have the ability to connect to the UCAR lobby with a password, however. Other access grid users must use the same password in order to connect.
Thermosphere Room:
Mesosphere Room:
Stratosphere Room:
Troposphere Room:
Ionosphere Room:
Exosphere Room:
Magnetosphere Room:

These virtual rooms do not physically exist. They are on a server and are points to which we connect physical conference rooms. The virtual rooms are for use by the entire organization and do not belong to a specific division or group. Right now, we have a virtual room reservation system on the bottom of the Internet Explorer screen that shows the UCAR virtual rooms. Select this application to reserve a room or to look up a room to see if it is available during the time frame you wish to use the room.

The Access Grid PC is just a PC running Windows XP and the Insors Access Grid software. It must not be used for any other application except access grid. We provide video connections in CG2-2122 and ML490 for laptops.

For the laptop, select "2" on the KVM switch.
For the access grid, select "1" on the KVM switch.

The Access Grid node PC is password protected. See your Sysadmin in order to obtain the password.

Things to know before connecting via Access Grid

Access Grid is very new technology and we are in a process of becomming comfortable with it. It may take a little patience, and most importantly planning to have a successful meeting on the Access Grid. If you are using Access Grid for the first time, please work with your Sysadmin to get started and familiarized with the technology (after reading this guide of course). Be sure you do a trial run well enough in advance of your meeting so that you have a chance to take care of any unanticipated problems.
Access Grid is rapidly changing. Even these notes can go out of date quickly. The Open Source component of it is changing at a rapid pace -- and so is the Insors and UCAR implemtnations. If you haven't used Access Grid in a while, be sure to work with your Sysadmin to stay informed of any recent changes.
The most common problems are audio problems. Be sure to know a few troubleshooting techniques. Also be familiar with how to set up audio for an access grid meeting (described in the sections below).
Tim Fredrick is ACD's official access grid technical liason. Please report all problems, complaints, issues, etc., to him. (He might also like to know success stories :-) when you have them). Do not contact Media Services for problems with the ACD access grid nodes before you have contacted Tim.
Access Grid is not available in the Mesa Lab Main Seminar Room. So it is not possible to join CG2-2122 to an all-ACD meeting at this time. Plans are in progress for implementing Access Grid in the Main Seminar room, but it may take some months yet.
Related to the first point above, Access Grid is technically complex. Please do not move any of the Access Grid node's wires, Microphones, cameras, remotes, etc. It may take an extended period to correct problems which might be as simple as someone disconnected a wire. We realize that cable management is a problem, particularly with the very cramped ML490 conference room. We are doing our best to maintain the Access Grid nodes in our conference rooms in an organized and safe manner. (if you have suggestions, please let me know)
Even though Access Grid is complex and new, we believe that with patience, this can be a powerful and cost-savings technology, both for meetings within our organization, and for meetings across the Internet. I personally expect to see the technology mature towards user friendliness and popularity.

Joining an Access Grid Meeting

To join an Access Grid meeting, you must log onto the Access Grid PC and run Internet Explorer to connect your conference room to a "virtual" conference room. The process goes more or less like this:

Turn on the projector and select position "1" on the KVM switch below the Access Grid PC's monitor. Use the remote control and press "Power" to turn on the projector. Be sure to return the remote to the table where the Access Grid PC sits so that we don't loose it. The PC is configured so that the 2nd video output goes to the project. To display windows on the projector, just drag them to the left. They should disappear from the LCD display and appear on the projected display.
Turn on the Access Grid PC if it isn't on.
Log onto the node PC. If you don't know the password, please see your Sysadmin.
Start Internet Explorer and go to http://ucar.insors.net.
You may be prompted for a password (although we try to keep that password in Internet Explorer's cache). See your Sysadmin for this password if you don't know it.
The UCAR Rooms are listed with a pull-down menu. Choose the virtual room you reserved with the virtual room reservation system (linked with a button at the bottom of the same Internet Explorer screen). Once you have selected a virtual room, click on "Multicast".
[screen shot -- Selecting UCAR Virtual Rooms]
You should then see a set of windows including "Igpix", "IG Audio", and "IG Video". The IG video window will show an iconified representation of each of the conference rooms currently joined to the virtual room. The screen dump below shows CG2-2122 and ML490 joined to the "Magnetosphere" virtual room:
[screen shot -- IG Video]
In the IG Video application, click on a conference room's icon to bring it up in its own Window. With that Window selected, you can choose 3 sizes:
- Press s to make the Window small.
- Press m to make the Window medium sized
- Press l to make the Window large
You can then drag that window to the left to move it off of the LCD display and onto the projected conference room display.
[screen shot -- Council Room in medium window]
Once you have your video images set up, it's time to configure sound. This can be the most challenging thing to set up for an Access Grid meeting. To configure sound, start by bringing up the IG Audio window. By default, the Window will come up with a list of conference rooms currently attached to the virtual room. The microphones for your conference room are disabled until you turn them on. There is a slider for volume on the left side, and a slider for Microphone volume on the right side.
[screen shot -- IG Audio window when first launched]
There are some important things to note here:
- The Microphone is muted until you select the "Talk" checkbox. It may also be muted if you press the little button at the center of the Microphone itself. When you press that button, the lights on the Microphone all go out. Press it again to "un-mute" the Microphone.
- The input source must be "line in". This is deceiving, because you'd think it would be "Microphone". But it's not. Our Microphones are actually use the "line in" feed to Windows XP to deliver sound as a result of their special noise cancelling nature. ("noise cancelling" by the way means that the PC removes any sound originating from its own speakers so that sound isn't heard on the other end. This removes feedback and creates a much cleaner audio environment for participants on all ends of a virtual conference).
- Next to each entry in the conference room list is a checkbox. You can click it to mute out that conference room. This can be a valuable technique for diagnosing sound problems. When you're not sure where a strange sound is originating from, you can mute all of the rooms for instance, and then un-mute them one-by-one until you've determined the source of the abnormal sound.
- The slider that adjusts speaker volume overrides the icon in the Windows task bar that adjusts speaker volume.
- There are little triangles next to each entry in the conference room list. The right-pointing triangle turns green when a room's Microphone has been enabled.
The screen shot below show a typical setting with the Microphones un-muted.
[screen shot -- IG Audio window shows typical settings]
In terms of which window to place where, keep the Internet explorer Window, IG Video, igPix, and IG Audio on the LCD monitor. Move the separated windows that correspond to each conference room to the projected display. I usually like to keep the local conference room window in small (s) form on the projected display. But if that's distracting, go ahead and keep it on the LCD display. Make the windows corresponding to the remote conference rooms as large as possible, and arrange them on the projecte display.

Things you should know for the meeting itself

Eye Contact: When speaking to a participant at a remote conference room, try to look into the camera as much as possible. (see next note)
Camera Position: Keep the camera situated so that it is as near the projected conference room windows as possible. This can help make it easier to maintain the illusion of "eye contact" for the other participants of an Access Grid meeting.
Speak clearly but not necessarily loudly. The noise cancelling microphones are good at picking up normal tones of voice. If participants in a remote conference room are having a hard time hearing you, adjust the "gain" settings in IG Audio until everyone is comfortable with the volume. (I'd recommend writing down the gain settings so that you can quickly configure IG Audio for your next meeting).
If the meeting is a presentation the camera should be pointed at the speaker instead of the table with its participants. Our cameras are on video tripods, so it should be fairly easy to move them around so that the speaker is "on screen" for his/her presentation. We recommend using IGpix to display powerpoint or other visual material remotely (see the IGpix section below).
The frame rate of our video cameras is slow (to help conserve network bandwidth). Very rapid movement will make that effect noticeable to other meeting participants.
The cameras are low-resolution. If you have presentation materials, you should use IGPix to display those materials in a separate window. We are currently looking into a way to have a digital overhead projector to display hand-drawn presentation material.
The cameras are not capable of showing our entire meeting room. The active participants of a meeting should sit within camera view if possible.
Controlling the camera is possible through the Insors software for both the local and remote conference room cameras. To control a camera, start with the "IGApp" window. (it comes up iconified on the task bar by default)

From there click on "IGcam".
[screen shot -- IGCam application]
To control the remote camera
- In IGcam select the remote conference room with the "select site" pull down menu.
- Usually conference rooms just have one camera. But in case there are multiple cameras, select the camera you wish to control under "select camera".
- The controls below will then adjust the camera. Features you can adjust include brightness, focus, zoom, and pan-tilt. As you adjust them, the image for that remote conference room will change accordingly.
  [screen shot -- IGCam controlling remote camera]

How to exit a meeting

Insors recommends that you exit all meetings by using the "Exit Window" button in the Internet Explorer interface. If you press a close box on an Insors window, you will be warned about this, although the Insors software will still let you exit.

Using IGPix

Unfortunately we never got IGPix to work effectively for us. My old notes on IGPix are located here.

Using Remote Powerpoint

Remote Powerpoint (RPPT) is our application for display powerpoint presentations on multiple access grid nodes. It is available as a downloadable zip file called rppt.zip.

Remote Powerpoint uses a scheme whereby we have a server, a master and a client. The server negotiates connections between a master and one or more clients. The master controls a power point presentation. And the clients view the presentation which is controlled by the master. For this to work, the presentation must be downloaded to a share accessible by everyone on the network.

In ACD, the Council Room access grid node is where we provide the server and a shared directory. The shared directory is c:\powerpoint, or from a remote machine, it's called "\\128.117.43.99\Powerpoint". Both the RPPT program and power point presentations for display are located here.

On our Center Green Access Grid, we have mapped a drive letter, P:, to connect to this share. Please see the ACD Systems Administration staff if you need to map P: from a different access grid node than the one in the Center Green conference room.

The server starts anytime "ucar9" is logged onto acd-accessgrid1 (aka 128.117.43.99) in the ACD Council Room ML490.

The steps to make this work are pretty much like this:

Decide which access grid node is going to be the master and which is going to be the client. Say that we are presenting from CG-2 such that acd-accessgrid2 is the master in control of a powerpoint presentation. Then acd-accessgrid1 (in ML490) would be the client.
Put the powerpoint presentation in the shared area. From the perspective of acd-accessgrid2, just copy the PPT document into P:\ (P:\ is mapped automatically any time "ucar12" logs onto the node acd-accessgrid2).
Start the master program on acd-accessgrid2. There is an icon for it on ucar12's quick launch bar. Because we are launching from a share, you may need to respond "Open" to a dialog box warning you with a message that starts "Some files can harm your computer...".
In the master program you must first make some configuration settings and connect to the server
- Click "Setup >>" to display the setup options on the right side of the window if they are not already displayed.
- Click on "Add" and add your presentation to the list. A PPT file should then appear on the list. For example "P:\demo.ppt".
- Define the screen area on which you want the local presentation to be displayed. (the client node will also do this -- see below). Click on the button "Drag and Define" and then click and drag anywhere on your desktop to define the screen area for the presentation. Note that you can click on the 2nd display (protected display), which is usually what you want to do to ensure that your presentation is viewable from the CG-2 conference room. When you release the mouse button, you'll notice the numbers have changed in the Left, Top, Right, and Bottom fields. Click on the checkbox "Keep 4:3 AR" to maintain the 4:3 aspect ratio -- usually a good idea.
- Under "Presenter's Identity" specify the name of the node. For example "ACD-ACCESSGRID2".
- Under Server Setup, the field and port should already be present. The server is "128.117.43.99" and the port is "15000". If other values are here, you may not be able to share your presentation. Click on Connect and "connected..." should appear in the message field just below.
- Next click on the button "<< Setup Complete -- Start Presentation". Actually this doesn't start the presentation, it just closes the setup portion of the window and shows the list of PPT files and a single button "Start Presentation". Click on that button to actually launch the presentation. Click "Setup >>" if you need to get back to any of the above setup options.
- Note that when the presentation runs, the window containing the presentation is not resizable or movable. Return to the "Setup >>" options and click again on "Drag and Define" if you need your local powerpoint window to be in a different place.
- To advance slides, click in the displayed power point presentation and hit SPACE.
Start the client program on acd-accessgrid1. There is an icon for it on ucar9's quick launch bar.
In the client program you must also make some configuration settings and connect to the server.
- Click "Setup >>" to display the setup options on the right side of the window if they are not already displayed.
- Click on the button "Locate the Directory where the downloaded PPT slides are stored". Then browse to "C:\Powerpoint". You won't be choosing any files -- they are provided automatically by the master program. If you don't see a list of files -- click on "Request Presentation List". They will appear as soon as the master program is started on the other access grid node.
- Just as we did on the master side, click on "Drag & Define" and then click and drag over the area in which you want to view the presentation being served to you. I'd recommend checking the box "Keep 4:3 AR". The area where you click and drag is usually going to be on the 2nd display -- that is the projected display. If you have other access grid windows to show, be sure that the area is small enough to fit them on the screen. But also be sure its large enough to be visible to everyone in the room.
- Under "Server Setup" click on "Connect". The server fields should be "128.117.43.99" and Port "15000".
- When ready, click on "<< Setup Complete". If a presentation is being served, it will immediately be displayed in the area of the screen you defined for it.
A note about animations: Animations in Remote Powerpoint can be a little tricky. The animations that are transitions and other elements of a presentation should work fine. But embedded movies wuch as mpeg, avi, asf, and wmv movies can be a little bit of a challenge to setup. The fundamental problem is that when a presentation is created and you add a movie, a file pathname is associated with the movie. When the document is shared to another machine, that pathname to the movie might be different.
The RPPT documentation basically says this: "In order to establish a path to the linked object that has been stored with downloaded slides, you must run through a slideshow WITHOUT using RPPT, and then save the slides, before displaying them with RPPT.".
I found that when following this advise, I sometimes had to remove the linked movie from my Powerpoint presentation and then add it again, making sure the movie was stored in P:\ along with the presentation.
Always be sure you do dry runs of a presentation that has embedded movies so that you can be sure remote access grid nodes can see your movie.