All important functions in the PSII Conference room (HH1107) are controlled by a Crestron Panel located on the podium. The instructions below will assist in making the right choices for the use of the room. The instructions are detailed and not intended as a quick reference, but rather more of a detailed walk-through.
On first encountering the Crestron touch-panel, it should be blank. A quick touch will cause it to spring to life. You should see the screen to the right.
If you do not see this screen, find the red Stand-By button and push it. You will then be confronted with the Standby Confirmation page. Select the green Yes button to clear the control panel environment.
After you press the green Start button you will be presented with three options or modes. These modes determine how the room and its displays are deployed.
The three modes having the following meanings:
1) Presentation Mode. This mode is used exclusively to display material inside the room. All the monitors will be used to display attached laptops and/or the document camera. All the microphones in the room are active so that people throughout the room can hear each other.
2) Videoconferencing mode. This mode is used for a small video conference. Only the center seating section is illuminated. All the microphones in that section are active so that both local and distant parties can speak at the same time. The cameras assume that all persons are seated in the center seating section.
3) Distance Learning mode. This mode assumes that the room will be deployed as a classroom with all seats occupied, all microphones are ‘off” unless pressed, and with some of the monitors displaying the distant site and with others displaying material presented from the locally attached PC or document camera.
Each of these modes will be covered in more detail below. There is, however, some overlap. For example, in each environment you will want to deploy the black-out shades to create the best picture on the screens. Suggestions to deploy the black-out shades are repeated in each section below.
The room monitors are divided into two groups, referred to as left and right. If you are facing the front of the room, left means the left-most monitor in each of the two groupings. Right refers to the two right-most monitors in each of the two groupings. If you are facing the rear of the room, left describes the outer two monitors and right describes the middle monitor.
In all modes, the front hanging microphones are active. The desk microphones may be ‘on’, which is indicated by green LEDs around the perimeter of the button, or only ‘on’ when pressed and held. This latter state is indicated by red LEDs around the perimeter of the button. It is not necessary to speak loudly nor “to lean-into” the microphones. They are adjusted to allow you to stay in your normal seated position. In those modes where you must touch and hold the microphone to speak, note that it is touch sensitive and no force is required to maintain the ‘on’ state.
In all modes you can add an “Audio Call.” This is a menu option chosen from the top row of items on each mode screen. This function allows you to add a phone call into the room. The remote end of the call will be heard on the room’s speakers. The party on the other end of the line will hear all content picked up by the microphones in the room. Note: this is not a bridge or conference service. If you wish to create a conference phone call, you will need to create that service independently. The room will merely act as another participant dialing into an existing conference phone call. You will need to dial “9” to make off-campus calls, as this is a CMU extension. Don’t forget to hang-up the call! Phone calls will remain alive when the system is placed in Standby mode.
Presentation Mode
This mode assumes that the room is being used to present material to the “in-room” audience only. All microphones are active and are used to help improve in-room intelligibility.
You should begin by entering the Lights & Shades menu and selecting the down-arrow on the Shades-Blackout column. After the shades start to close, exit this screen.
On the presentation screen you create a “route” to each of the monitor groups. If you want to use the annotator, select this button first, then the source [e.g.: Laptop 1] and finally the destination [e.g.: Left Display]. You can then select the same or a different source and send it to the Right Display. You can change these assignments at any time.
When you are done with the presentation, we request that you enter the Lights & Shades menu again and select “All Off” for lights and raise the blinds. Exit this menu and select Standby. Select “Yes” to let the system go into ready mode for the next group.
Video Conference Mode
Video Conference Mode assumes that a small group of people are having a business meeting. In this mode, only the center seating section is lighted and the microphones in this section are all on. All other microphones and lights are off.
You should begin by entering the Lights & Shades menu and selecting the down-arrow on the Shades-Blackout column. After the shades start to close, exit this screen. On the “Video Dial” screen you can manually enter the IP address of the remote site or a DNS name via the keyboard. If the conference was pre-scheduled, it may begin prior to your entry into this screen. This will be covered in more detail below.
In this mode you will want to determine what appears on the local display screen. By going to the Presentation menu, you can select Laptop 1, Laptop 2, or the Document Camera. Note that the local display will appear on the “Right” monitor and the remote site will appear on the “Left” monitor. The monitors furthest to the right & left will be off. That is, there will be only two monitors on in the front of the room and only one in the back of the room.
When you are done with the video conference, we request that you select “End Call” and then enter the Lights & Shades menu again and select “All Off” for lights and to raise the blinds. Exit this menu and select Standby. Select “Yes” to let the system go into ready mode for the next group.
Distance Learning Mode
In Distance Learning Mode all monitors are on, all lights are on, the overhead microphones are on and all desk microphones are in a ready, but off state. To engage a microphone, touch the lower flat portion and hold it while you speak. Two people may engage desk microphones at the same time.
In this mode, the room cameras automatically follow and focus on the presenter. This is done via six floor mounted pressure sensitive panels. As the presenter steps on a panel, the proper camera will focus and turn on. If you walk off the pad, the last good camera position will be held. If someone at a desk touches and holds a microphone, the cameras will zoom into and focus on that speaker. As soon as the microphone is released, the camera image will return to the last known good presenter position. In this way the remote site is always viewing the person speaking.
You should begin by entering the Lights & Shades menu and selecting the down-arrow on the Shades-Blackout column. After the shades start to close, exit this screen. Once you have exited the screen, you will be back at the Video Dial screen. Here via the keypad or keyboard you can enter the IP address or DNS name of the remote site and place your video call.
In this mode you will want to determine what appears on the local display screen. By going to the Presentation menu you can select Laptop 1, Laptop 2, or the Document Camera. Note that the local display will appear on the “Right” monitor and the remote site will appear on the “Left” monitor. You can also elect whether or not to “share” content with the far end. In addition, you can select “Self View,” which creates a small window on the Left monitors containing the video image being sent to the remote site.
When you are done with the video conference, we request that you select “End Call” and then enter the Lights & Shades menu again and select “All Off” for lights and to raise the blinds. Exit this menu and select Standby. Select “Yes” to let the system go into ready mode for the next group.
Pre-scheduled Conferences and Distance Learning sessions
When possible, ITS recommends that you pre-schedule any videoconference or distance learning events. You can do so by sending mail to lkass@ece.cmu.edu.
HH1107 is designed to allow outside calls to come in, but not to allow them to interrupt an existing session, nor to bring up the room lights and monitors when no-one is present. As such, if you have prescheduled a videoconference or distance learning event, the screen shown to the right will appear. This allows you to accept the call or ignore it. Accepting this call does not necessarily mean that the remote end is up and running, merely that a call is being attempted and that one of the parties in the call is the room itself.
Miscellaneous Information
The infrastructure used to support HH1107 is complex, but designed to allow the room to be used without operator intervention. There are no user-serviceable parts, nor adjustments in the room that can be operated or repaired by persons in the room. In general, this also means that problems, when they occur, may be difficult to diagnose and “quick-fixes” are unlikely.
HH1107 employs the commodity internet for its connections to other sites. As such, issues with either the campus network or the commodity internet itself cannot be corrected by ITS staff. These circumstances, though rare, do occur.
The most common problems seen in videoconferencing occur when there is a problem at the other end. HH1107 is properly configured to work with virtually all H.323 based conferencing systems. That does not imply that the system at the other end will work correctly. Dropped audio or video from the far end is typically either an internet issue or a problem at the remote site. Similarly, dropped audio or video from HH1107 is typically a problem with the internet. However, it is recommended that in the event of problems, the system be put into Standby and restarted. This is effectively a “reboot” of the system.
The current system in HH1107 cannot be made to talk to Skype, iChat, Facetime, etc. Those systems deploy a proprietary protocol that cannot be blended into the functions of the existing hardware and software. It seems likely that this problem will be solved at some point in the future, but there is no current solution.
The front monitors in HH1107 are set to a resolution of 720p. As such, maximum recommended resolution for computers attached to the system is 1280×720 or 1366×768. Higher resolutions may cause the monitors to appear blurry or uncentered.
There are lots of “tweaks” and adjustments that can be made to the environment in this space. We have tried to configure the base system to work with 99% of all conference requests. If you have questions about these additional functions, please feel free to drop a note to help@ece.cmu.edu for assistance. We’ll be glad to work through any unique requests. Putting the system in Standby will clear most unique configurations.
For reference, please note that there is a phone in HH1107. The telephone number is 412-268-8104. Also, the phone number for the videoconference room in Silicon Valley is 650-335-2830.
