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Conferencing Era
Introduction
 This
article presents a comparative study of a collection of
electronic meeting tools, systems and infrastructures that
enable remotely located participants to meet and work
together. It begins by examining common scenarios for
distributed meetings: desktop–based meetings, room–based
meetings, and access to meetings using mobile technology. We
then detail a set of criteria that will be used to describe
and assess each solution individually, and thus allow a
comparison to be made between them. The tools and
infrastructures examined are exemplary of the different
classes and kinds of tools that support distributed
communication.
Conferencing scenarios
There are a number of ways in which it is possible to meet
together in a distributed manner, and we classify three main
categories below: desktop–based systems, room–based systems,
and mobile conferencing systems. Broadly speaking desktop
based systems are for individual use in a static setting, room
based systems for individuals or groups of users again in a
static setting, and mobile systems to support the presence of
people who are not at a fixed location in these first two
scenarios. We mention this style of use here, but concentrate
on describing conferencing solutions for fixed, static
infrastructures in this article.
Desktop conferencing
The most common form of distributed meeting technology in use
today is desktop based.
That is to say the technology used can be found on an ordinary
office desk (typically a multimedia PC) and aside from running
the necessary software no special environments or settings are
required. Using a desktop conferencing product should be no
more difficult than using your e –mail system or favorite word
processor. It should be integrated into the everyday –working
environment. Each participant is located in front of his or
her own workstation, typically equipped with a video camera,
microphone, loud speakers or a pair of headphones. A telephone
may also be used in conjunction with the tools offered by the
computer.
Room based conferencing
When we wish to increase the number of people at a single
site, or wish to use large displays, or make use of dedicated
conferencing hardware then we consider using dedicated rooms.
These rooms typically contain one or more large screen
displays, and support meeting scenarios including, but not
limited to, small meetings, small seminars (by small we mean
up to six participants at any one location), lectures,
presentations as well as larger numbers of people. The number
of people supported is dependent upon the size of the physical
room. The necessary hardware is permanently installed in the
room, and the layout of the room is organized according to the
activity taking place.
The most common use of these rooms involves two general types
of interaction. The first scenario is one–to–many where a
single speaker addresses all other sites in a broadcast
manner. It may be possible for the other sites to directly
communicate with the speaker (if there are adequate resources
at the speaker ’s location to support this), but there is no
awareness between these other sites of each other. Examples of
this kind of use are lectures, seminars and presentations. As
an example, Microsoft is currently researching ways in which
the remote audience can be better incorporated into the
physical meeting room. Alternatively a scenario of
many–to–many supports all participants interacting with each
other all the time. Meeting support requires this type of
interaction. Here we need to be sure that the environment and
inputs in the meeting room are suitably configured to support
the people involved in the meeting.
Mobile conferencing
Often it would be useful if a meeting could be attended while
you are away from your normal working environment. This could
be through any number of devices, ranging from a powerful
portable PC, through personal digital assistants (PDAs), or
even simply a mobile telephone. The factor that most governs
the use of mobile devices is that of networking. In the best
case scenario there is some form of local networking
infrastructure that you can connect you hardware to, or else
you may be limited to a connection via a mobile cell phone and
the low bandwidth that offers. The overriding influence for
mobile conferencing is to give a person some presence in the
meeting they are attending. We must represent the mobile user
to the rest of the participants and vice versa. There will be
many tradeoffs, and feedback could well be limited, but the
aim is to try to offer some form of two–way communication that
permits some form of collaboration.
Standards and protocols
If applications support standard protocols and services there
is a greater chance that it will be possible to establish
connections between these different systems. By default we
will consider homogeneous meeting situations where each
participant is using the same meeting tools. However, it is
beneficial if systems support some form of interoperability
.The standards we refer to here include video and audio
standards ,as well as supported networking protocols .The use
of the H.323 standard is popular in videoconferencing
solutions. There are also arguments that alternative
approaches, such as using IETF standards and IP Multicast,
offer more flexible solutions .This information on standards
is for the most part factual descriptions.
– Najma Khan
April 21, 2002
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