Online designer of the meeting room - selection of the optimal solution for the videoconferencing

Three years ago, we published an article on VKS Equipment for Meeting Rooms . It was the result of labor and a collection of expertise of not one person, but several companies specializing for many years in the integration of complex video conferencing solutions. At first glance, videoconferencing and telephony have much in common: common tasks, a similar set of equipment and a similar solution architecture. But, in reality, from the point of view of the integrator, the calculation and implementation of a project for video conferencing is significantly different from telephony.

Videoconferencing still requires expertise and, often, a design approach, while telephony is increasingly taking the form of “boxed” solutions.

And the main difficulty lies precisely in solutions for meeting rooms and conference rooms, rather than in equipment for personal use. With the choice of a webcam and a headset, it’s hard to make a mistake now, another thing is large rooms with acoustic and optical features. And the videoconferencing equipment for meeting rooms has so many characteristics that their value and role for many users remains a mystery.

And even if you understand them in more detail, often the customer has questions like:

• Why can't I put a regular webcam in this meeting room?
• How much can this camera increase the chair?
• And if we move the TV to the table, the closest participants will get into the frame?
• Will the sensitivity of this speakerphone have enough for our room?

Even having an understanding of the parameters of the room and equipment, it is not easy to combine them into a visual image without resorting to the actual installation of equipment in the room.

In the already mentioned article, I solved the issue of visualizing equipment coverage diagrams as follows.

All the exact numerical characteristics of the equipment were collected, for example, viewing angle, microphone capture radius, optical zoom ratio, screen diagonal and others. Inaccurate parameters were calculated empirically - according to field data or in the laboratory.

For example, the maximum distance from the TV screen depending on the diagonal is calculated on the basis of the average test score of several dozens of real conversational and subjective opinions of the focus group. Briefly, I call this our expertise.

Then all the data was translated into a graphic form by constructing the so-called coverage zones. The result was a rather informative animation:



These animated gifs became very popular: I met them both in customer requests and in partner presentations. At that moment, I was visited by the idea of ​​developing this idea. For several months I tried to find a tool from competitors and manufacturers that allows me to design a meeting room online. Have not found. For two years, I nurtured the idea, finalizing the concept of an online VKS configurator for a meeting room. For almost a year, the idea came to life, consisting of a long confrontation between the three components of the project: technical specifications, platform capabilities and budget. According to the law of the genre, it was possible to choose only two points out of three, but the extended periods helped to maintain balance.

The completion of the work on the configurator coincided with another important event for me - the direction of the videoconferencing of our company has grown so much that it has become worthy of its own site.
Therefore, the new online designer came out under the "Video Conference for You" division on the VC4U.RU website of the same name .

Functionality and features

When choosing "functionality or simplicity" - I chose the first, so not everyone can call an interface intuitive.

Below, in the text with pictures, I will describe in detail the capabilities of this tool. If it is more convenient for you to perceive the information in the video format - below is a review of the online designer’s functional review:


The workspace of the designer of the meeting room for the videoconferencing consists of 4 zones: the

first and second zones are pre-setting blocks and a canvas with the plan of the meeting room.



The Canvas Dimensions block displays the resolution of the negotiation modeling workspace. If the screen resolution allows you to expand this area, then it is better to do this at the beginning of the work, because, for technical reasons, resizing the canvas resets the entire project.
It is recommended to change only the width - the height adjusts to the proportions of the room.

Room sizes - it is also better to determine the size of the room in advance, the functional does not support changes in this block without resetting the project.

Next, specify the table dimensions. In this version, only a rectangular shape is supported. The dimensions of the table can also be edited with the mouse directly on the canvas.

The algorithm for placing conference participants in the Armchairs block is a mystery covered in darkness, but you can adapt to it - just play a few times with the Step parameter . Well, if approximately - the system arranges chairs starting from the top of the table, given the step, which in fact is the minimum value of the interval. Those. if the chairs do not fit on one side with a minimum interval, then the extra chairs leave on the next side of the table, and so on.

If there are more chairs than it is possible to place at the table with a specified interval, they are not added, despite the specified number.

An example of the arrangement of 8 chairs with a step of 100mm:



with a step of 300mm:



and with a step of 600mm:



By changing the parameters, we achieve the desired result. Chairs can also be rotated, moved and removed from the canvas.

Re-adding chairs re-arranges them around the table, undoing the previous actions on the chairs.

Also on the canvas there is a square icon - this is the functionality of measuring distances.

It is used in the final planning, when the furniture and equipment has a suitable location, and you need to fix some bindings and dimensions for future installation and commissioning.

When the preparation of the room is done, you can proceed to the equipment.



Before adding negotiation equipment to the plan, it is necessary to determine the type of VKS. There are two options to choose from: Software and Hardware .
These formulations are a legacy of the past when terminal SIP / H.323 clients were called “hardware codecs”, and VKS software installed on a PC turned it into a “software client”. Now the line between these concepts is very blurred, but separation will still be required, since the issue of equipment compatibility remains.

So, we repeat:

the VKS hardware system is built on the basis of SIP / H.323 terminals, the control elements of which are the remote control or touch screen.

VKS software systemIt is built on the basis of a PC and professional audio / video equipment. The vast majority of operating system software terminals is Windows. This allows you to turn the VKS terminal into a universal solution - specialized software makes the terminal either a SIP / H.323 client, a WebRTC console, or a client of any cloud or on-premises VKS service, including software application (Yealink, Skype, Teams, Polycom and others)

Question "What to choose?". The first and reasonable question that I hear when I first contact with the customer. And there is an answer. For its formation, we need to move a little away from the topic of the designer and delve into the architecture of video conferencing.
To begin with, we will determine the terminology in order to synchronize the perception of specific concepts.

A videoconference is a symmetric or asymmetric event that includes more than two participants who can either see and hear each other, or act as a spectator (depending on the scenario of the conference).
Video call - a video communication session between two subscribers.
Client - either a software or hardware terminal of the VKS
Server of the VKS or MCU - a device that receives / sends / processes video streams received from clients, as well as video conferencing management.

Video conferencing is built on a client-server architecture. This means that to unite customers into a multipoint event, you need a VKS server or a VKS cloud service(Skype, Google Hangouts Meet, ZOOM and others).
So the choice of clients depends on which server or VKS service is planned to be used. It's all about transmission protocols.

If the MCU supports SIP and H.323 protocols, terminal hardware solutions or software with installed software (Polycom RD, Yealink VCD and others) are suitable as clients.

If the videoconferencing is built on the basis of a service with proprietary audio / video transmission protocols (for example, Skype), then the hardware SIP terminal will be useless, since it does not support the installation of specialized software. In this case, PC-based clients are used.
There are server solutions (e.g. Yealink Meeting Server) that support many connectivity options:

• SIP / H.323 - use hardware terminals
• WebRTC - connection through a browser
• Mobile and desktop applications - Smartphones, tablets or PCs with software SIP / H.323 clients

With such wide connectivity options, the choice in favor of a terminal solution is based more on the characteristics of the equipment. But it is important to remember the advantages of hardware and software terminals:

• Hardware terminals can make point-to-point video calls without server involvement. Those. The SIP / H.323 client can receive a call not only from the MCU, but also directly from the SIP / H.323 client. In the case of proprietary systems, in most cases this is not possible: we cannot call, for example, from a Skype client to a Skype client without a Skype server or cloud.
• The software platform, in turn, allows you to endow the terminal with multifunctionality. On one PC, we can install both specialized software products and standard SIP / H.323 clients. Along with this, the PC can execute other scenarios that are not related to the videoconferencing

So, back to our constructor. We select the type of VKS and go to the equipment.

Display system - LCD panels and TVs.



This is a common group for the software and hardware type of videoconferencing. The maximum number of selected TVs is not limited, so when choosing it is worth starting from the capabilities of the connected terminal equipment. And if you want to calculate the video wall or duplicate screens - it is better to seek advice from the presale.

Software terminals - available only when you select the appropriate type of video conferencing. The list includes 3 models: based on Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7. It is selected depending on the requirements of the videoconferencing system.



Hardware terminals- monoblocks including a camera and an encoder. Additional equipment is selected separately in other product groups. Ready-made kits can be selected in the Kits group .



Speakers are combined devices that combine a microphone array for capturing sound and a speaker for sounding the room.



Speakerphones have the following features: wired and wireless, and there are also models that support cascading - work on several devices at the same time.

Camera for video conferencing - in our case, this is a section of software-based video conferencing, as the hardware terminals are integrated with the camera. The exception is the dual camera with automatic speaker tracking SmartCam-A12VT. In combination with the Yealink VC880 tubeless terminal, it turns into a complete hardware solution with auto-guiding to the speaker. But I will discuss this decision in detail in the next article.



Cameras are selected based on the parameters of the viewing angle, magnification and connection interfaces.

Acoustics - speakers, columns, soundbars.

Kits - ready-made sets of equipment.

Other settings - functionality to save the configuration within the current session and the first version of the drawing mode.



Next is the list of equipment . If the goods are delivered separately, then a link to the catalog of goods is attached to it. If the goods are included in a set of equipment, then the link will be to the set.



The Dimensions and distance section allows you to add comments to the snapping and dimensions created on the plan.



The result of the work in the designer is an application for receiving a calculation by e-mail.



After filling out the form, you will receive in a letter a sketch of the meeting room that you created and a list of equipment with links to the catalog, as well as prices at the time of calculation.
If you request a calculation in the form of CP in the comments or you need a consultation of the presale, you will be contacted in a convenient way for you.

As a promotion of the site vc4u.ru and the Designer of the videoconferencing , a 10% discount on the price in the catalog is declared using the HABR code worduntil the end of summer 2019.

The discount applies to products in the sections:

• Hardware video terminals
• VKS cameras
• VKS servers

Conclusion

This is the first version of the constructor; it does not reflect the entire original idea. But the project will develop, so your feedback and suggestions are important to us.

In addition, the catalog is filled with a maximum of a quarter of the planned volume of the item.

In fact, 2D planning is just the beginning.

Providing the customer with a commercial proposal, not a floor plan, but 3D visualization is the question of this year.

And in the future - augmented reality and fitting of equipment by photo and in real time.

Thanks for attention!
Sincerely,
Kirill Usikov ( Usikoff )
Head
of CCTV and video conferencing
systems
1@stss.ru
stss.ru vc4u.ru