1. ConferenceXP – Internet2 ‘06
Standard title slide.
The first graphic is a mock up we did for some work we’re hoping to have done: real time speech-to-text synthesis to enable the deaf community to participate in ConferenceXP sessions. The preliminary design for that project is a cluster of high end Microsoft Speech Servers available on-demand to ConferenceXP clients. Because we’ve chosen …
The second graphic is from the Internet2 Commons. The Commons is a collection of real time communications services and products that Internet2 is hosting. We are on of (currently) 4 services available (and the only free one).
Todd Needham
Sr. Program Manager
Microsoft Research

2. What Keeps Me Excited!
Scalable, High Fidelity, Multi-party, Real Time Conferencing
Capture and Archive for Multi-party
Instructional Opportunities
High Definition content support
Tested to 15 sites and we’ll be holding weekly scalability testing with the availability of 4.0 next week.

3. ConferenceXP Advanced Collaboration Distance Learning
Intro with the research question that spawned ConferenceXP: How compelling and deep can we make the collaboration/learning experience if we assume high bandwidth, powerful PC’s and the advanced multimedia capabilities of Windows?
ConferenceXP is a platform developed by Microsoft Research to address the specific needs of distance learning and advanced collaborative communities in academia. With this scenario, we were able to make certain assumptions about the environment ConferenceXP would operate in and this led to specific design decisions:
Windows Media codecs for audio and video (currently version 9) – with Windows as the platform for this project, we were able to use the industry’s top codecs to achieve realtime broadcast quality video with a default 640x480 resolution at 30 frames per second. We are also working with the University of Washington’s ResearchChannel on support for realtime high definition video conferencing using hardware acceleration.
Reliance on multicast TCP/IP to achieve maximum scalability. With the premiere academic and government research backbone enabled for multicast (Internet2’s “Abilene backbone”), we’ve been able to test ConferenceXP with up to 12 broadcast quality video and audio streams and expect testing to be successful to 30 streams with the release of version 3.6.
Extremely High Performance PCs (Windows Media encoding is limited by CPU)
While ConferenceXP has built in capabilities for PowerPoint presentations, Shared white board, video clip playback, shared browsers and live screen sharing (technically ‘streaming’), it is also a platform for applications development. There are over a dozen academic research projects built on the ConferenceXP platform. More information on ConferenceXP applications development can be found on the ConferenceXP community website at
Q&A:
Q. How does this product compare to {Live Meeting, Live Communications Server, MSN or Windows Messenger, Office Communicator, etc}?
There are a number of scenarios in the Real Time Communications space including one-to-one, one-to-many (netcasting video), one-to-many (presentation) and many-to-many to name a few. ConferenceXP is targeting the high-end, many-to-many scenario in academia.
Why academia?
To achieve scalability combined with broadcast quality audio and video, we built on multicast networking. Currently, this is only broadly deployed on government and academic networks (in the U.S. via the Internet2 backbone known as Abilene).
Is the source code available?
Yes. ConferenceXP is a Microsoft Research Shared Source Initiative project and source is available for academic and research purposes.
Advanced Collaboration
Distance Learning
Broadcast quality audio & video

4. The Breadth of RTC Scenarios
One-to-one: Live Messenger, Office Communicator…
Netcasting Video: Windows Media Server Services
One-to-many w/PowerPoint & audio: Live Meeting
Many-to-many: ConferenceXP, Access Grid, inSORS…
This slide is intended to set up ConferenceXP usage scenarios. Basically, you’re trying to convey to the audience the breadth of scenarios (and products) available within the Real Time Communications space. I start with the simplest (1 to 1) and progress to what I define as the highest end: ConferenceXP. However, you may want to avoid describing this as a hierarchy and instead focus on actual scenarios. Why? Because depending on the metrics you apply, you could end up with Live Meeting at the top and ConferenceXP in the middle.
In short, we’re trying to educate the audience that it’s not about “selecting a videoconferencing or RTC product”. Any given organization is going to be using a number of RTC products that vary with the scenario. Thus the breadth of Microsoft’s own offerings in the RTC space…
It’s also important to keep in mind that this slide is about the RTC space which is a subset of the Collaboration space. We have a number of non-RTC or asynchronous collaboration products that include SharePoint and Groove to name a couple.
There are many other scenarios…

5. ConferenceXP Design Goals
Ease of:
Use
Installation
Configuration
Flexibility
Managed Code & Windows MM
Infinite Scalability*
Broadcast-Quality Conferencing*

6. ConferenceXP is for Networks
Multicast dependency
Internet2 and similarly MC-enabled networks
Scalability limitations on unicast service*
No commercial deployment of multicast*
Fixed IP addresses in multicast deployments
High end node requirement
Fastest dual-core or multi-processor
3+ displays not unusual
A Microsoft Community Source Project
This is the “Why Academia” slide. Basically, the reliance on multicast but also the fact that we’re targeting distance learning as one of the two primary-use scenarios.
Note: ConferenceXP’s current scalability is limited by the processor power of the end nodes (remember – ConferenceXP in operation is a completely peer-to-peer system). Thus the high end node requirement. SLI is the high performance, dual-video card technology pioneered by NVIDIA.
I typically use the “not a product” bullet to re-emphasize a few things like limited support (though one of our goals for FY07 is broadening the user base and creating a community support mechanism) and no security in the platform.

7. ConferenceXP Components
ConferenceXP is really 4 components:
The client – the primary tool for end users and turnkey installations. While the first graphic is a client screen shot, it’s a shot of the venues available on the primary venue server.
VenueServer – a lightweight, XML-based server solution for hosting private venues.
Archiver – a SQL Server-based solution for recording and playback of ConferenceXP sessions.
Reflector – a solution that enables a limited number of unicast (or ‘ordinary’ Internet) connected clients to be full participants in a ConferenceXP session.

8. ConferenceXP Architecture
ConferenceXP Application
ConferenceXP Client
Custom
ConferenceXP Capability
Audio / Video
Presentation
Custom
ConferenceXP API
DirectShow/ Windows Media
RTDocuments
CapabilityBase
Talking points:
When addressing an academic audience who is familiar with videoconferencing, I use this slide to differentiate our design from the Access Grid. The Access Grid evolved as an aggregated application using the original mbone tools vic, vat and rat from the unix world. ConferenceXP was designed foremost as a platform to enable distributed applications development and our support for audio and video are two of many peer capabilities in the system.
Network Transport
RTP API
System.Net.Sockets

9. This slide is merely to show a typical ConferenceXP-enabled room.
These are typified by:
Dual (or more) projectors or displays. In ‘student mode’, one projector has all the video streams and one has the presentation (PowerPoint or other). In ‘presenter mode’, one would display remote videos only and the slides or presentation being given (PowerPoint stream or screen capture of some other app).
What you can’t see in this picture is that there is a 3rd display in this room: a large plasma display in the back of the room that allows a presenter to see his or her remote audience.
Also note the multiple microphones hanging from the ceiling which are tied into a audio condenser and acoustic echo cancellation unit. This allows the ‘students’ to interact with a remote ‘lecturer’ in the most natural way possible.

10. Australian School of the Air Australian Northern Territories Education Department
The Australian “School of the Air” project which is using ConferenceXP to deliver distance learning classes over satellite to remote locations in Australia.
A typical audience question is: how do they deal with the latency? Answer is: they don’t. Students have learned to adjust to the latency! 13

13. omniMusic Application
Live, Distributed Musical Performance Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; Moscow State University
Ask Chris if he has a contact for these folks or more info.
omniMusic Application 16

14. Engineering Design Sketching Massachusetts Institute of Technology
InkBoard Application 17

19. LatAm Virtual Institute
In FY07, Microsoft Research is working with 12 of the top research universities in Latin American to create a virtual university enabling researchers and educators alike to share expertise.

23. 3 - 4 Year Vision
ConferenceXP broadly used in academia for multi-institutional education, archiving.
Academic conferences and workshops routinely enable remote participation / attendance.
University classes and guest lectures are routinely recorded and broadcast via Windows Media but remote participation is enabled via ConferenceXP.
ConferenceXP localized in a dozen languages.
High Definition collaboration is the default in distance education and research.

24. ConferenceXP FY07 Priorities
Growing the Community
CodePlex, Microsoft Forums, Newsletter
ConferenceXP User and Developer Workshops
Internet2 Activities; Regional ‘Content’ Workshops
International Infrastructure
RFP: “Center for Collaborative Technologies”
Focused R&D Projects:
Real time High Definition encoding: U Washington
UW Medical School: WWAMI Classroom
UK eScience Grid conversion
Global ConferenceXP Infrastructure & Localization
Joining the Internet2 Commons last year was a major step in supporting the ConferenceXP community. In addition to hosting a ConferenceXP venue server, they also host a multicast reflector to enable non-Internet2 participation and an Archiver to provide evaluation of recording ConferenceXP sessions.
We are working with the University of Washington’s ResearchChannel investigating the feasibility of real-time HD encoding for ConferenceXP. Automated Camera Management is a summer intern project. We are discussing better multi-cast diagnostic tools with several academics interested in this space. We are funding work at the University of Nebraska on multi-cast over wireless networks….

25. Questions?
Todd Needham Sr. Program Manager, ConferenceXP
ConferenceXP community sites: