Socrates Varakliotis Piers O’Hanlon {kirstein, piers, socrates}@cs.ucl.ac.uk Peter Kirstein

1. Mbone tool variants: current statusSupport for mbone videoconferencing for the research community - SUMOVER Socrates Varakliotis Piers O’Hanlon {kirstein, piers, socrates}@cs.ucl.ac.uk Peter Kirstein UCL Computer Science 28-30 November 2005

2. Current variants • Many! • Focus on those of interest to the research community • UCL, AccessGrid, VRVS, NCHC • Other projects make use of the tools • Individual patches • Integrate or drop? • Resolve conflicting patches SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

3. New features not in UCL CVS rat vic common UCL 4.2.26 2.8ucl-1.1.6 1.2.15 AG 4.2.22 2.8ucl-1.1.3-AG 1.2.12 VRVS 4.3.5 2.9.1 1.2.10 NCHC n/a nchc-1.3.6 ? SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

4. AG vic (2.8ucl-1.1.3-AG) – Tom • Autoplace • automatically position video windows in a region on screen • OSX support (Doug Kosovic) • support for multiple cameras • separate branch in AG CVS SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

5. AG rat (4.2.22) – Tom • Per-source volume controls • IP helper code: strategically select network interface for multicast communication among rat components • Shipped Rat includes ALSA support (via patch from Steve Smith) SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

6. VRVS vic (?) - Pavel • new encoder is fully compliant with the H.261 standard • old encoder used only INTRA-mode – compression was based on reducing of intra frame spatial redundancy • added INTER-mode with inter-frame motion estimation and compensation - difference between two subsequent video frames is encoded - compression is based on reducing of inter frame temporal redundancy • reduces bitstream (higher compression) - allows to use higher framerate and quality with the same bitstream • Better compatibility with H.323 devices • H.263 codec • Intel libraries and C++ compiler • Speaker mode, GUI changes, video display modes, multiple displays • Minimise, still images SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

7. VRVS rat (?) - Pavel • default audio client of VRVS/EVO systems is based on RAT project of University College London (C and Tcl/Tk programming languages) • new audio codec G.722 was added for compatibility with H.323 devices (based on IPP) • priority of development was to unify source code for all supported platforms (Windows, Linux, Macintosh) – required new audio interface for MAC OS • 3 processes – rat, ratmedia, ratui have been merged into one binary (MBUS removed) and audio processing and windows management have been split into two separated threads that increase performance and stability of the application • support of multiple NIC, native ALSA support (Linux) • future: echo canceller, integrated audio and video application SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

8. NCHC vic (1.3.6) • MPEG-4 video FGS (ffmpeg) • H.264 • Windows and Linux support • Improved performance using MMX, SSE/SSE2 optimisations • Arbitrary video window resizing, full screen video, de-interlacing, h/w assisted rendering for XFree86 XVideo extension • Enabled code profiling • Other minor bug fixes SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

9. Various rat patches • VRVS • Audio device logging • Modified some defaults: AudioSilence off • Removed Reception Quality Matrix • AG • new mbus message to kill rat processes • Log facility for RTP • Mac OSX audio driver (Juraj Sucik) - Colin SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

10. Various vic patches • AG patches • Quickcam Pro for AG vic • OpenMash and VRVS vic support YUV420 palette • Bttv frame grabber (video4linux) assumes YUV422 • 1394 driver support, fragile, limited support of FireWire h/w • Patch for AG 2.1.1 vic • New crypto sources (rijndael-xxx.cpp) • Profiling in some codecs (?) • Assistor-intel-jpeg-new.cpp: DirectDraw and video overlay modes? • VRVS ‘new’ features • Tiling of video windows • Extend frozen window duration when other sides stop transmission • Removed Options and External buttons • Fixed bug when killing vic window from “x” icon • AG/VRVS: Compiles with older version of gcc-2.96 (Piers) SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

11. Wish list - Tom • Introduce/expand message interfaces for configuring tools programmatically (e.g., change multicast group) • Provide headless support • RAT media engine • VIC transmit (have currently via OpenMash) • Integrate VIC WDM device support • Update list of supported hardware • Integrate new codecs • MPEG4, h264 • Speex • Create bug/feature repository (Bugzilla, Trac) • Improve Robustness • Regular RAT crashes on Windows • Non-descriptive error messages in both VIC and RAT • Maintain Open Licensing • Prefer BSD style SUMOVER Workshop, UCL

12. Wish list - Pavel • video codecs – continue in work on H.263, later on H.264 • handle different video sources (video, desktop, still images) and display them in different way • development of new display scenarios (utilization of OpenGL library, concentrating all videos in one window, etc.) • new GUI implementation, more user friendly, intuitive, reflecting all recent improvements • keep application compatible with all 3 supported platforms, replacement of Tcl/Tk part by another language (Java?, C++?) • new integrated audio and video application SUMOVER Workshop, UCL