Videoconference at CERN Joao Fernandes CERNITUDS Video Services

Videoconference at CERN Joao Fernandes CERN-IT-UDS Video Services

CERN § CERN – 2500 employees on 2 sites (CH-F) – More than 9000 users § Videoconference use cases: – 95% of meetings from 8 h 30 to 20 h 30 Geneva time: • LHC experiments: collaborations of ~2000 people worldwide spread – High-level communications between institutes worldwide • Permanent video links between Europe and US – Special events • Conferences, Commemorations, Outreach activities… – Job Interviews § Scale – 2000 VC meetings/month (CERN, 160+ Institutes in 37 countries) – 4500 VC connections/month (Desktops, Room systems and Telephone)

CERN videoconference venues § 35 equipped rooms (8 in project) § All reequipped between 2007 and 2008 § Global project along 3 main lines: – Homogeneity of interfaces – System reliability – Remote Administration/Support § Various sizes and configurations – From 6 people (small meeting rooms) to 100 + people (amphitheatres) § All Equipped with H. 323/SIP compliant equipment

CERN videoconference Services § EVO (provided by Caltech) – Widely used in the LHC (75% of sessions) – http: //evo. caltech. edu – Access from • Equipped meeting rooms (H. 323 -compatible) • Offices (desktops/laptops) – JWS (Java Web start) application – Multiplatform (windows, Mac, Linux) – Integrates • Recording system • Chat • Presence detection – Scale • hundreds of participants (peak currently at 212 participants in the same session)

CERN videoconference Services § H. 323 -based Videoconference – Industry Standard – Point to point (direct connection from one endpoint to the other) – MCU (multipoint control units) – expensive hardware units on which the H. 323 endpoints can connect for meetings with more than 2 sites • Embedded small MCUs in VC codecs (<5 sites) • MCU services – CERN (in operation since 2009) – Es. Net in the USA – RMS in France – DFN in Germany – Scale: • Limited by the number of ports (usual average of 10 to 20 sites per meeting)

Use Case Examples § 95% remote sessions – 8 h 00 -21 h 00 (Geneva time) – LHC Experiments • Working groups worldwide spread • Experiment Weekly Status update • More than 300+ participants combined (videoconference and webcast)

Use Case Examples § Permanent Video Communications with “constant presence” between several centers • Europe, US, Asia and Oceania – Remote Shifts – Monitoring – High Definition systems • Quality of Presence is an important requirement Control Center CMS (DESY, Hamburg) CMS Control Center (CERN) Chicago, US

Use Case Examples § Outreach Activities – Masterclasses (students from several parts of the world join in VC): • once per year, during 3 weeks – 6 institutes per day (of a total of 90)

Stats of Usage § CERN + 160 Institutes in 37 countries

Stats of Usage § 4500 unique connections (H. 323 devices, Laptops/Desktops and phone

Remote Administration § Centralized H. 323 endpoints manager: TMS (Tandberg Management Suite) – – – Usage statistics Diagnostics and Alarms Software update § Projectors with IP connections – – Ex. at CERN: EPSON EMP-83, Projection. Design Diagnostics Remaining lamp hours Remote management interface (mostly to switch off the device at the end of the day, and switch it on when preparing a session) § CERN Management Framework (CMF) for automated PC management – SW updates, Central Configurations

Remote Support § At CERN the VC support has been outsourced – Provided by the computing helpdesk – Mostly done remotely • Startup sessions • Monitoring • Debugging – Only the 3 rd line is done by CERN staff § Remote support done by – – Phone Videoconference (operators’ desk equipped for it) Netcams in the rooms VNC installed on room PCs

§ Thank you for your Attention § Any Questions? joao. fernandes@cern. ch vc-team@cern. ch http: //cern. ch/it-multimedia