Hey Anita, welcome to Blogland.
Ed Souza did say he was following the registrar's time schedule for finals so what you have below is correct for PlSc 408.
Re: the video in B1: we had some trouble with fuzzy video from their camera last week or so. It appeared that perhaps a camera control cable was loose. A problem with the VCR sounds like a new issue. Did Phil Wilt have a tape to play but it was fuzzy?

 
Anita, I do not know about PLSC 408, but for PLSC 438 they will not be using Ed103 at all during finals week. (They rescheduled to use a room in Renfrew).

 
Don fixed the camera controller in Ed 103. It should work fine now!
Thanks Matt for checking the CNR14 DVD deck. I'll check out Ed 103's this afternoon.

 
Re: CD playback in DVD players:
The DVD player in CNR14 recognizes and plays CDs just fine. Maybe there is something wrong with the player in Ed103.

 
Just to keep you up to date on our H.320/H.323 gateway (Radvision) status:
I had to reboot the Radvison this morning, a typical monday morning occurance. I don't know what is causing it to lose it's network connection but when it came back up I see our friend at Purdue is still trying to access the gatekeeper every 5 seconds or so. This person/machine did give up on these requests for a while but has started up again.

 
Something is wrong with the camera control in Ed 103. On the control room control device, 1 now controls Camera 2, 2 controls nothing, and eveything else works fine. This means that one of the cameras (front left corner of the room) has no control. Has anyone been messing with the controls in here? The remote still turns every camera on, and they are still the same numbers on the remote.

 
Sounds like we got the shaft with the DVD player. That is a huge list of things which it will not recognize.

 
Hello! I'm checking out the DVD Player in Ed 103. The DVD User's Guide says this machine will not recognize lazer discs, CD-I, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM. I've tried commercially recorded and burnt cds. The guide says it will play an audio cd or a video cd. Maybe I should try the music cd's that Ben receives in the mail do you think those discs are different than the ones one can buy in the music stores? The machine does work I played the movie Spirit in it the day the new MCU was being tested and have moved about in the directories using the remote TTFN!

 
From: Don Saraceno [mailto:saraceno@uidaho.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 12:59 PMFYI, I will working from home until 12:15 tomorrow, then I'll need to leave for Grangeville. Please contact me via e-mail (ui account) if you need to reach me. On Friday, I may need to take my wife to Spokane, so cell phone may be the best.

 
Hi Mike! Thanks for the reply! Please see the blog I wrote 4/17/03 11:57:23, for an explanation about the classroom computer.

Hi Matt, I did use a "burnt cd" I'll bring a commercial CD and try it soon.

 
I know for sure that you cannot use the control room computer to play a CD, but the DVD player should work. Right now the control room computer is not connected to the audio board for playback, only recording. Question: Why couldn't the professor use the classroom PC for playback?

 
Regarding compact disk playback: did you try a pre-recorded CD or a pirate or both? From my shockingly limited experience in the DVD world, I have the impression that there may be some compatibility issues with 'burnt' CDs.

 
Question for you guys! In Ed 103 and CNR 14, is there a way to play a music CD from the Control Room to the classroom? In my experimenting, the DVD player does not recognize CD's and the IOMEGA recorder looks like it can play CD's but I did not find an audio source for it on the audio board. I'll experiment with the DVD player again, it does say DVD/CD/VIDEO CD. Maybe it was the CD that I used. Mike do you have experience with this? May the BLOG be with YOU!

 
Yes! I agree with Mike! I do like the audio in CNR 14 better! Today, I sat through a 2 1/2 hour meeting with CNR14 & B2. B2's audio continued to cut out from 8:30 to 10:30.. (on a good note... when we could hear B2 their audio sounded uniform) When CNR spoke I could hear a lot of loud feed back. I disconnected at 8:35, connected the meeting in MCU 2, audio still cutting out, at 9:30 disconnected and reconnected in MCU 2 again. No change in audio.... I'm looking forward to updated equipment in B2!

 
Sorry, haven't checked blogger for a while, so this question is a little late, but could we do the same audio setup in Ed as is in CNR? It would be nice to have the monitors split between what is going out and what is coming in without needing to switch the AFL or use the PFL. (By the way, great idea Matt!)

 
Paula--Regarding the tiling, etc: I have seen lots of aberations lately on network ISDN calls, too. For instance, Tuesday was particularly bad for freezes: CdA instructor reported multiple long incoming video freezes while her outgoing video (as received at other sites) remained active. She lost audio at the same time, even though we could hear her. Part of this problem may be the audio echo from TF1 classroom. Also, and this is highly subjective, the overall quality of video on the network seems to be down: video seems softer, there is more blockyness to it. It may be my imagination, though, or maybe I need glasses.

 
4/16/03, Computer in the classroom in Ed 103 could not complete assignment, warning was given! 4/16/03, EDSP548, presenter wanted to run a PPT Presentation on a timer to coincide with music from the CD player. Music played fine, the PPT worked fine until we put the 2 together. The timed PPT kept freezing up. Unfortunately the music was shut off and the PPT worked with out a problem, snag, hitch. Presenter was disappointed... Any ideas?

 
Thanks Matt for the new Audio Config I can't wait to hear the difference!
4/16/03, EdSp548, Ed103, Sandpt & CDA1. System had numerous moments when audio switched to Cda and they would green checker board type tileing. If Cda was the site that spoke last and Moscow spoke to them, I could see the tileing. Occasionally, when Sandpoints audio went louder than usual I would see the tileing. Inbetween 7:05 and 7:30 the distant sites froze 3 times at 30 seconds each.

 
New Audio Config at CNR
I panned the inputs on the mixer for the incoming and outgoing audio (lefty innie, righty outtie) so that incoming and outgoing audio is heard in distinct (left and right) monitors. I think this makes it easier to isolate problems and hear what is going on. Please try it out and let me know what you think. All routing, recording, etc. is unaffected, the only difference is what you hear in the control room.

 
Steve at EO reports that he has been having trouble connecting to Boise 3. He has been experiencing frequent video freezes and audio not being passed. This evening he was unable to connect and had to reboot the JEB28 codec. They were able to connect after that via the MCU after reboot. I wonder if this is related to the T1 trouble we have been having.

 
The gateway is back up (thanks for asking) as of about noon today. ITS claims to not have done anything to fix it and I did not either, other than turn it off to prevent possible unauthorized use while we could not control it. But when Don got to the gateway location today, Mark from ITS was already there and said it was working. One possible explanation is there was something wrong with the data cable, which does not explain why I could not get into it via the serial port, but it’s the only explanation I have.

 
Radvision gateway is down. We can not communicate with it because the password has been changed. I suspect it has been hacked. The power is off on the unit to prevent unauthorized use. We will have to use the mcu for a gateway until further notice. I will try to contact Radvision to see if they can get us in a backdoor.

 
Idaho Falls connected to PlSc 408 in mcu2 from their INRA room to avoid problems on the T1.

 
Gateway (Radvision) is still down. Since the microwave is bad today also, had to run EO-WHETS class using mcu conference 3 as gateway.

 
Odd.

 
Dan's trouble was video freezes, not touchscreen lockup.
Also: when I got into the Ag104 control room today the thermostat was set at 90. Is there a conspiracy afoot?

 
Actually was frozen for about 5 minutes before we decided to reset.

 
Dan also had trouble yesterday with CdA1: fairly frequent freezes of about 10 seconds duration.

 
Had a problem with CDA tonight, when they first connected, they were not receiving any audio. I told them to reboot because their CLI screen was frozen. After this everything seemed to work fine.
NOTE: The people in CDA said the room heater was left on and it was over 90 degrees in there, could this have caused the problem?

 
I see Twin Falls classroom (TF1) video is back up. Anyone know what happened to fix that?

 
Completed successful test with Ted Beer at the University of Canterbury,New Zealand. This was a one-way test only (ISDN NZ to Moscow Ag) as they want to initiate the call for the meeting tomorrow. They are 19 hours ahead of us (Moscow time + 19 hours = NZ time). They will be scheduling the meeting this afternoon. It was a nice fall day in NZ.

 
Well, here is my daily entry, another wonderfully uneventful day for me.

Don--I will wait on dialing LCSC again until I have more info.

To all, I let Paula know already, but I will need all of next week's evening work off because of a prior engagement working in my church's Easter production. You are all invited if you want to come, just let me know and I will give you more information.

 
For the 4/16 Kempton meeting: tested MCU IP connection to WSU Vancouver. Could not dial to Vanc, probably due to their firewall. Vanc could dial in to mcu. Connection looked good. This connection is good enough since the meeting is in mcu conference 1 (incoming IP calls go into conference 1 by default) and they are willing to dial this direction. However WHETS Vancouver will work on the firewall issue and we may do further testing.

 
Unable to reach the Radvision gateway from the network, even after repeated reboots. Don has call in to Mark Quigley to check out the network connection.

 
From Don--
From: Don Saraceno
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 10:00 AM
Dan, in addition to the EdSp549 class, please continue dial outs to NIC for the Tuesday evening PSYCH316 class. We will make the necessary changes with all NIC classes once this semester is complete.
Mike, I have spoken with Leslie at LCSC, and she will speak with Harold following today's class. We are making an attempt to change the dial direction of the NezPerce102 classes.
Due to the reported audio difficulty with NIC when attempting to dial us, this may take some looking into. I apologize for any confusion cause by these e-mails, please don't hesitate to call if you have any questions.

 
From Don--
From: Don Saraceno
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 8:14 AM
There are to be absolutely NO "off-net" calls to be made from any of
the campus sites (including the mcu) prior to discussing this with me.
Currently there is only one exception to this rule, this is Dan's Monday
dial outs to NIC, Dan please continue dialing as we have for that class.
This restriction means NO emergency calls and no tests until I've been
notified.
I will notify the entire group once we've head from AT&T regarding the
rate issue. At that time we may discuss change dialing policies all
together.

 
Whew. Finally got the Ed 301 codec to accept a softrware upgrade. Had to do it via ftp and it was not pretty. Now all the on-campus Tandbergs are at B6.1.

The weekend starts now--let the wild rumpus begin.

 
I found I had the wrong IP address for the Twin Falls codec, both in my records and in the Ag codec directory as well as in my favorites file. It is correct in the mcu directory. Please make sure that 204.134.224.106 is the IP in your codecs and bookmarks.

 
Daryl installed Lou's new codec. I tweaked some network settings (gatekeeper mostly) and populated the directory with IP addresses. I put 20 entries in for Don's office.

 
Hey Paula--Welcome to the blog! I looked at the audio settings on the B3 codec. The audio gain on the mics looks like it may be too low. Also they have Noise Reduction turned off and I don't think they have the Echo Canceller properly set up. Probably need to work with them to get that room adjusted (perhaps their 'consultants' already did this). We should probably upgrade their software too--they are still at B4.1. New version (B6.1) seems to have better error correction and may help with the tiling. And thanks for the kudo!

 
You all, out there in UOVNSS land, are doing a great job!! Whether our customers say it or not, They appreciate you!!!
My Event with ED 103, B3 & IF1 yesterday afternoon, I made a VHS recording of it and gave it to Daryl. B3's audio was hollow sounding at the end of the conference when B3 spoke, I saw the green checker board tileing occasionally....

 
Saw Don/Daryl carrying in a bunch of Tandberg boxes yesterday.

 
Ah, another eventful day at UOVNSS

 
Tested IP connection to North Dakota--successful
Tested ISDN connection to METNet (Montana)--successful

 
We moved the dangling monitor in Ag104 today. It is now the left front monitor. The old left front monitor is now used in a roll-around unit. We will check if we can use the old dangling bracket to replace the remote monitor bracket in CNR14. The tilt allowed by the bracket from Ag104 should take care of most of the glare on the CNR14 monitor.

 
Twin Falls was unable to switch the video from conference room to classroom today at 9:30. Operator error probably--Jodie was away. Normally the instructor is in Aberdeen but today he was in Twin. No one told me this. The Aber students (correctly, it turns out) switched their outgoing video to the student cam. Instructor was asking if we could see him but I could only see students in Aber since I had assigned them the floor while trying to work with Twin on their problem. I did not know his voice was coming from TFsince all we had was black from there. So it seemed like there were two problems: video switching in Aber and room switching in TF. I talked to the students in Aber and learned that instructor was in TF. By then Linda had started the migration to the TF conference room. What a pain.

 
From Paula--
Thursday, today I have a medical appt and will take my lunch at 3:30
- 4:30, I came in at 7:30 so my day ends at 4:30 see ya tomorrow...
Dan is covering for me in Ed 103 from 2:30 to 4:30.

Friday, Annie has an eye appt at 8:30 in the morning, I'll hopefully
be back by 10:30. Daryl will you set up the meeting in JEB 111?

Thanks!!!! Any problems let me know! Paula

 
Hey Mike, glad you're here! For chat we should get icq and/or Trillian loaded on the computers. That way you and Dan can just annoy eachother :-).

 
Ok, I am on. Interesting idea, too bad I can't chat because I work evenings--maybe I can chat with Dan...or is that just going to be annoying for everyone who is trying to send and receive "legitimate" messages. Ok, no chatting...usually.

 
I am now leaving for the day. CdA1 is connected to mcu3 and there is no one in the room. Since we can not disconnect them from here I asked Paula to either reboot the mcu at 5 or get someone in CdA to disconnect.

 
Just finished our meeting and as we discussed I have started this web log ('blog') as a sort of pass-down log. What that means is that this is a place to enter issues, thoughts, ideas, problems, etc. that may be useful to others in the group.

 
This is the first message