C90 Video Capabilities

[Patrick Sparkman]

Hello all - I was looking at the C90 data sheet, and had a question on this comment about the Application Features:  "Collaborate on virtually anything with 5 simultaneous video inputs".  Does this mean that if I have 4 cameras connected, will I see all 4 cameras simultaneously during a video conference, or will I have to choose from one camera at a time?  The statement is kind of confusing, and just want to clarify on what is really possible.

If we have one C90 for one suite of rooms (total 4 rooms), 1 camera per room, and each suite/room was video conferencing with another location via that one C90.  Is it possible with the C90's advanced video features to treat each individual room as a seperate location within the suite having their own video and audio from each other, so that it would seem like the 4 rooms within the suite were actually 4 seperate locations video conferenced into the main location.  I know it can be done using seperate codecs, one for each room, and then video conference them all in that way, but was wondering if the C90 could do it in some way or another?

[Martin Koch]

To be honest, your explanation is what confuses me more :-) Better make a drawaing

You can add 4 cameras and mics and screens to the c90 given you can use the hdmi/dvi in/outs.

Also think about possible cable limitations.

You can define different layouts for the different screens and the remote one and you can have

different inputs mixed on these laytouts.

You can have three external calls if you have the multisite license.

You might need an external control system which contols all of that.

But you can only have one conference going on at the same time and I am not sure if you can route

audio / video to make all rooms complelty indepenent.

Unless you have a very strange setup where you need user seperation (like a prison) and a very specific needs

(that all always have to be in the same conference): I would say:

4 rooms = 4 video systems.

If you need to have all 5 rooms in one call you would need somthing which can bridge them togehter.

As the recent multisite only support 4 (3 external + yourself) you would most likely need a MCU as well.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Martin Koch wrote:
To be honest, your explanation is what confuses me more :-) Better make a drawaing

I totally agree. 

Think of taking the multiple video/audio inputs and outputs and wiring 4 rooms into the codec.  Then through a video conference connect to another codec where a presenter is, and allow those 4 rooms (sharing that single C90 codec) to independently conference with the presenter and each other while at the same time seeing all 4 rooms and the presenter on the screen.  I think I managed to explain it a bit better.  I know you can do some advanced video compositions and audio routes using the TC Console, but even with all of that, is is possible.

Or is the only true solution to have 4 independent codecs, one for each room, connected via an MCU.  The MCU isn't an issue, since we own one, it's just how to go about these 4 rooms utilizing the easiest or best approach to making it work without a lot of extra money.

[Martin Koch]

In theory it might be possible.

Some things might even be possible by just using just a AV-switch.

I think there are still things uncertian, like are the participants allowed to hear / see

each other or which limitations have to be in place.

I would say get a Cisco TelePresence partner on board which has the experience with AV rooms and control systems.

A direct disussion and playing through the use cases might be easier as an endless back and forth in the forum where

at the end still something is missing :-)

But keep in mind this is a tailored setup, nothings where I see a out of the box solution. So with all needs (cabling in between rooms, programming, ...) It might not become cheaper.

In theory you can even have a control panel at the remote site (or a web interface) where the remote

site can mute / unmute audio or video in between the different rooms, ...

[Tomonori Taniguchi]

C90 has capability to process up to 5 video input.

You may configure show those input display at locally (with single or multiple screen) and also how main/dual stream transmit from C90.

For example:

[C90-Local]

Display-1: Local Camera 1 & Camera2, PC presentation

Display-2: Far end main camera

Display-3: Local Camera 4 (as dual stream)

[C90-transmit video]

Main video: Local Camera1, Camera2, Camera3 composite video

Dual video: Local Camera4

The “Video Compositor” a part of TC Console help you to configure above quite easily over Web GUI.

TC Console is available from http://developer.cisco.com/web/telepresence-developer/tools/integrators/tc-console.

For audio, you may utilize HDMI and Line output and map audio out in different paths as well (but need to be careful for this audio mapping otherwise you may experience echo or howling).

[Tomonori Taniguchi]

Just for sample for compositing 5 input into single local display (use custom screen configuration).

This is sample with standard layout but you may modify the each screen size and location as well.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Thanks for all the tips etc.  I finally found some more information on the internet demonstrating the video compositor part of the C90.  It "could" work for what we'd like to do, however having 4 camera inputs coming accross a single video stream can easily get complicated when you add additional C90 systems with the same video layouts.  So if you had two C90s connected, you'd have two video streams, 1 from each codec, with 4 camera inputs coming accross each stream for a total of 8 windows.

Audo routing to each room, and echo cancellation could be achived using a 3rd party audio processor. Which could also enable 1 room's microphones to be transmitted to another in the suite of rooms.

The more I think of it though, single codecs for every individual room, looks to be the best approach.  Though the C90 video compositor theory is a good idea, just complicated.