Subject: [XCON] Comments on xcon-media-template-02

From: "Morgan, Dave" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 10:59:19 -0400

Chris and Umesh, here's my comments on your draft.

1.	I think that the three individual basic template definitions for
audio, video, and text should be combined into one basic multi-media
template (I agree with Orit on this point).  The fact that some media
definitions may be described and not used are inconsequential.
Furthermore, your next step would be to define a combined
audio/video/text template anyway.  Given that there is a lot of
similarity in the definitions, I vote for combining them and then moving
on to the advanced templates.
2.	Section 1: Introduction. I think that you should say you're
going to be "control protocol" agnostic.  That being said, obviously the
syntax has to match between the template and the control protocol.
3.	Section 4.1.1: Description. I think you should add something in
here on the audio mixing control, much like you have in the video
section.
4.	Section 4.1.1: Description.  I would vote that by default the
audio template allows all participants to speak when they join and that
the floor control is disabled.  This is how the vast majority of today's
conferences are configured.
5.	Section 4.1.2: Roles.  I would use "logical entities" rather
than "participants" to describe the conference attendees.  This avoids
confusion with the "participant" role.  You use "entities" in the role
descriptions later in the draft.
6.	Section 4.1.2: Roles.  I would include all 5 roles.  You should
include Administrator, most deployed systems have an Administrator.  You
should also include Creator, you refer to it.  You might as well throw
in Observer, then the basic (multimedia) template will be consistent
with the 5 proposed roles.
7.	Section 4.1.4: Controls.  I would vote that we should keep the
restriction that people cannot add controls to the basic template.  That
would be true for audio, video, and text.
8.	Section 4.1.4.1: Mute.  I like the idea of mute on the input and
output streams.  I also like the way you set up the controlarray on the
logical stream.  But I'm a bit confused, do we need to have a stream-id
in here to identify which stream the moderator is muting?  The same is
true for "pausing" video and blocking text.
9.	Section 4.1.4.2:  Gain.  I have an issue here.  We need to
define this either in db (with a default value of 0) or using a scale
from 1.0 to 0.0 (with a default value of .5).  We need to account for
amplification and attenuation.
10.	Section 4.1.6.1.1.1: Send_audio. I don't like the variable name
"value" it doesn't have any connotation.  Can you call it
"floor-control" or something that better describes its function?
11.	Section 4.1.7: Blueprint XML (Audio).  I would make the gain
volume default either .5 absolute or 0 db.  Don't start the participant
with no volume.  Even if you do intend to mute the output.
12.	Section 4.1.7: Blueprint XML (Audio).  I would start with a max
number of moderators being 1, not 128.  128 moderators would be total
confusion.
13.	Section 4.3.1: Description (Video).  I would suggest using
"video mixing control" instead of "local policy".
14.	Section 4.3.1: Description (Video).  You're going to need
something here on "layout".  The layout should be given for the basic
video template, even if it's just "single-view".
15.	Section 4.3.4.1: Pause-video. How about renaming "pause-video"
to just "freeze".  So for the 3 media types you would have mute (audio),
freeze (video), and block (text).
16.	Section 4.5.1: Description (Text). Actually I want to see my
text message appear in the received text stream, this is how most
systems work today.  I must confess that's how I spot most of my typos. 
17.	Section 4.5.1: Description (Text). When you're talking about
"defined to limit who can inject" you're really talking about the
"moderator".  So I would explicitly say "moderator".
18.	Section 4.5.7: Blueprint XML Example (Text).  By default I would
favor the  variable to block incoming text should be set to false.  You
should assume that conference participants know each other and want to
communicate with each other.  I would deal with "black-lists" with an
advanced text template.

 Overall, excellent progress.  We're all eager to see the template
flushed out some more.

Dave

------------------------------------------------------------------------

David P. Morgan, PhD 
VP, Architecture & Planning 
Fidelity Investments Systems Company - Telecom 
Phone:  617 563-2178 
Fax:      617 385 2122 
Mailing: 82 Devonshire St, MZ V8C 
            Boston, MA 02109-3614 
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