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September 21, 2006
Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?
Yes, this entry is about echo and feedback which happen when sound from someone's speakers goes directly into an active microphone.
We of course highly recommend various headset and various echo cancelling speakerphones, but the fact remains that all you need is one person in a meeting without the right equipment to ruin the whole experience.
Also, we have found that certain audio cards (especially on laptops) leak audio from the speaker output into the microphone input.
And, to make it even harder, certain headsets' microphones are so sensitive they pick up audio from the headphones.
Talk about an uphill battle.
In comes software acoustic echo cancellation. This feature removes echo by using very complex software algorithms, accomplishing what was only possible in hardware just a few years ago.
Now, this feature has been available in other software for a while. The trick for us was making it work on three platforms and making it work for group conversations, not just one on one.
The latter is what has delayed us somewhat, as the processing power required was too high. Now, thanks to faster computers and more efficient algorithms we can announce that Marratech will soon have Acoustic Echo Cancellation in software.
We hope to have it as a part of our client software, which is free, before December.
We think this will take away a significant hurdle to acceptance by new customers and I am counting the days until we release it!
Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?
GOODBYE! :-)
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 03:04 PM | Comments (1)
September 18, 2006
Multi CPU computers
I was just reading about 4 core computer processors. This means that a single processor in your computer actually contains 4 of them, hidden inside.
The MacPro machines, for example, could have two processors with 4 cores each for a total of 8.
The operating systems see this single processor as 4 processors. This means it can delegate work to all four of them. The article in question was Mac related and mentionned how software will have to be rewritten to take advantage of this.
Well... not for us. Since the very beginning, Marratech has been using the Java programming language heavily. The Java language has great support for threads, i.e. an independant part of the software than can run in parallel to other parts of the software. This is probably because Sun, the creator of Java, has been selling multi processor systems for a very long time.
Programming in threads can be tricky, as timing between the different independant components must be perfect for information to be transferred between one thread to the others that require the info. Testing and provoking failures to replicate issues requires all the right conditions in place... at the right time.
No, I do not want to get into a course on threads, but I want to mention that both our client and server software build heavily on threads. Video encoding, voice, grabbing, network, encryption all are run within threads.
These Java threads can be sent to the many CPUs. Imagine the possibilities when 8 cpu can work together for video encoding and rendering... the possibilities are so large that one wonders what the Tandberg and Polycoms of this world will do with their dedicated hardware? They will be overwhelmed by the capabilities of these machines.
Imagine:
4 CPUs working on H.264 for 40 simultaneous participants, 1 CPU for audio, whiteboard, and the rest and then of course, 3 CPUs for Windows Vista and Outlook 2007. :-)
On the server side, expect even more cores per CPU.
To me, it is clear. Software-based rich collaboration will be everywhere in 5 years. No one will want to manage two systems when one can do everything better.
Where will the Video Conf equipment be?
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 02:14 PM | Comments (1)
September 14, 2006
EHaz - Multi university project using Marratech
Nice to see usage grow between universities. The Ehaz project regroups universities from the USA, Canada and Mexico (including McGill, from my home town :-) ) for research on the mitigation of geological natural hazards in North America.
I even found a link to the course's home page. Nice to see that our software can be used for helping spread knowledge about volcanoes, landlsides and supereruptions.
The Marratech server in use is hosted by Michigan Tech and if my memory serves me correctly they have been using Marratech for a long time. I remember meeting their very competent admin gang while I was on a trip in the USA (the meeting was of course online :-)
I you spot more Marratech in the wild, let me know!
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
Johnny Widen speaks at InternetDagarna
Our friend and long time pro user Johnny Widen will be speaking about net based meetings and the way to acceptance and widespread usage.
He will be sharing his experiences and the challenges met along the way and discuss the scenarios best suited for our kind of technology.
Johnny, works at CDT, the centre that founded Marratech and uses the software on daily for his virtual office, lectures, labs, research, seminars, etc... He is very involved in SUNET, the Swedish University Network (very recommended to click) and their efforts in the area of net based meetings.
The presentation will be held at Rica Talk Hotel, Stockholm Fair October 25th in Swedish for an event called Internet Dagarna (Internet Days).
Johnny helped me out during a presentation in Olso one year ago and I found it very interesting, he always brings up things that I had not thought about.
His presentation will surely be online using Marratech! (I will post the link if this is the case)
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2006
Server side customization
The Marratech Manager server is very customizable.
In fact, every page served by it can be completely modified. Modifications can be as easy as modifying the CSS file for fonts, logos and colors to full fledge API customization of server functionality.
In today's post I just wanted to mention that you can brand, customize and adapt the server as much as you want. (The client is still our property though ;-))
By changing the jsp files in the html directory, compiling the page through the admin interface you can change how the server looks.
This way, you can modify not only the layout of the session list page, but the welcome page, the dial out page and the way they link and call each other.
More information on how to do this is in the manual.
We have seen some very nice customizations and hope that those who do customize send us a screenshot for us to admire!
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 03:02 PM | Comments (0)
The Marratech API Forum
As you may have noticed, the API forum located at: http://www.marratech.com/forum/index.php?showforum=23 is now public.
We had it as invitation-only forum in order to throttle down the support demands. We have been very diligent to log in every question in it and it has lead to a good knowledge database which should help in answering most questions.
The API enables you to reach all the functionality open to the Manager's admin interface. It does not control the Marratech client functionality, only the server.
By using it, you can create / remove / edit meeting rooms and users, fetch and parse log files, create or re-use a meeting room booking system, integrate a meeting calendar etc...
I will post examples of how our customers use it in the coming weeks.
If you are a Marratech customer and you feel comfortable with server-side Java, feel free to browse the forum. Let us know if you would like to start an integration or customization project and we will enable the API functionality in your license.
We are very curious to see what you can come up with :-)
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)
Marratech @ Apple Expo
Marratech France is currently present at Apple Expo 2006 at booth B05 in the Partners Education area.
Come and say hi to Peter Cunningham. He will be on hand for demos and to answer all of your questions.
Better yet, contact Peter by emailing him at peterc@marratech.com to book a time!
/Serge
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2006
Forum
Hi all,
The forum we are using is currently powered by software that requires a lot of our time to keep updated and patched for security.
Furthermore, it requires a lot of time to keep it clean from spam and bots since it seems the target of choice for scripts that want to spread material that Marratech does *not* want to be associated with.
The board will be moved within the next couple of days to a new system which is hopefully more robust. The current forum will be offline for the time being.
Our valued forum users may need to update their RSS links and profiles (email digests, etc...).
We hope the benefits with the switch will outweigh the work required for it!
More details in the new forum... we hope :-)
/Serge
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2006
Medassist
The MedAssist project, an EU funded project, makes heavy use of Marratech to bring telemedicine benefits a large step closer to our daily lives.
Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals use MedAssist to diagnose and follow up on patients including heart beat and breathing.
The solution integrates Marratech clients, H.323 equipement, mobile users and is all held together by a Marratech Manager on the back end.
The solution is also used to facilitate communication between the various levels of local government using a network called Sjunet.
Marratech has been participating at various levels through development and consulting activities and is very proud to have been a part of this successful collaboration.
Posted by Serge Lachapelle at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)