De rol van ICT en AV binnen organisaties

Communiceren is een essentieel onderdeel van (samen)werken en leren. Het zal duidelijk zijn dat de faciliteiten die dit mogelijk maken goed moeten functioneren. AV (audiovisuele) en ICT oplossingen dragen bij aan de creatie van informatie en de verbetering, versoepeling en versnelling van het communiceren. Hierdoor zijn organisaties in staat om sneller te schakelen en beter gefundeerde beslissingen nemen wat kan leiden tot een concurrentievoordeel.

In het licht van de huidige stand van de economie is het dus van belang een zo hoog mogelijk rendement te halen uit de ICT en AV omgeving tegen zo laag mogelijke kosten.

Dat de zorg om een adequate ICT omgeving binnen organisaties hoog op de agenda staat blijkt uit de rol van de CIO en de waarde die toegekend wordt aan de ICT performance scorecard waarbij een 5-tal aandachtsgebieden onderkend kunnen worden volgens Forrester research:

· De mate waarin investeringen bijdragen aan de organisatie doelstellingen,

· De ROI van ICT investeringen,

· Het ICT budget en het beheer hiervan (bijvoorbeeld transparantie, planbaarheid en juistheid),

· Operationele excellentie,

· Service level excellentie.

Deze 5 metrics zouden de kern moeten vormen van een ICT performance scorecard en om te zogen dat de performance op elke metric goed is moet de CIO begrijpen wat noodzakelijk is vanuit de business en hier op inspelen met de juiste services en op de juiste manier geleverd.

Wanneer echter gekeken wordt naar de zorg voor de AV omgeving binnen organisaties dan valt het op dat de verantwoordelijkheid voor AV binnen een organisatie in het algemeen op een veel lager niveau belegd is dan de verantwoordelijkheid voor ICT en dat het kennisniveau binnen de organisatie van AV vaak lager is dan dat van ICT. Het AV beheer vaak wordt gedaan door de leverancier, welke ook vaak een zeer grote stem heeft in de “noodzakelijke” functionaliteiten danwel de invulling hiervan. Hierbij is dus geen sprake van een gestructureerde AV performance scorecard maar meer van een ad-hoc aanpak

Overeenkomsten in het beheer van ICT en AV omgevingen

Vanuit een ideale situatie beschouwd zouden de beheerprocessen voor zowel de ICT omgeving als de AV omgeving identiek kunnen zijn. Hierbij kan voor het beheer van de AV infrastructuur dus net als binnen de ICT omgeving gebruik gemaakt worden van bijvoorbeeld ITIL (IT Infrastructure library) als set van best practices voor het beheer van de ICT infrastructuur. De 3 core volumes van ITIL beschrijven de onderstaande vijf aandachtsgebieden:

· Servicestrategie
ontwerpen, ontwikkelen en implementeren van servicemanagement als een strategisch middel;

· Serviceontwerp
ontwerpen en ontwikkelen van de services en bijbehorende processen op basis van de strategie;

· Servicetransitie
effectief omzetten van het serviceontwerp naar een nieuwe of gewijzigde service;

· Serviceproductie
regelen, coördineren en uitvoeren van de dagelijkse uitvoering van de processen;

· Continue Serviceverbetering
voortdurende de effectiviteit en efficiency van IT services verbeteren

In principe geldt dit voor een AV infrastructuur op dezelfde wijze als voor een ICT infrastructuur hoewel bepaalde aspecten wellicht minder zwaar aangezet zullen worden (bijvoorbeeld beveiligingsbeheer, uitgaande van een AV infrastructuur die niet geïntegreerd is met een ICT infrastructuur). Hierbij geldt dan ook dat toepassing van deze best practices in een AV infrastructuur zullen leiden tot lagere beheerkosten bij een AV infrastructuur die beter aansluit bij de wensen van de klant en tegen een hogere beschikbaarheid.

Uiteraard zijn een aantal van de processen binnen het AV beheer tot op zekere hoogte reeds aanwezig maar vaak niet geformaliseerd en in het algemeen minder volwassen dan in het ICT domein. Helaas ontbreekt in het algemeen de samenhang tussen de processen (in welke mate dan ook aanwezig) en de formele procesgang bij de uitvoering van de processen. Bij een formele implementatie van slechts enkele kernprocessen kan de kwaliteit van de AV dienstverlening binnen een organisatie eenvoudig verbeteren.

Een pragmatische aanpak, een logische stap

Indien de invoering op een pragmatische wijze wordt vormgegeven dan ligt het voor de hand gebruik te maken van de tools (denk aan bijvoorbeeld de helpdesk tool voor registratie van incidenten) en procesbeschrijvingen die reeds aanwezig zouden moeten zijn in het ICT domein. Vanuit zowel kostenaspect als gezicht naar de klant verdient het de aanbeveling hierbij zaken als de helpdesk te delen met ICT beheer.

Voor de klant schept dit duidelijkheid. Die hoeft het hoofd niet meer te breken over welk domein verantwoordelijk is in de keten (is de projector defect (AV) of ligt het aan mijn computer (ICT)). De klant kan eenvoudig 1 service nummer bellen en het incident wordt geregistreerd en opgelost. De kostenbesparing hierbij is inherent. Geen dubbele systemen en teams.

Integratie van 2 werelden

Integratie van het beheer van de ICT en de AV omgeving is een logische keuze, zelfs als het 2 volledig gescheiden omgevingen betreft. Dat het 2 gescheiden omgevingen betreft lijkt logisch als gekeken wordt naar de diensten die beide partijen leveren. Vanuit ICT worden diensten als messaging and Collaboration (waarin mail, sharepoint en office communicator) of Connectiviteit (draadloos of bedraad network toegang en mobiele netwerk toegang). AV daarentegen levert diensten als (video) conferencing en gebruik van presentatie/vergader ruimtes.

Als we echter iets beter kijken naar de 2 omgevingen is het de vraag in hoeverre of hoe lang deze nog volledig gescheiden blijven (weet u het nog, vroeger waren fax, printer, scanner en kopieerapparaat ook losse apparaten, beheerd door verschillende domeinen).

Er is sprake van een convergentie waarbij integratie mogelijk en vaak ook gewenst is tussen bijvoorbeeld:

· Videoconference systemen en pc gebaseerde conferentiesystemen (denk aan bijvoorbeeld Microsoft Office Communication Server),

· Integratie tussen een room reservation systeem en Microsoft Exchange/Outlook om ruimtes te reserveren.

· Smart boards en software voor collaboration waarbij je dezelfde software wilt gebruiken voor elke setting dus met of zonder display systeem of smartboard

Wanneer we nu ook eens kijken naar de ontwikkelingen in de markt dan lijkt de grens tussen beide domeinen snel te vervagen. Zowel HP als Cisco stappen in de videoconferencing markt en Cisco stapt nu ook in de markt voor digital signage met hun LCD panelen. Naast deze traditionele IT bedrijven zie je dat ook de traditionele AV bedrijven opschuiving in de ICT richting. Barco projectoren bijvoorbeeld zijn eigenlijk gewoon PC’s die op windows draaienmet een afwijkend scherm, te weten een stel lenzen.

En nu?

Dit is alles bij elkaar een aardige verandering in het diensten landschap en daar door combinatie van componenten uit twee domeinen nieuwe diensten gedefinieerd worden, wordt het ook zinvol het beheer van deze diensten onder te brengen in 1 domein. Het meest logisch hierbij is om het team dat de ICT omgeving ondersteund ook verantwoordelijk te maken voor de ondersteuning van de AV omgeving. Op zich is andersom ook een optie maar er zijn een aantal redenen die ervoor pleiten dat juist niet te doen. Deze zijn:

· Vanuit ICT zijn de beheerprocessen en tools in het algemeen al ingericht en beproefd in de praktijk

· Daar AV componenten meer en meer ICT componenten worden (netwerk projectors, video over IP, etc.) zal vanuit ICT beheer een integratieslag plaatsvinden waarbij de AV componenten in het ICT netwerk geplaatst worden

Op dit moment is dit al zonder meer mogelijk maar gezien de diversiteit binnen de AV wereld en de manier waarop de devices hier beheerd worden kan het zijn dat een tussenlaag mogelijk is die aan de ene kant kan communiceren met de AV componenten en aan de andere kant met de IT beheer tools.

Om dit te vereenvoudigen zal de AV industrie moeten zorgen dat hun devices bepaalde standaarden zoals SNMP gaan ondersteunen. Dan kunnen de devices direct en zonder tussenlaag beheerd worden

Tevens zullen organisaties moeten gaan nadenken over een duidelijke strategie over hun AV infrastructuur en hoe dit aan de ene kant te benutten en aan de andere kant te beheren en integreren. Het zal duidelijk zijn dat deze strategie niet gefocust zal zijn op het per direct vervangen van onderdelen die nog in het begin van hun economisch levensduur zijn. Dit zal immers een desinvestering zijn (tenzij de baten groter zijn dan de kosten van vervanging).

Hierbij kan het IT’s AVision™ model gebruikt worden zoals gedefinieerd door MII.

Dit model helpt organisaties bij het definiëren van:

· De communicatie behoefte en technische hulpmiddelen die hierbij nodig zijn

· De strategie ten aanzien van de geïntegreerde infrastructuur gebaseerd op de werkwijze van de organisatie en het beheer van de infrastructuur

· De stappen die genomen moeten worden om te komen tot een goed beheerde en geïntegreerde ICT/AV infrastructuur

En last but not least, de CIO moet zich voorbereiden op de integratie met de AV instrastructuur en het beheer van deze geïntegreerde infrastructuur. Dit houdt dus in dat naast de reeds aanwezige ICT kennis hij/zij ook zal moeten zorgen dat er voldoende kennis aanwezig is van de AV specifieke technologie. Zonder dit zal de CIO nooit de kwaliteit kunnen leveren die is afgesproken met de organisatie en is vastgelegd in SLA’s

Conclusie

Door ICT en AV te integreren krijgen organisaties:

· Meer keuze in hun communicatie mogelijkheden

· Nieuwe keuzes in hun communicatiemogelijkheden

Daarnaast kan door deze geïntegreerde omgeving te managen volgens 1 model (bijvoorbeeld ITIL) een aantal additionele voordelen behaald worden:

· Hogere klanttevredenheid

· Toegenomen beschikbaarheid

· Lagere kosten door een gestructureerde en pro-actieve aanpak

· Beter risico management

· Beter inzicht in de componenten van de infrastructuur, de relaties ertussen en de kosten ervan alsmede waar het zich bevindt in de economische levensduur

Just got my Streamium:)

I'm in a buzz program and that's a pretty cool thing since I get the opportunity to play around with some pretty nice things and buzz about it. More information on this buzz program can be found here.


So here is my buzz on this streamium (philips streamium network music player NP2500). Basically I like to see my media integrted in the house. Just 1 central location to strore all my pictures, music and video including recorded TV and then be able to play this everywhere in the house. This is why I'm having a mediacenter with a homeserver for backups.


When I got the opportunity to buzz this product I smiled when signing up since this fits perfectly in my vision on the digital lifestyle.

After opening the box my first impression was "Whoooo this looks great and fits in any (living)room". Obviously I did not read any manual but just started installing. Put the installation CD in my mediacenter (since this is the central media storage) and the whole installation of the server part was an easy job. It installls Twonky Media and the server side is ready (ok, I just found out the regular UPnP could have done the trick as well)

Then turning on the device and follow the on screen instructions. Everybody can do this again even without a manual (but with their security codefor their wireless network and it might be a bit more complicated if your wireless setup is not a pretty strightforward one).

So time to listen to music from the media store and internet Radio and this sounded great but here there was a set back. Browsing took ages. ok I admit I have a lot of music but this to me was pretty disappointing and when browsing a large library (or massive list of internet radio stations) the system is a bit unresponsive.

Let's hope this is because the player will do do background stuff in the beginning (built a list or something like that) and speed will be better if this is completed. I also shall try it agin if I put it wired to the network.

Another thing is that this is a seperate device and there is a tendency to built this into receivers (Denon, Yamaha etc). On the other hand, in the bedroom I now just have this with a set of JBL speakers (so it matches the design of the streamium since this absolutely great)

In general my first impression is pretty positive but have to play with it a bit more. I think I will keep this post updated by giving replies to my own post


Update:

ok, played around with it a bit and really love it. Figured out that the standard UPnP works better in my network than the twonky media server so streaming from the mediacenter goes really nice.

So far a great device for a room where a small mediaplayer with some simple speakers (I have the JBL creature II in black which is a perfect match)

Sound is very good

The only con is still the speed of browing the music collection. Still will try to wire it up with the built in ethernet connection and see if that goes better than wireless

3D tv coming to you (but you still have to wait till 2012)

I was just updating myself by browsing the web to some stuff that is interesting and I came accross this article from Pocket-lint about 3D coming to us (well for the lucky ones having Sky) with the 2012 Olympic games.

It looks like a victory for the systems with passive stereo (where you have special polaroid glasses) but luckily this is not 100% set yet. As stated they like to see glass free technology and they are not wedded to this technology.

The best thing however is to see how much effort is put already in recording movies and TV shows in 3D. This means that whenever the technology to broadcast this ready (and the TV's are as well) we do not need to wait 5 years before the content is there.

The article:

Viewers of the London 2012 Olympics will be able to watch all the action in 3D from the comfort of their home, if Sky has anything to do with it.

"There is a very good chance you'll see the London Olympics in 3D", said Brian Lenz, head of product design and innovation at Sky, before confirming the satellite broadcaster will "be filming events in 3D".

Sky has outlined its vision for the future of television at its head office in West London with the demo of 3DTV for the first time, spelling the need for yet another upgrade to your TV in the near future.

Although the company admits the technology is unlikely to hit the living room any time soon, it is already getting ready for the move to 3D over 2D TV shows and events.

"We are already filming events in 3D", Lenz told Pocket-lint. The company's demo for the new technology currently shows a number of clips with a strong focus on sports such as boxing, football and rugby although films, documentaries and stage performances aren't out of the running.

"We still have to understand what consumers want", Chris Johns, chief engineer at Sky said before adding; "This isn't just a Sky endeavour".

In fact Sky is keen to point out that other companies around the world are getting involved too.

"Dreamworks has said every movie going forward will be available in 3D, while we know of around 63 movies that are planned over the next 2 - 3 years that will be 3D enabled".

Unlike current 3D systems from companies like Samsung that require you to wear special glasses that flicker to deceive you into believing you are watching a 3D image, the Sky system works on a passive stereoscopic 3D approach.

To experience 3DTV you will need a new TV set that is "3D ready" and you'll still have to wear special glasses, however they will resemble something more akin to a pair of sunglasses rather than a gadget contraption with moving parts.

"A major manufacturer will be launching a stereoscopic 3D set in the next 12 months", said Lenz, before hinting that it might be "Sony at CES" later in our meeting.

The system, which requires new camera equipment to film on, works by setting the television as the "plain of field" like a window and then positioning certain elements in front of and behind that window. The result, with the glasses, is that you get a 3D effect no matter where you sit in the room. Take the glasses off and all the viewer will see is a blurry image.

"What we really want is a glasses free technology", says Lenz before reiterating that it's still very early days for the technology. "We aren't wedded to this technology, however what it does allow us to do is use our existing network to deliver the signal without expensive upgrades".

You get the feeling that Sky could go live today if there was a physical need for the technology, but without any TVs or content in the market it's not really commercially sensible and that's before you add the additional cost to the production of the film, event, or show. Sky estimate it will add a further 10-15% on the bottom line, a high price to pay in a credit crunch climate.

So should you hold off buying a new TV? Probably not, but it is worth bearing in mind that when you come to buy the next one in the next four to five year's time, 3DTV is likely to have hit the living room.

Cisco is moving into AV world FAST!!!!!!

As you can read in the digitalsignagetoday post as copied and pasted below (click here for original), Cisco is moving in a new direction. After creating their IP/TV platform and stepping into the Videoconferencing market with HP (ok telepresence) they also are moving into digital signage. This looks like their strategy is to be dominant in the AudioVisual market as well. This bigger clue about the convergence between ICT and AV cannot be found




SAN JOSE, Calif. — Cisco is working to make it easier to view video content on many different formats, such as digital signage, desktop and mobile phone screens, with a new media processing technology.

The networking company today announced a platform that simplifies live and on-demand video sharing across digital signage networks, PCs and mobile phones, by automatically formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device.

Driving the new platform is the Cisco Media Experience Engine (MXE) 3000, which delivers the ability to transcode a single source of content so that it is playable on those devices. It also delivers real-time post production and processing capabilities such as watermarking, voice and video editing, text and image overlays and noise reduction to create broadcast quality video experiences.



“Many employees have access to PCs to receive video messages, but there may be a high percentage that don’t,” said Thomas Wyatt, general manager, DMSBU. “They can get access to that very same content through digital signage or enterprise TV. Playing video back on multiple devices is something we’re seeing customers wanting to invest in, especially in a challenged economic environment.”

Janice Litvinoff, director of product management, DMSBU, says that the first applications of the new media platform are likely to come in the education and corporate communications sectors.

“The use of video to communicate change is becoming more critical,” she said. “In tough times you don’t want to use email to communicate important news. Say a company needs to get a CEO’s message out to all employees. Now it can come from one source and reach everyone.”

Grounded, but connected

Litvinoff also said that Cisco is positioning is DMS suite as a way to cut back on operating expenditures in tough economic times.

“The new media processing platform will reduce the time it takes to communicate critical messages,” she said. “The hours it takes to produce video will be reduced, saving time and operating expenditures.”

Litvinoff also said that Cisco predicts some of its more than 800 DMS customers can use the communications suite and its TelePresence capabilities as a way to communicate without having to travel, saving time and money for those companies.

“Hardly anyone here at Cisco is traveling right now unless absolutely necessary,” she said. “We’re all grounded and communicating through DMS.”

Entering the LCD screen market

Cisco’s Digital Media System consists of Digital Media Manager software, Digital Media Players and now the MXE 3000. The system is commonly used for corporate communications, desktop video and telepresence.

Also joining the DMS family are two Professional Series LCD displays designed for use with the system. Available in 40- and 52-inch models, the screens feature full 1080p resolutions and are controlled remotely from the Cisco Digital Media Manager, which allows users to change the volume, contrast, brightness and turn the screen on and off.

The Cisco Media Experience Engine and Cisco LCD 100 PRO 40N and LCD 110 PRO 52S are available immediately.

Digital pictureframe......cool way of keeping people up to date

Most of you probably don't know (assuming most of my readers are people I don't know) but I'm about to become a daddy:) This obviously is a great thing and not just for us but also for our parents. Unfortunately they live far away (well far is a subjective thing but I mean a few hours driving)

I was just wondering how to keep them up to date and finally I got it. I bought some digital photoframes (the cheap kodak ones with wifi) and now I can share the pictures I make via the internet. Just created a pictures for dummies manual (parents are not really from the digital era) so they can start it up and select the right albums to view

By doing so I noticed that the software to upload is not the greatest in the world and definately not integrated (would love to keep some of my mediacenter folders in sync with the digital album at kodak) but they moved from traditional media to a new set of services. I can upload the pictures (and then have them printed on paper, canvas, a mug or whatever) and the people viewing them are able to have their printed copies as well. Not sure if they will use this service (maybe to have a print of 1 picture for their wallet to show off) but the idea is nice

Next step is playing around with the more advanced digital photoframes (and unfortunately more expensive ones) that can show video and websites as well. The goal now is to setup a system that can display the images (streaming) from an IP cam so I can have a bunch of those frames with either pictures or the security cameras (and the babycam, this one has audio as well). If you have a setup like this feel free to share

The quality of information

Last saturday I read an article in the newspaper (NRC bijlage zaterdag etc) about blogging and they had some nice facts (are they really true, did they check?)

When looking at the amount of people (on a global scale) that are having a blog you get a stunning 184.000.000 people blogging dispersed into <1%>

These are serious numbers and they are not all educated as a journalist. This does not need to be a bad thing and a lot of great stuff has come out of the blog community but there is a big alert popping up in me.

When I was a kid (or later a student) and I had to write a paper I had do do some research and in order to do this I went into a Library (big building with a lot of books) where I did my reasearch. From every piece of research I check the facts (in the books) or could see that the publication was in a book or other publication that had checked the facts for me. This learned me to judge the quality of the information and to do proper research. I also had to mention all my sources of information (don't see this that much anymore now in the internet era and have to admit I do not do this too often as well)

When looking at the current students they have total new ways of gathering information. A great source for example is wikipedia and I have heard people saying this is true because it's on wikipedia (or worse, because it's on the internet). We all know how easy it is to change information on wikipedia or the internet.

We also know that when people start blogging it's their opinion. This is a great thing and definately could enrich the information we get but we have to be carefull when reading. We need to look at who did blog this and what is his/her interest (so start reading my blog with a different view now:)

So in conclusion, yes blogging is great and the internet gives us a lot of new ways to deal with information but since the barrier to publish is so much lower we need to educate the people in judging the information instead of just accepting it as the truth

The crucial role of ICT and AV within organizations

The role of ICT and AV within organizations


Communicating is a crucial element in the process of working and learning. This implies in a clear way that all facilities enabling communication need to function extremely well. Communication is already pretty difficult so anything to avoid miscommunication can make a big difference. ICT and AV (Audiovisual) systems support the communication process and enable groups of individuals working together to make better and/or faster decisions. This can generate a competitive advantage which again shows the value of ICT and AV systems in this era


When looking at the current global economic situation it is important to get most out of your ICT and AV environment against the lowest possible costs for that level of quality required. Lowering the costs too much might undermine a smooth operation and can compromise the minimum level of quality needed.

Although ICT budgets are under pressure as well there is no doubt about the importance of the CIO within an enterprise environment. According to Forrester Research the CIO’s key to success is choosing a small number of metrics that are relevant to the business and have the most impact on business outcomes. The five metrics that meet the criteria for relevance and impact are

• Investment alignment to business strategy,
• Business value of IT investments,
• IT budget balance,
• Service level excellence,
• Operational excellence.
  

These five metrics should form the core of an ICT performance scorecard and in order to perform well on all items on the scorecard the CIO should understand the business needs and deliver on this with well managed services (and costs).

However, when looking at the AV environment within an organization it appears that this is perceived and valued totally different. Often there is no strong alignment with the business strategies nor an AV performance scorecard and the responsibilities for managing the operational and service level excellence is much lower on the ladder. Pretty often this is just a contract management role where knowledge of the AV concepts doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite. This in general leads to an ad-hoc approach instead of a well structured AV performance scorecard approach

Structures to support

When looking at AV as stated earlier support is often done by the AV supplier and is reactive in nature while IT support is often organized according to the best practices as described within the ITIL framework where we can use the ITIL v3 core volumes

• Service Strategy focuses on the identification of market opportunities for which services could be developed in order to meet a requirement on the part of internal or external customers. The output is a strategy for the design, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of the service as an organizational capability and a strategic asset. Key areas of this volume are Service Portfolio Management and Financial Management.


• Service Design focuses on the activities that take place in order to develop the strategy into a design document which addresses all aspects of the proposed service, as well as the processes intended to support it. Key areas of this volume are Availability Management, Capacity Management, Continuity Management and Security Management.


• Service Transition focuses on the implementation of the output of the service design activities and the creation of a production service or modification of an existing service. There is an area of overlap between Service Transition and Service Operation. Key areas of this volume are Change Management, Release Management, Configuration Management and Service Knowledge Management.


• Service Operation focuses on the activities required to operate the services and maintain their functionality as defined in the Service Level Agreements with the customers. Key areas of this volume are Incident Management, Problem Management and Request Fulfillment. A new process added to this area is Event Management, which is concerned with normal and exception condition events. Events have been defined into three categories:
  o Informational events, which are logged
  o Warning events, also called alerts, where an event exceeds a specified threshold
  o Critical events, which typically will lead to the generation of Incidents


• Continual Service Improvement focuses on the ability to deliver continual improvement to the quality of the services that the ICT organization delivers to the business. Key areas of this volume are Service Reporting, Service Measurement and Service Level Management
  

In general these core volumes can be applied to the management of an AV infrastructure as well and this would lead to lower support costs while having an AV infrastructure that fits the needs better and operates more stable due to the pro-active nature of the ITIL processes. Within AV support some of these processes are there already (but not always as mature as within the ICT domain) but other in general are absent like incident management or life cycle management. This would strongly plead for using the ITIL best practices in AV management as well (and possibly even using the same set of management tools where possible since the IT department may already have e.g. an incident management registration tool).

Blending both worlds even further.

When looking at the services both parties provide we used to have some clear distinction. For example the IT department delivered services like messaging and collaboration or network connectivity (wired, wireless and mobile) while from an AV point of view services like (video)conferencing or presentation/meeting rooms were offered.

When looking at the convergence that is taking place right now we see transitions where projectors get network connected, traditional (video)conferencing/telepresence systems integrating with webcams and meeting room reservation systems being available from the IT messaging system.

As a result the boundaries between the services delivered by the IT department and AV management are getting fuzzy. When looking at the ICT messaging and collaboration service this in general includes platforms like exchange, Office Communication Server and Sharepoint.
Traditionally meeting room reservation systems are managed by the AV team, as well as (video)conferencing or digital signage/narrow casting.

With all convergence going on we see digital signage products based on sharepoint, meeting room reservation systems integrating with outlook/exchange and (video)conferencing solutions working nicely together with office communication server.

This fundamentally reshapes the traditional services landscape and it would make sense to have the AV components managed by the same team that already manages the ICT infrastructure. There are some good reasons to do it this way around and not the other:

• The ICT department most likely already has the support tools and processes in place
• Since AV components will be more and more ICT components (projectors on the network, video over IP, etc.) ICT needs to integrate this in their network anyhow and thus will have a strong say in the choices made
• AV components and their networked interactivity are becoming more and more complex so it would make sense to have the most technical group taking care of them
  

Next steps

The AV industry should ensure the devices they design and built will support standards like SNMP so they will be easier to manage without the need for a layer in between as is needed today.

On the other hand enterprises should think about a clear strategy on their AV environment and how to integrate this with the ICT environment. This obviously can be a long term strategy to avoid disinvestments by replacing components that are still in the middle or beginning of their economic lifecycle (unless replacement would deliver a cost benefit that is bigger than the disinvestment). This can be done according to the IT’s AVision model as defined by MII that will lead you through the steps necessary for your organization (steps in maturity are outlined below, note this is not the complete model)

Last but not least, the CIO should prepare for taking control of the AV components as well. This means he needs to make sure that the AV specific technology is understood so he can keep delivering on the expectations

Conclusion

By integrating your AV support and ICT support in 1 support model (preferably ITIL) and using 1 set of tools the costs of managing the integrated environment will go down while the support moves from reactive to proactive. This obvious will result in a situation where communication can migrate to more effective communication

Amberalert - Great showcase of PC based narrow casting and what you can do with it

Hi

Just got this press announcement (sorry it's in Dutch but there is English information available via http://www.amberalertnederland.nl/Default.aspx - check for English website in right upper corner). Personally I think this is a great showcase of the technology (great digital signage application with multi platform distribution options (PC, mobile phone, digital signage screens etc). However what I like most about this particular showcase (besides it's free) is the social relevant use of technology on helping the government with tracking back missing children and child abduction in a simple and easy to use way. You get targeted alerts (based on postal code) on your pc (IM, popup or screensaver), mobile phone or in a community area on the digital signage screens already available

PERSBERICHT
Dit is een gezamenlijk persbericht van het Korps landelijke politiediensten, Netpresenter en het Openbaar Ministerie.
Den Haag, 11 november 2008

Landelijk AMBER Alert-systeem vergroot vindkans vermiste of ontvoerde kinderen
Heel Nederland wordt via schermen, e-mail, SMS en instant messaging gewaarschuwd bij een vermissing van een kind waarvan vermoed wordt dat diens leven of gezondheid gevaar loopt. Minister van Justitie Hirsch Ballin heeft vandaag in Nieuwspoort het startsein gegeven voor AMBER Alert Nederland. Doel is bij urgente kindervermissingszaken gebruik te maken van de ogen en oren van de burger en zodoende snel het kind te kunnen opsporen. Meedoen is eenvoudig: daarvoor hoeft alleen de software te worden gedownload.

De Nederlandse politie gaat gebruik maken van een nieuw waarschuwingssysteem bij urgente kindervermissingszaken: AMBER Alert (www.amberalertnederland.nl ). Met dit gezamenlijk initiatief van softwarebedrijf Netpresenter en de Nederlandse politie, kan heel Nederland straks direct van kindervermissingen op de hoogte worden gebracht door middel van pop-ups op PC's, beeldkranten, screensavers, e-mail, SMS, Instant messenger, newsfeeds en website Alerts (Flash). Doel is gebruik te maken van de oren en ogen van de burger waarmee de politie kan worden geholpen bij haar zoektocht naar het vermiste kind.

"De hulp van Nederlandse burgers en organisaties is doorslaggevend voor het succes van het systeem. Ik roep dan ook iedereen op om AMBER Alert tot een echte levensredder te maken - download de software zoals ik, of meldt u bijvoorbeeld aan voor een SMS- of e-mail alert," aldus minister Hirsch Ballin van Justitie nadat hij het startsein voor AMBER Alert had gegeven.
AMBER Alerts zullen alleen worden uitgestuurd bij urgente kindervermissingszaken. De beslissing óf er een AMBER Alert zal worden uitgestuurd is aan de politie. Het Korps landelijke politiediensten (Klpd) toetst of een vermissing aan de criteria voldoet. Zo moet het kind onder de 18 jaar zijn, moet er direct gevaar bestaan voor het leven van het kind of moet gevreesd worden voor ernstig letsel. Naar verwachting zal er tussen de vijf en tien maal per jaar een AMBER Alert worden uitgestuurd. De Nederlandse politie is volledig verantwoordelijk voor de inhoud van alle AMBER Alerts.

Hoe werkt het? Op http://www.amberalertnederland.nl/ kunt u software downloaden waarmee via uw scherm kort aandacht wordt gevraagd voor een urgente kindervermissingszaak. Door ook op uw PC- of plasmascherm elektronische posters met informatie over vermiste kinderen te laten zien, helpt u het bereik van deze berichten vergroten. En dat is van levensbelang want hoe meer mensen de opsporingsposters zien, hoe groter de kans dat een kind (snel) teruggevonden wordt. U kunt zich ook aanmelden voor AMBER Alert e-mails, SMS- en IM-berichten of voor een Flash-bericht op uw website.

AMBER Alert Nederland werkt naar voorbeeld van het Amerikaanse AMBER Alert Plan dat al vele kinderlevens heeft gered. Er zullen geen reclameboodschappen worden vertoond en de privacy van de gebruiker is gewaarborgd. De software voor AMBER Alert Nederland is ontwikkeld door Netpresenter in samenwerking met de Nederlandse politie.

Communicatiespecialist Netpresenter stelt het systeem kosteloos ter beschikking van het Klpd.

Big winners are Obama and Technology

It has without any doubt been the most impressive US elections for a long time (maybe even ever). I guess most people watched the elections on TV and used the internet to keep up to date. This has lead to a huge amount of traffic to the CNN website. 276 millions of page views where there are “only” 35 millions normally. Not that bad. There have been more on 9/11, but the circumstances were definitely more comfortable yesterday. Also the other non-election related websites had many less page views than normally.

When looking at these figures we can assume many people went to the CNN site and I guess many others watched their live election broadcast and here we have seen some great stuff. Besides the perceptive pixel multi touch screen they already had for a while when talking about the elections in the last few weeks (a nice clip about this is shown here but this one is much more fun I think)

Besides this way of presenting CNN is also doing interviews. But instead of the split screen or window TV viewers might typically see during live remote interviews, the Obama spokesperson will be projected as a three-dimensional hologram, making it appear as if he or she is in the Manhattan studio with Blitzer. The network plans to conduct similar holographic interviews with representatives from the McCain campaign in Phoenix.

"Everyone is doing something virtual this election year," says CNN Senior Vice President David Bohrman, the guy who pushed the technology. But Bohrman believes CNN is going where no network has gone before by employing Hollywood-style effects. "Virtual elements in a real set look so much better than a real person in a virtual set," he says.

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There'll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

And CNN is not the only one bringing in new high tech. Let’s look at what the other did:

• Fox News has built three new HD studios for Tuesday night's broadcast so it can make better use of the additional TV real estate with updated county results, comparative numbers from previous elections and poll-closing times. A giant wall with touch-screen technology will provide electoral map results.
  
  "We've been planning for this night for two years," says Jay Wallace, vice president of news editorial product at Fox News.
  
  
• ABC's digital maps make their debut, letting correspondents look at up-to-the-minute votes by county, and compare votes as far back as 1960. Also, a double ticker line at the bottom of TV screens will display current popular and electoral totals for Barack Obama and John McCain. Beneath that will be results for Senate and gubernatorial races, says ABC News Creative Director Hal Aronow-Theil. For HD viewers, ABC is providing more information on the left margin of the TV screen.
  
  
• NBC spent the past year designing two studios that make the most of visual technology. One features intricate exit-polling information that digitally appears on a wall. The other studio lets political director Chuck Todd analyze presidential results by region, state and county. "We finally figured a way around using pie charts," jokes Phil Alongi, executive producer of election night for NBC News and its cable channel, MSNBC.
  
  NBC, too, plans to make use of a bigger HD screen size with detailed results from the presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races. And it has partnered with social-networking giant MySpace on Decision08, an online section that includes video, news feeds and blogs from NBC News.
  
  
• CBS News will analyze national and state exit-poll data, using state-of-the-art technology to display vote-counting and demographic data.
  Touch-screen technology will allow anchor Katie Couric to drill down on state and county results for all races, including propositions. "It is very fast technology using real-time data," says Frank Governale, vice president of operations for CBS News.
  
  
• Comedy Central, a go-to cable channel for political news for many young people, is teaming with a social-networking site. The TV home of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is using the services of Meebo to host chat rooms for users to share their political views.
  Among CNN's other innovations on election night are a virtual Capitol Building used to illustrate the changing balance of power in Congress. But the most promising election winner is the hologram. "Either this is an evolution in the way we do live interviews on television," Bohrman says, "or it's a nice try."
  

Would this be the first step in creating the showcases to bring this into our daily life a bit more? At least one thing is clear. Besides Obama, Touch screen technology is the big winner

Microsoft vs Competition: 2-1

After showing off the surface some years ago (and the sphere a few months ago, see earlier post in this blog) competitors have reacted by several types of multi touch tables. Not sure but I think the way open source and other projects around multi touch showed up may have pushed Microsoft to bring the surface to the market after all or at least faster than they would have planned.

Surface, the next itteration is called SecondLight

But now there is a new great piece of work delivered by Microsoft Research in Cambridge - SecondLight. The new table projects an image through the table itself, so that any translucent material (such as tracing paper or perspex) held above the Surface screen displays a different image to what you see on the table's display.



This means you can have a satellite image of a town on the table, and have the street names projected on to a piece of paper that the user holds above the map. Or you could have a photo of a car, with the tracing paper displaying images of its innards as you pan the paper across the screen. Microsoft described the technology as a "magic lens".

How it works

SecondLight works by projecting two different images from beneath the table. The table surface itself is formed of a liquid crystal display that switches between frosted and transparent states when electrical voltage is passed through it.

By rapidly flicking the screen between the two states, the table appears as permanently diffuse, displaying an image like an ordinary Surface table.

The screen is, in fact, transparent for half the time. And during these periods then second image is beamed on to the paper, confusing the eye into believing it's seeing two images simultaneously.
Using an infrared camera, the secondary "display" can also be used as a multitouch surface. What's more, it can display video.

Microsoft gave no indication of when SecondLight will be ready for commercial release, but judging by the interest in the ordinary Surface tables, it shouldn't keep this one locked in the labs for long.

Thompson: Educational games will lose you money - a bit shortsighted

Although most press attention goe to windows 7 (and for a reason, I think it looks pretty cool, just hope they are able to deliver on all their promises) I just read an interview with Microsoft's Neil Thompson who has warned developers and publishers that trying to create games with specific educational value will just lose a company money. (complete interview can be found here).

Thompson said that although titles like Brain Training are both informative and fun, setting out to combine education and entertainment was a bad idea. "We're in the business of producing fun, not education," offered Thompson.

I think this is a bit shortsighted. It might not be profitable right now except for nintendo but I think games and simulation offers great benefits in learning and training. The current population of kids is gaming a lot and educational games would make complexe material more accesible to them (and probably not just to them). Also it gives more flexibility in the way the material is offered (just think about the graphical options).

This can not be matched with the books as used when I went to school. I personally think educational games can make learning more fun and help make complex matter more understandable than books can do.

think different, design different, get an extraordinary office building

I've been thinking why technological possibilities are never part of the architecture of office buildings and probably this is because architects have a brand and need to stick to this. This limits the possibilities when using an architect that is well known (I remember that for some buildings there are even contracts that the architect can come in and check if all the furniture used is still the original. if not she/he gets a compensation and you are not allowed to use the architecs name anymore)

When looking at all technical possibilities and how this possibly can be used in a building it would be cool if you can bring in some creative minds who are pretty smart in thinking and designing and let them sit together and design the office breaking traditional rules and without the limitations the big names (and thus brands) in architecture have.

When you look for example at the website of intactlab (www.intactlab.nl) and imagine all tables in meeting rooms and the community area are multitouch (and linked to each other) with some cool new ways of using them

And what about bringing in people like Felix Schmidberger (http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?sort_by=1&portfolio_id=532845&individual_id=156757) who thinks about technology and the looks

And for the general design of furniture I personally like Frank Weil (http://www.frankweil.com/) who designs modern furniture in high quality which perfectly fits with an office like this to ensure there will be a balance between technology and design.

Obviously there are many more design artists and creative technologists who can play a key role here but I think the point is clear. We still build traditional offices and then fill them with technology. It would just be great to start incorporating technology in the design phase already and give it a key role (especially in the communication era we are in now). So start with a concept on how you like to work, fill this in with technology available to facilitate this working style and then build the office around it in such a way technology is creatively used in innovative design for the building including the furniture

Maybe there are some great examples already. If so please mail me some info on this or put it in the comments on the post. Really looking forward to this

Microsoft's SideSight: Something Apple Should Watch

Just ran into this and I think this is such a cool development I couldn't help to shameless copy the article from gearlog (just click to read it again at the gearlog blog, but also to read many more cool blog posts)

A new Microsoft-developed technology called SideSight looks like something that deserves to be on a next-generation iPod touch. Or in a magician's repertoire.



The SideSight technology is contained in yet another paper that company executives are presenting at the User Interface Software and Technology conference this week. (See Microsoft's take on new ways that cell phones could "talk" as well as guided tours of images.), The paper in question is titled "SideSight: Multi-"touch" Interaction Around Small Devices," and is authored by Alex Butler, Shahram Izadi, and Steve Hodges, all with Microsoft Research UK.
Touch was a revolutionary concept when it debuted with the iPhone, in part because it was implemented so well with gestures. Pinching, sliding and tapping the iPhone and iPod touch all directly impact the interface.



SideSight removes "touch" from the device and makes it a function of the paper, tabletop, or even the air that's next to the device. What does this mean? According to Microsoft, it opens up the possibility for "touch" functions to be built into tiny devices that don't actually need a touchscreen.



"Despite the flexibility of touchscreens, using such an input mode carries a number of tradeoffs," the paper's authors wrote. "For many mobile devices, e.g. wristwatches and music players, a touchscreen can be impractical because there simply isn't enough screen real estate. With a continued trend for ever-smaller devices, this problem is being exacerbated. Even when a touch-screen is practical, interacting fingers will occlude parts of the display, covering up valuable screen pixels and making it harder to see the results of an interface action."
So what can you actually do with SideSight? Quite a bit, as it turns out. By twisting one's hands appropriately on either side of the phone, objects could be rotated in place. Pages could be panned and scrolled by moving a hand up and down, and Microsoft also proved that text could be entered and edited on the main screen through a stylus while the other hand scrolled the page -- a movement that would be akin to the motions a user's hands would make if he or she were writing on a sheet of paper.



A quick motion toward the device could also be interpreted as a "click," according to Microsoft.
The key is a row of tiny optical sensors that look "outside" the device. In a prototype Microsoft built for the paper, the researchers took a HTC Touch mobile phone, and augmented it with two linear arrays of discrete infrared (IR) proximity sensors, specifically ten Avago HSDL-9100-021 940nm IR proximity sensors spaced 10 millimeters apart. Although only the sides of the phone were enhanced, the entire periphery of a device could include these sensors, the researchers said. The sensors can read inputs up to 10 centimeters away, just through reflected infrared light.

"We were pleasantly surprised by the performance of the SideSight sensors in the typical office environments we tried given that we took no special precautions to reject ambient light," the paper's authors wrote. "We attribute this in part to the fact that the sensors are looking horizontally rather than vertically upwards towards overhead lighting."
Individual fingers are sensed as a "blob" by the sensor array. One problem: users tend to drift one or more fingers into the area covered by the sensor field, the authors noted. Because they were unable to consistent determine which fingers were actively controlling the device and which were simply incidental, Microsoft decided to only look for a single finger, and use that to control the phone.



(The authors noted as well that the sensors weren't directly connected to the phone. Instead, they were connected via USB to a PC, and then to the phone via Bluetooth. The convoluted interface reduced the effective sensing capability to 11 frames per second, a limitation of the test rig and not the circuits.)



What does the future of SideSight look like? Improved power consumption, improved sensor range, and an enhanced prototype: "In the future we believe that it may be possible to print or-ganic electronic versions of such sensors, and so we are also interested in exploring a SideSight configuration that has the entire casing covered in this type of proximity sensing material," the Microsoft Research employees wrote.