CU-SeeWho? | What to expect? | On-line, On-screen | Seeing the world in technicolour or black and white | What is a reflector sites and why should I care? | A tÍte-ý-tÍte rendezvous | Macs and PCs communicate | Becoming a techie | Mac specs | PC specs | More info | Adjusting your settings
CU-SeeWho?
CU-SeeMe Videoconferencing is the next step up in virtual communications which allows you to see, hear and write to another sentient being over the Internet. Remember the Jetsons, the futuristic seventies cartoon, where Mrs. Jetson would madly rush around fixing her hair when the videophone rang. Well, it is almost the same thing, except that it is not as pervasive yet. A mini-video camera sits atop the computer monitor and transmits all your "deep thoughts", funny faces and other work-related stuff. Basically, it's a form of desktop videoconferencing that allows you to access real-time audio and video. It also comes with a WhitePine Board so you can share documents and graphic, sketch ideas and markup an electronic whiteboard.
What should I expect?Since this is a cutting edge information and communication technology (ICT), it has a few bugs to work out. Don't expect the quality you see on television. For example, you won't find a giant screen. The viewing screen is actually 160 by 120 pixels or 320 by 240 pixels (place both thumbs and index fingers together to form a rectangle) since it takes a lot of computer memory to digitize an image and send it over the phone lines. CU-SeeMe, using one regular phone line only, requires patience and tolerance. Movements on screen from the other cybercaller will tend to be grainy and very slow. Audio may sound clipped and choppy. This will be especially true if you're using only one phone line for transmission. An ISDN line (two phone lines twinned together) will alleviate these technical difficulties while improving performance and speed.
On-line, On-screenOnce hooked up, you will have access to a viewing box, a chat box for text, an audio control panel, and a participant is list in case there is more than one site chatting with you. Another oddity that may appear on-screen is something called a lurker. It's not a peeping Tom or a cyberstalker but someone who wants to chat with you and doesn't have video capabilities for one reason or another. Lurkers can listen in and be heard as well as type in the chat box. Please visit the CU-SeeMe User's Guide at to learn about all the functions and how to use the software effectively.
Seeing the world (or your cyberneighbour) in technicolour or black and whiteThere are two versions of the CU-SeeMe software floating around: the black and white version from Freeware (yes, it's free) and WhitePine Colour. You can download Freeware from http://cu-seeme.cornell.edu/#GET or order WhitePine from http://www.cu-seeme.com at US$69. This is not a promo for WhitePine but you may want to consider purchasing the software since the black and white version cannot transmit or receive video when communicating with its colour counterpart. Basically, you'll end up with the unenviable moniker of "lurker" (however we won't hold it against you!).
What is a reflector site and why should I care?A reflector site serves the same function as the principle telephone in a conference call. Everyone has to dial into the same number to hook up with each other. Burnaby High School in British Columbia is the reflector site for Asia Connects and its address, or in techie terms, a permanent Internet Protocol (IP) number, is 206.172.216.149 . It can accomodate up to 10 lucky participants, one of which could be you. Arrangements need to be made beforehand to ensure Burnaby is available. Please check out the Reflector Etiquette at http://CU-SeeMe.cornell.edu/Reflector.html.
A tÍte-ý-tÍte rendezvousTwo sites can also choose to communicate point-to-point. In this case, you will have to venture onto the world wide web and get your own temporary IP number. Go to www.ilap.com/jbrown/, then scroll down to "See the Registration List". Type in a recognizable name in "Input Your Handle" (eg. Vancouver, Montreal, etc.). Under "Input Your Site Description", type in the date. Then click on "Register My IP address". You should get a message that says "Your entry was processed successfully". Write down your address and exchange it over the phone with your counterpart. Decide which site will call and test the connection one hour before the real show. There's nothing worse than having delegates wait around while you fiddle and curse at the technology.
Please note that your IP address is only temporary unlike that belonging to Burnaby South. Therefore you will have to obtain another IP address if your computer should crash or you should lose your internet connection.
The Last Frontier: Macs and PCs communicate!
It doesn't matter if you have a Mac or PC when CU-SeeMe videoconferencing. The only exception is that is that you will need to purchase a mini video camera that is compatible with your computer and tailor some of the technical specifications for installation specific to your system.
You too can become a techieWow friends and fellow cybergeeks with your new vocabulary.
You will need the following technical specifications to be able to run CU-SeeMe videoconferencing.
Macintosh specs:
To RECEIVE video:* Macintosh platform with a 68020 processor or higher
* System 7 or higher operating system
* (it "may" run on system 6.0.7 and above)
* Ability to display 16-level-grayscale (e.g.any color Mac)
* an IP network connection
* MacTCP
* Current CU-SeeMe application
* Apple's QuickTime, to receive slides with SlideWindowTo SEND video:
* The specifications to receive video mentioned above
* Quicktime installed
* A video digitizer (with vdig software) and Camera;
Possible Sources of Equipment... Supported as of 0.70b13:
* Video Spigot hardware (street price approx. $380.)
* AV-Mac (vdig built into system)
* ComputerEyes/RT SCSI port digitizer
PLUS camera with NTSC 1vpp output (like a camcorder) and RCA cable OR Connectix QuickCam serial port digitizer (with camera)Please visit CU-SeeMe QuickStart for the Macintosh at http://www.best.com/~dfortune/cuseembasics.html for further info.
PC specs for WINDOWS - Win16 version:* Processor (These are recommendations only)o Video receive only: 386SX
o Video send & receive: 386DX
o Video receive w/Audio: 486SX
o Video send & receive w/Audio: 486DX* Windows 3.1 or Windows For Workgroups.
* A Windows Sockets compliant TCP/IP stack, known as Winsock.
* A 256 color (8 bit) video driver at any resolution (640x480, 800x600,
1024x768, or higher).To send and receive video you'll also need:
* Video capture board that supports Microsoft Video For Windows. (Look for a list of boards that currently work in COMPAT.TXT)
* A video camera to plug into the video capture board.To send & receive audio you'll also need:
* A Windows Sound board that conforms to the Windows MultiMedia
Specification (Sound Blaster or better). Full Duplex audio is very
desirable - see COMPAT.TXT for more information.
* Speakers (or headphones) and a microphone.Please visit http://CU-SeeMe.cornell.edu/V32X/V32XFront.html for more info (the site has a great graphic of what the screen looks like).
Check out the following sites for independent research and more info:
It has some really good links to other sources such as http://www.fortune.org/cuseemeetoc.shtml . You can also arrange times to videoconference with students and / or professors in the Film Studies department.This is an excellent site -- the creators don't take each other too, too seriously.You can also link to http://www.fortune.org/other/cuseeme.shtml to visit more sites.
Adjusting your settings
Once you familiarize yourself with the software (play with it) the following adjustments won't seem so ominous. Please understand that these settings are preliminary which means they can and should change with practice. The following settings are for the average 28.8 modem using WhitePine Colour on a Mac:
All your settings are found under Edit and then Preferences:
1 a) Go to General, then choose Audio / Video, click the set button to the right of Codec, choose WhitePine Colour
b) the quality should also be set at 75
c) and choose Options, then set Smeared "I" Frame Rate to 30 and Gamma Correction Factor to 33.
2) Go to General, then choose Communications, change:
Transmission RatesMinimum: 12
Maximum: 16Reception Rates
Minimum: 10
Maximum: 30Preferences aside:
The chat Window has a maximum memory limit of 32K or the computer crashes. So if you attempt to have a long conversation using the chat window without closing it periodically, your computer will crash, particularly with PowerMacs.
Allowable open video windows: 1 to 4
For more techie tips from TG's resident expert Craig, click here.
Good luck and see you in cyberspace!
