MIPS

About MIPS
Functional Descriptions
Operation
Polling
Recording
Publish
Create Package
Viewing Standalone Packages
MIPS Viewer
MIPS Web Viewer
MIPS and VBrick Media Control Server
Presentation Tips
Uploading To VBrick MCS
Frequently Asked Questions
Registration

MIPS delivers live images in perfect synchronization with your live VBrick MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and VBrick Windows Media audio/video. There is no limit to the number of simultaneous viewers, and MIPS scales to millions of live viewers without bandwidth worries.

MIPS automatically imports PowerPoint presentations (you must have PowerPoint installed on your computer).
MIPS records your live multimedia presentation and packages it for online delivery from a streaming video server, and also packages it for delivery as a local file that can be delivered on disk, via email, etc. (Note: WM recording supported in a future release)
MIPS allows viewers to ask questions via built-in instant message
MIPS allows the presenter to poll the audience with multiple-choice questions and view statistical results in real time.

Install MIPS Presenter on the presenter's Windows XP or 2000 computer. You should have a VBrick connected and sending video via multicast and the VBrick Program Guide (SAP Announce) set. MIPS operates on any network that supports IP Multicast, including most Local Area Networks, the Internet2 network, and certain Wide Area Networks.

To view the live presentation, use MIPS Viewer or MIPS Web Viewer.

Note: The demo version of MIPS puts a "watermark" on delivered images. Registration removes the "watermark".

Using MIPS Presenter and the MIPS Viewers are very easy. The presenter selects a presentation, and then selects a live video. The viewer simply selects the same live video.

Presenter

Operation

There are basically three steps to give a presentation:

1. Import a PowerPoint file or select an existing presentation....(file/create new presentation)

2. Select a live video that you will associate with your presentation...(file/select video program)

3. Begin your presentation, and optionally record it.

Once you have imported a presentation and wish to give it again, the steps are similar:

1. Select your presentation from the folder list (the name of your folder is the name of the original PowerPoint file).

2. Select a live video that you will associate with your presentation.

3. Begin your presentation, and optionally record it.

Function Descriptions

Item	Description
File / Select Video Program	Opens the Program Guide window. Double-Click on YOUR program; that is, the program that represents the video of yourself or the video with which you will associate your presentation. (Note: MIPS uses the selected video multicast address to deliver your images).
File / Select Existing Presentation	Opens the Presentation Selection windows. Presentations have the same name as the original PowerPoint file and are represented as a "folder" under "MIPS Presenter" (e.g. C:/Program Files/VideoAlive/MIPS Presenter/Your Presentation). Double-click to select. Note: You should select your presentation before you select your live video if you plan to record.
File / Create New Presentation	Opens the PowerPoint Exporter window. Select a PowerPoint file and press "Convert". You can change the size of your PowerPoint images if desired, but the default "large" is recommended. PowerPoint will open for a few moments and then automatically close. After creation, your presentation will appear as a folder under "File/Select Presentation". The folder name is equal to the name of the PowerPoint file. Presentation folders are created in the same directory as the MIPS application (i.e. "C:/Program Files/VideoAlive/MIPS Presenter/"). Note: You may wish to rename your PowerPoint file before import to ensure the name is meaningful to you in the future, and not too long. "January Sales 2005.ppt" might be a good name, while "2005-01 sales presentation for the boss 1234.ppt" would not.
Video	Selects video Play, Stop, and audio mute. Mute can be set to enabled or disabled by clicking (check means mute is on).
Record	Opens the Recording dialog box (see below).
Poll Audience	Opens the audience polling feature (see illustration, below). Enter a question and multiple-choice questions A through D. Press "Send Poll" to display your poll to all viewers. You will receive real-time results of your poll from your live viewers. Each question is displayed as a vertical bar representing the number of responses for each possible answer. Each viewer's response with the viewer's computer host name is also displayed. If desired, this information can be "cut and pasted" into a document. Polls are not recorded.
Options / Setting	Sets the port number used for your live presentation. Default is 4000.
Options / Show Questions	Shows questions from the audience. That party's local computer host name is shown. The question dialog box is normally displayed automatically during a presentation.
Options / Show Speaker Notes	Shows any speaker notes that are present in the PowerPoint presentation, including polling questions.
Next Side Preview	Shows the next slide that will be displayed. This is very useful to a presenter to deliver a professional "flow" by knowing what they are going to present before the audience sees the slide.
Next Button	Moves to the next slide.
Previous Button	Moves to the previous slide.
Online Help	Displays this help page from the public Internet.

Create Poll

You can poll your audience at any time and receive real-time feedback. When you close MIPS Presenter, your last entered poll data is saved so you can use it again if desired.

You can enter your Audience Poll questions in the notes area of each or any PowerPoint slide. Simple enter the question in the speaker notes section of a PowerPoint slide in EXACTLY the following form:

**Q: This is the question that you will ask the audience
**A: This is answer A
**B: This is answer B
**C: This is answer C
**D: This is answer D

When you import your PowerPoint presentation, the poll question and answers will be automatically populated for any slide that has this information.

Polling your audience allows you to discover if your audience is understanding difficult material, or if they are paying attention! Based on the feedback, you may decided to spend more time on a particular point. In addition to the graphical result, the computer host name of each responder is also displayed.

Item	Description
Question	Enter the question you wish to ask the audience.
A through D	Enter the "multiple choice" answers that your audience will select.
Send Poll	Causes your poll to appear on all viewers desktops.
Chart	Shows real time poll results.
Real Time Results	Shows the viewer's host names and each response. Useful to discover the respondent's identity.

Recording

MIPS Presenter can record your presentation and make it available for later viewing. You can "Publish" your recorded presentation by sending the video to a video server and your images to a web server (VBrick EtherneTV System), or you can create a stand-alone package.

Important!

For live presentations, MIPS Presenter sends your live images directly from your desktop computer via multicast and does not need to communicate with your source VBrick. However, when you record a presentation, the metadata that represents your images must be inserted into the live video stream. Please read this section carefully.

Item	Description
Recording - Filename	This is the location to which your video file will be recorded. The file name is automatically set to the VBrick Program Guide name plus date and time (e.g. "myvideo_08_26_02_17_00.mp4" for a file recorded on 26-Aug-05 at 5:00 PM).
Recording - Duration	This is the duration of your recording (default is 1 minute). If you do not know exactly how long you will record, enter a number larger than you expect. You can always press "Stop" to end your recording. Note: recording will not start if you do not have sufficient disk space.
VBrick -- IP Address	MIPS will normally automatically enter the IP address of the selected source VBrick.
VBrick -- Mgmt Port	Enter the TCP port number used to manage the target VBrick. The default is "80". However, it is common for VBricks that are sending MPEG-4 video on the public Internet to "swap" ports 80 and 8080 to allow MPEG-4 video to be tunneled on port 80.
VBrick -- Username	Enter the source VBrick Username (default is provided).
VBrick -- Password	Enter the source VBrick Password (default is provided).
VBrick -- Server URL	If you are going to publish the presentation for use live over the public Internet, enter the URL from which your slides are available. For example, if you upload your slides to a web server at 123.123.123.123 and put them in a folder called "mypresentation", enter "http://123.123.123.123/mypresentation". Note: MIPS Presenter does not use the whole URL, so this feature is useful mainly for live internet presentations, and for applications where Windows Media Player is used as stand-alone player. In these cases, the URL must the full path name to the folder where your slides are located. MIPS Presenter will automatically add the slide number to the URL you enter. If uploading to VBrick MCS, see MCS instructions. The URL will be the URL of the video server used by MCS.
VBrick -- Slot	Select Slot 1 or Slot 2. MIPS Presenter does not discover whether your source video is coming from a VBrick encoder located in Slot 1 or Slot 2. Most VBricks use the encoder in Slot 1, however dual-channel VBricks allow for a mix of video types and rates.
Insert Metadata IMPORTANT	Check this box if you are going to record the presentation. Uncheck the box if you do not record. If checked, MIPS Presenter will attempt to communicate to the source VBrick each time you change the slide. If the username/password is not correct, the system will fail after a timeout. The system curser will change to an hourglass while communications is in process. NOTE: YOUR TARGET VBRICK MUST HAVE METADATA ENABLED IF YOU ARE GOING TO RECORD YOUR PRESENTATION.
Start	Begins Recording. The dialog box turns Red during recording and a progress bar is shown. A "Stop Recording" button and percent complete is also shown on the main screen.
Stop	Ends Recording.
Publish	Opens the Publish dialog box (see below).
Create Package	Opens the Create Package dialog box (see below).

Publish

After you have recorded a presentation you can automatically upload it. You must upload your video to a video server and your presentation files to a web server. If using VBrick MCS, see instructions.

Item	Description
Server IP	Enter the IP address of the Video Server and the Web Server.
Username	Enter the Username of the FTP account for your Video Sever and Web Server.
Password	Enter the Password of the FTP account for your Video Server and Web Server.
Rmt Dir	Enter the remote directory. If the directory does not exist, it will be created on your server. Leave it blank if you want to load your presentation into the root directory (leaving it blank is not a good idea because you will upload a default viewing page, index.htm). Normally, MIPS Presenter populates this field with the name of your presentation right after you have recorded. If uploading video via MCS, enter "MCS/AutoIngest/Presentations"
Video Server File	MIPS Presenter automatically populates the Video File for the last recorded video. If desired, you can browse to your video file.
Web Server Folder	MIPS Presenter automatically populates the presentation Folder for the current presentation. If desired, you can browse to a presentation folder.
VoD URL IMPORTANT	Enter the full URL where your video file can be viewed via a video server. If you upload MPEG-4, enter the full RTSP address to view the video (e.g. "rtsp://videoserver/presentations/myvideo.mp4) (Future) If you upload Windows Media, you have two choices: Streaming: Enter the rtsp or mms address Progressive Download: Enter the http address to the file. While this is not really streaming, you can upload your video file to your web server and point the player to the file.
Title, Description, Author	Enter information about your presentation. The title will be displayed on the viewing page. The title, description, and author will be displayed on the (optional) viewing menu.
Upload Checkbox	Check the "upload" box for the video server, web server, or both.
Browse	Opens Internet Explorer FTP window. Allows you to view existing content, delete unwanted files, and/or to verify uploads.
Create Menu	Check to include a .ASP presentation menu for VBrick MCS.
Upload	Begins the upload of your presentation. Depending on the recorded video file size and your connection speed, this can take several minutes or several hours. The following occurs upon upload: The video file is uploaded to the video server. A new subdirectory is created on your web server using your presentation name. If it already exists, the old one is deleted. All images are uploaded to the new subdirectory. A formatted viewing page "index.htm" is uploaded to the new subdirectory.

Create Package

MIPS Presenter includes a stand-alone presentation creation capability. The stand-alone presentation is packaged into a Zip archive, allowing you to email it, post it for download, include it on a CD, etc. You can optionally password-protect your package, thereby making it available only to those you have given a password.

Item	Description
Presentation Folder	Browse to the presentation folder. The default is the current presentation. Upon selection, the video filename is displayed.
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Windows Media	Causes the video type to be displayed. This is useful if you have multiple video files in your presentation folder.
Use Password	If checked, displays field to enter your password.
Create Package	Creates your stand-alone presentation package as a Zip archive. Your Zip file is located in a folder called "Packaged Presentations" (e.g. "C:/Program Files/VideoAlive/MIPS Presenter/Packaged Presentations").

Viewing Stand-alone Presentations

Simply unzip the files and open "default.htm" in Internet Explorer. The viewing page will automatically load VBrick StreamPlayer components from the Internet if the viewer does not already have them.

MIPS Viewer

The viewer simply selects the program name (the same as the presenter) to view your presentation. Each viewer can enter a question or comment that appears only to the Presenter.

Obtain MIPS Viewer installer here.

MIPS WEB Viewer

Viewers can view your presentations in an web page (Internet Explorer) rather than installing MIPS Viewer. However, web page viewers do not receive and cannot respond to audience polls.

To use the web page, simply point your viewers to http://www.videoalive.com/mipswebviewer and it will display your local multicast video (nothing is sent to the public Internet). A version of the MIPS web viewer is automatically uploaded to VBrick MCS for viewing live presentations.

MIPS Presenter and VBrick Media Control Server

MIPS is compatible with VBrick EtherneTV Media Control Server and associated Video servers.

Limitations:

Please be certain you only upload video that the target video server can accept (Kasenna servers support MPEG type).
Currently, MIPS can only publish MPEG-4 type video presentations to the MCS.
Your source VBrick must have closed captions disabled if you are going to use Kasenna servers...these servers do not support ISMA-standard MPEG-4 closed captions. MIPS will allow you to record video with closed captions, and you can create stand-alone packages with closed captions, but any MPEG-4 video file uploaded to Kasenna will fail.
You must set up an FTP account in the IIS web server to upload files to C:/Program Files/VBrick/MCS/Presentations.
You must set up an FTP account in the IIS web server to the MCS "autoingest/Presentations" folder.
Set the MIPS Presenter Recorder VBrick Server URL to the IP address of the video server (not the IP address of the MCS).

When you upload a presentation, your video should appear on the video server in the "Presentations" folder and your images should appear in a new folder on the MCS server (the MCS "Presentation" folder must have permissions set to allow the creation of subdirectories).

When you upload your first presentation to MCS, the main menu page will display "View Presentations" as shown below.

Uploading To VBrick MCS

See "Publish"

THIS VERSION OF MIPS ONLY SUPPORTS UPLOAD OF MPEG-4 THAT DOES NOT CONTAIN CLOSED CAPTIONS TO VBRICK MCS, AND IS FOR MCS VERSION 3 OR ABOVE ONLY. LIVE PRESENTATIONS ARE SUPPORTED IN ALL FORMATS. Presentations can be added to MCS version 2 by modifying a few existing MCS files.

IF USING THE KASENNA SERVER, YOU MUST HAVE MPEG-4 CLOSED CAPTIONS DISABLED!!

Set up MCS by selecting the built-in "Presentations" folder and telling the system which video server(s) will use this folder. The following illustrates that the "Presentations" folder has been added to server "172.22.119.121":

You must have set up a FTP account to the root MCS web server. This account is different from the default FTP account. In other words, MIPS will use two FTP accounts to upload your content: one account is the default anonymous FTP account to upload video files to MCS; the other is an FTP account to upload your presentation.

In the MIPS "Record / Publish" screen:

Enter the VBrick MCS IP address or Host name for both the Video Server and the Web Server. In the case of VBrick MCS, you will not upload video directly to a VoD server.

Check the "VBrick MCS" box.

Set the Video File Upload "VoD IP" to the IP Address of the video server used by MCS. If you do not know this, you can obtain it from the MCS administrator page (in the illustration above, the video server is 172.22.119.121).

Set the Video File Upload "File" to the video file to be uploaded. If you have just completed a recording, this will be set automatically.

The Video Server Rmt Dir must be "MCS/AutoIngest/Presentations". This will be set automatically when you check the "VBrick MCS" box.

Set the PowerPoint Slides Upload Web Server Username and Password for your MCS FTP account.

Set the PowerPoint Slides Upload Web Server "Rmt Dir/Name" to the name of your presentation. A folder with this name will be created on the MCS web server. This will be set automatically if you just completed a recording.

Set the PowerPoint Slides Upload Web Server "VoD URL" to the URL where the video can be viewed. For example, if video file "myvideo.mp4" is uploaded to MCS illustrated above, then the viewing URL would be "vbrtsp://172.22.119.121/Presentations/myvideo.mp4". This will be set automatically if you just completed a recording.

Enter Title, Description, and Author. These entries will be used in the Presentation Menu.

Check "Create Menu" to include this presentation in the viewing menu. If you wish to make the presentation private (i.e. it does not appear in the menu), uncheck "Create Menu". Viewers can only see your presentation if you tell them the URL. The URL will be "http://mcsaddress/Presentations/PresentationName").

Select "Upload" for the video, PowerPoint, or both.

Press "Start Upload" to begin

Presentation Tips

It is possible for multiple presenters to attempt to associate different live presentations with the same video. To avoid conflict, and/or to increase privacy, you might configure MIPS to use a different port number, and tell your audience what port to use.
Practice your presentation to gain confidence with recording. You will want to be certain you have access to the target VBrick before starting your session if you intend to record.
You can record your video on tape, then add slides later by playing the recorded video into a VBrick and using MIPS Presenter to view the video.
It may be distracting to the presenter to see the video, especially if there is delay. The presenter may want to press Stop prior to starting a live presentation. You will certainly want to mute the audio!
Look into the camera connected to your VBrick. It is best to make eye contact with your audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question	Answer
Can I use MIPS to give live presentations on the public Internet?	No. MIPS uses multicast which is not generally available on the public Internet. You can use MIPS on the Internet2 network, however. Recorded presentations are available on the public Internet. With some special instruction, you can use MIPS to give live MPEG and WM Internet presentations. Contact us for instructions.
I get an "unlicensed" message when I try to play the video.	MIPS Presenter and MIPS Viewer does not include a VBrick license for viewing MPEG-2. You may require a valid installation of VBrick StreamPlayer in order to obtain a license.
How should I set up my VBrick?	Configure your VBrick normally for multicasting. Be sure to set your Program Guide for something unique. If you plan to record, keep in mind that the higher the streaming rate, the larger the file. Also, while you may desire high bandwidth for your local network, if you are recording and intend to deliver recorded presentations via the public Internet, you will want to keep your streaming rate low enough for DSL and Cable viewers (e.g. 200 - 700 Kbps). Also be certain your VBrick has metadata enabled.
Why is multicasting live presentations so valuable?	Conventional "multimedia presentation packages" simply draw images from a web server. While this is fine for a small number of live viewers, it simply does not scale when there are thousands of viewers...few web servers can sustain this number of simultaneous "hits". MIPS completely overcomes this. If you are multicasting your video, why not multicast your presentation too?
Why is my recorded presentation delivering the wrong slides?	See below.
What multicast address and ports are used?	The same multicast address as your video, and port 4000 (default).
Why is there a "VIDEOALIVE" printed all over the screen?	Your MIPS Presenter is not registered. Unregistered MIPS Presenter is fully functional except that the images it delivers have a watermark. MIPS viewers require no registration.
Where is the stand-alone package I created?	By default, your stand-alone package is in "C:/Program Files/VideoAlive/MIPS Presenter/packaged presentations". Your package is a zip file with the presentation name. Unzip the package and open "default.htm" in Internet Explorer to view. If your zip file has a password, you will be prompted to enter it.
What is the delay?	MIPS changes the images almost instantly. The delay for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video is very low, typically under a second. The delay for Windows Media is typically about 5 seconds. Depending on your video type and settings, the slides may appear to change a few seconds early during a live presentation.
Setting up the Publish parameters is confusing!	Please review the Publish parameters. You can upload your video file to one server, and your presentation folder to another server (for Windows Media files delivered via progressive download, they could be the same server).
I can't figure out how to set the "Server URL" under "VBrick" on the recording screen.	Please review the Recording parameters. The "Server URL" is the URL where you will place the presentation folder. Typically, this is the same address as the web server identified under Publish, plus the presentation folder name. For example, if your presentation is called "myshow" and you will upload it to "123.123.123.123", you would enter "http://123.123.123.123/myshow". Because your web server may have virtual directories or other complexities, this address cannot be reliably calculated by MIPS Presenter and you MUST enter it manually. The last used entry is "remembered"...but this does not mean it is correct!! It is vital that this entry is correct BEFORE you begin to record. If it is incorrect, your recorded presentation may use the wrong slides!
Can I record Windows Media?	No, not in this release.
Can I save the audience poll data?	You can use conventional "print screen" to save the graphical display, and you can cut-and-paste all of the received answers to a document if desired.

No registration is required for the viewer.

01/29/2006 07:34