Vic-video conferencing tool

Document directory

• Overview
• Features
• Installation
• Supported Systems
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Feedback

Vic-vi
Deo C
Onferencing Tool

Vic is a video conferencing application developed by
Network Research Group
At
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
In collaboration with
University of California, Berkeley
.
Source code and pre-compiled binaries are available
Anonymous FTP
.
Vic-related questions and feedback are welcome and can be sent
To the developers via vic@ee.lbl.gov
.

Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Installation
• Supported Systems
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Feedback to authors

Other links:

• What's new?
• The ftp archive
• Browse the change history
• Research projects
• Screen dump of user-interface
• Mccanne, S., and Jacob, V .,
  
  VIC: a flexible framework for Packet Video,
  
  ACM multimedia '95.
• 
  FreeBSD mbone tools
• Linux mbone tools

Overview

The UCB/lbnl video tool,Vic
, Is a real-time, multimedia application
For video conferencing over the Internet.
Vic was designed with a flexible and extensible architecture to support
Heterogeneous environments and deployments. For example, in high
Bandwidth settings, multi-megabit full-motion JPEG streams can be
Sourced using hardware partitioned ed compression, while in low bandwidth
Environments like the Internet, aggressive low bit-rate coding can
Be carried out in software.

Vic is based on the draft Internet standard

Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP)
Developed by the IETF

Audio/Video transport
Working Group.
RTP is an application-level Protocol implemented entirely
Vic -- You need no special system enhancements to run RTP. Although
Vic can be run point-to-point using standard unicast IP addresses,
It is primarily intended as a multiparty Conferencing Application.
To make use of the conferencing capabilities, your system must support
IP multicast, and ideally, your network shoshould be connected to

IP multicast backbone (mbone)
.
Vic also runs over

Rtip
, The experimental real-time networking protocols
From U. C. Berkeley's tenet Group
And over ATM using
Fore's
Spans API.

Vic provides only the video portion of a Multimedia Conference; audio,
Whiteboard, and session control tools are implemented as separate
Applications. Our audio tool is called
Vat
And
Our whiteboard Tool
WB
.
UCL developed the Session Directory Tool
SDR
.
Other related applications include Isi's multimedia conference control,
Mmcc
,
The Xerox PARC network video tool,
NV
And the INRIA video-conferencing system,
IVs
.
Vic is backward compatible with rtpv1 and can interoperate with both
NV (v3.3) and IVS (v3.3 ).

Features

Features unique to Vic include:

• An ''intra-h.261' video encoder,
• Voice switched Viewing Windows,
• Multiple dithering algorithms,
• Interactive ''title generation', and
• Routing of decoded video to external video ports.

Intra-H.261
Encoder combines the advantages of NV's block-Based Conditional
Replenishment Scheme (I. e., robustness to loss) with those of H.261
(I. e., higher compression gain and compatibility with hardware codecs ).
This is achieved by coding only ''intra-mode'' macroblocks and using
Macroblock skip codes to replenish only the blocks that change.
For a fixed bit rate, the H.261 coder achieves frame rates
Typically 2-4 times
That of the Nv coding format.

Vic allows Viewing Windows to be configured
To ''follow the speaker ''. Using cues from VAT, Vic will switch
The viewing window to whoever is speaking. More
One window can be configured in this manner, which causes
Most recent N speakers to be displayed.

Vic has several dithering algorithms for representing
Continuous-tone color video streams on color-mapped displays.
The user can trade of run-time complexity with quality.
An error-diffusion dither gives the highest quality
At the greatest CPU cost, while a direct Color quantization
Results In the lowest CPU load but yields relatively low quality.
An ordered dither (derived from NV) gives moderate
Quality with low complexity.

Vic exports an interface that allows graphics to be easily composited
On top of the captured video. overlays can be downloaded and
Manipulated authentication ss the ''conference bus'' allowing a ''production team''
To enhance a broadcast with titles, credits, logos, etc. Since
Conference bus can be manipulated using TCL, it's easy to extend existing
Scripts or create new scripts for on-the-fly title generation.
See the ''title-maker ''' script in the VIC distribution for an example
Of how to do this.

Video streams can be displayed simulatanously on a workstation display
And on an external video output port, provided your hardware supports
External output. This allows you to render a single stream to
Full-sized NTSC/PAL analog video signal, which when viewed on
External Monitor (or video projector) generally provides a more
Comfortable picture compared to video displayed in a small X Window.

Installation

The easiest way to install Vic is to grab

Binary Distribution
.
For your architecture, unpack it, and install the executable and
Manual entry.
You can also build vic from source. Start by unpacking the gzip 'd

Source tar
, E.g., by running

• Gzip
  -D-C vicsrc-tar.gz | tar xfv-

This will place the contents of the Source Distribution
In./vic-x.y where ''x. Y' is the current version number.
''Cd'' to this directory and do the following:

• Make sure
  Tcl/TK
  (V7.5/4.1) is installed or built in the directory
  Above the vic tree.
• Run the./configure script.
  You may specify the following arguments to configure:
  
  

  -X-nodes des =Path	Specify a pathname for the X include tree
  -X-libraries =Path	Specify a pathname for the X Libraries
  -With-tcl =Path	Specify a pathname for TCL
  -With-TK =Path	Specify a pathname for TK
  -With-Aix-SHM =Path	Specify a pathname for the aix shm extension Library

  If you run into problems with configure, you shoshould EditConfigure. In
  InsteadConfigure
  And use
  GNU Autoconf
  To generate a new configure from Configure. in. If you need to make
  Such changes, please send them to us so future versions of Vic
  Will configure out of the box.

• Run make.
• If make completes successfully, run ''make install'' as root
  To install the binary and man page.

Supported Systems

ISCSI	SunOS 4.x	Videopix, Vigrapix , Parallax
ISCSI	Solaris 2.4	Sunvideo, Vigrapix , Parallax , SLV
ISCSI	NetBSD 1.x	None
DEC/MIPS	Ultrix 4.3	Jvideo, XV (TX/PIP)
DEC/AXP	OSF/1 v3.x	J300, jvideo
SGI	IRIX 5.x	VL, indigovideo, Cosmo
I386	BSD/OS	None (yet)
I386	FreeBSD	Matrox meteor , Video spigot
I386	Linux	Connectix Quickcam
I386	Linux	Ibm pcmcia Smart Capture card (SCC)
HP/PA	HP-UX 9.x.	XV
RS/6000, microchannel (3xx, 4xx, 9xx, 41 w/t, 42 w/t)	AIX 3/4	Ultimedia video I/O adaptor
RS/6000, PCI (40 P, 43 p)	AIX 4	Parallax (pCI Adaptor)

Notes

• For the DEC/j300, you will need
  
  Lance berc's
  Video Server called
  Jvdriver
  .
  Vic does not work with DEC's Mme server.
• Remember to run jv2driver with the right command-line options
  If your using the svideo connector (-Sin) or PAL video (-pal ).
• Solaris-2 has small limits on shared memory segments. If you
  Want to display full sized 24-bit video windows and more
  One or two, add these lines to/etc/system and reboot:
  • Set shmsys: shminfo_shmmax = 2097152
  • Set shmsys: shminfo_shmseg = 24

  If you have a cg14 frame buffer (the built-in Frame Buffer
  On sparc-20), it's a good idea to run

  • /Usr/KVM/cg14config-g 2.2

  From your x startup script. The default display Gamma
  Is not appropriate for video (even though the man page
  Says the default is 2.2 ).

• If you're running SunOS, the shared memory limit is also low,
  But not as bad as Solaris. You can change it by adding
  "Options shmsize = 2048"
  To the system config file or adb' ing the Kernel & changing the first
  Words of shminfo to 2097152.
• BSD/OS 2.0
  Now supported des a library to support the svr4 shared
  Memory API
  MMAP
  .
  Unfortunately, their X server is not
  Shipped with the X shared memory extension compiled in.
  To get reasonable display performance with Vic, you'll need
  To recompile the X server with this extension.
• To use shared memory under Aix, You need to compile one of
  Sample extensions provided with AIX and start the X server
  That extension loaded. When building VIC from source, you need
  To specify -- With-Aix-SHM = libpath to set the pathname of
  Extension Library (that also needs to be compiled from the exmaple
  Codes). If -- With-Aix-SHM isn't provided, Vic will be built
  Without shared memory support (and hence pay a big performance
  Hit when rendering video to X Windows). (thanks
  Bob Olson
  For bringing up vic is this environment .)
  Bob reports that with the shared memory support in place,
  A 1 T (PowerPC 601 box) can decode 320x240 JPEG at 30fps in
  Software (with Q up to about 70 ).
  Andrew Booker
  And
  Kira Attwood
  Have made
  AIX Binaries
  
  Publicly available

• The default BSD/OS make doesn't like Vic's makefile.
  Just use gmake (which is probably installed ).
• There are two versions of Vic for Solaris: Vic and Vic. xil.
  The vic. xil binary uses Sun's xil library for video capture,
  While Vic. rtvc bypasses the library and manipulates the device
  Directly. The rtvc version is faster, but because it doesn' t
  Use the standard API, it might not work in future Solaris or
  Xil releases. The Vic. xil binary is built with only xil
  Support, while the vic binary supports all available Capture Devices.
• Amancio hasty
  Has put together
  Web Page
  For the mbone tools under FreeBSD
  .
  Check it out. Thanks
  Jim Lowe
  ,
  Vic supports both the matrix meteor board and the video spigot
  Under FreeBSD.
  See
  Ftp://ftp.cs.uwm.edu/pub/freebsd/meteor *
  For the matrox
  And
  Href = ftp://ftp.cs.uwm.edu/pub/FreeBSD/spigot/
  For the video spigot.
• John brezak
  Has ported
  Vic to Windows 95/NT (January 31,199 6). He says:
  • Run "nmake-F Vic. Mak" to compile.
  • Known problems and limitations:
    • Untested on Mono displays
    • Need to handle case where ip_multicast_loop cannot
      Be turned off. The default Win95 TCP/IP stack has
      This limitation.
    • There are some colormap problems in pseudo color/8.
      This appears to be a TK problem.
    • Changing color mapping methods can cause an exit on pseudo color/8
      Displays.
    • No grabber support.
    • Shocould use videox interface for higher performance.
• Koji Okamura
  Maintains
  SCC driver for Linux
  And Linux
  
  Vic Binaries
  W/SCC support.

Acknowledgments

This work was co-hosted sored by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
And the Tenet Group of the University of California Berkeley and
The International Computer Science Institute. Support was provided

• An at&t Graduate Fellowship;
• For the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:
  • 
    Office of Energy Research, mathematical, information,
    And computational Sciences Division, of the U. S. Department
    Of energy
    Under contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098,
  • Sun Microsystems,
  • Digital Equipment Corporation, and
  • Silicon Graphics Inc.
• For the Tenet research group:
  • The National Science Foundation and the advanced
    Research Projects Agency (ARPA) under cooperative
    Agreement NCR-8919038 with the Corporation
    National research initiatives, and
  • Digital Equipment Corporation.

Feedback

As always, we very much want to hear about bugs and problems. Please
Don't hesitate to offer suggestions or other feedback. Send all VIC
Related corresponsed to vic@ee.lbl.gov
(This list includes des only the developers and is not distributed beyond
Our site ).

Steven mccanne
Mccanne@ee.lbl.gov)

Van jacbsonVan@ee.lbl.gov)