[Asterisk-video] Videomixing in MeetMe

[Klaus Darilion]

Hi Lorenzo!

How can the VideoMixer be used with Asterisk?

regards
klaus

Lorenzo Miniero wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just uploaded on the CONFIANCE webpage, http://confiance.sf.net/, the 
> patch to enable videomixing and continuous presence in MeetMe. The patch 
> enables such functionality both for our enhanced MeetMe (i.e. video 
> sources are enabled/disabled through BFCP moderation) and for basic 
> MeetMe rooms (the videoswitch console command I uploaded some time ago 
> is used to enable/disable video sources). All the instructions needed to 
> build and configure it are attached with the patch.
> 
> To provide such a feature MeetMe can make use of two videomixers:
> 
>     * the CONFIANCE VideoMixer we're writing (available on 
> http://confiance.sf.net/);
>     * the VideoMixer Sergio Garcia Murillo is writing (available via 
> svn, svn co http://sip.fontventa.com/svn/mcu, needs xmlrpc-c 1.1).
> 
> You can choose which one to use by setting a value in the configuration 
> file. You can even disable them both and still rely on basic 
> videoswitching, if you're not interested in videomixing...
> 
> All is work in progress, so both Sergio and I would really appreciate 
> any kind of feedback you'll be able to provide us.
> 
> I'll spend two words on my work, and I'll let Sergio speak of his own 
> since I couldn't do it better than him. The CONFIANCE VideoMixer 
> currently provides:
> 
>     * adaptive layouts according to how many active video sources are 
> feeding the mix;
>     * continuous presence for up to 8 users (this can be easily enhanced 
> by adding new layouts in the code; if you look at the code, you'll see 
> that creating and modifying layouts is really simple);
>     * a static logo when no video sources are active;
>     * support for H.261, H.263 and H.263+ (QCIF only for the moment).
> 
> Currently, only one global layout is available for all users in the same 
> conference, but this will be changed in the future.
> 
> We tested it with many softphones, as:
> 
>     * Minisip, one the softphone we're enhancing to add XCON support, 
> and which makes use of H.263+ as codec;
>     * another custom client we're writing, making use of H.263 (JMF);
>     * X-Lite 3.0, H.263;
>     * Ekiga stable 2.0.x (H.261).
> 
> All work quite fine except Ekiga, since H.261 support in our videomixer 
> is still quite buggy (probaby related to how we handle the H,261 payload 
> header), and sometimes makes Ekiga crash. Any feedback upon this will be 
> more than welcome!
> 
> 
> If you're interested in knowing something more about the implementation 
> details and/or how the videomixers have been integrated in MeetMe, feel 
> absolutely free to ask.
> 
> 
> Hope to hear you soon, regards,
> Lorenzo
>