Indico Video Services
User Guide



Event Manager





v1.0

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Video Services Section

3. Video Services system types

3.1. Booking systems

3.2. Request systems

3.3. The Managers tab

4. Details about individual systems

4.1. The EVO system

4.2. The CERNMCU system

4.3. The Recording Request system

4.4. The Webcast Request system

Guide for Event Manager / Video Services Manager

1. Introduction

Indico now allows event managers to book and program videoconferences associated to their events. For example, the EVO and CERNMCU systems can be used. Then, other Indico users can see information about these videoconferences in the public pages of the events.

Event managers can now also perform service requests by filling out forms that now appear inside Indico's event management interface. Examples of such requests are the Recording Request and the Webcast Request .

Three different kind of Indico users can make use of this functionality:

After an event is created, the management interface of an Indico event is similar to figure 1:

Figure 1. Management interface for an Indico event, currently in the General Settings section.
The
Video Services section is highlighted in orange.

Your event should have a Video Services section (marked in orange), unless the Indico administrators have deactivated all the Video Services systems for your kind of event (Lecture, Meeting, or Conference) or for all kind of events.

For more information on the EVO and CERN's MCU services, please visit the Videoconferencing technologies at CERN page.

2. The Video Services Section

Click on the Video Services link to access the Video Services section.

Note : the page that will be loaded now will possibly be HTTPs (the URL in the browser should start by https:// ... ).

In the Video Services section, you will see something similar to this :

Figure 2. Video Services section for an event. The Videoconferencing tab is selected.

You should see several tabs. Only tabs corresponding to systems enabled for your kind of event (Lecture, Meeting, Conference) will appear. In the above image, the tabs are: Videoconferencing , Recording Request , Webcast Request and Managers .

The Managers tab is always present and lets you appoint other people so that they have rights to manage part of, or all of, the Video Services section. We will talk about the Managers tab later.

The other tabs group the different Video Services systems. At the time this guide was written, there are four of such systems: EVO and CERNMCU (both Video Conference systems grouped under the Videoconferencing tab), Recording Request and Webcast Request.

3. Video Services system types

There are two types of systems: booking systems and request systems.

Booking systems let you book resources in videoconferencing systems, such as virtual meeting room in EVO or a videoconference in CERN's MCU.

Request systems let you request services for your event, such as requesting that your event is recorded ( Recording Request) or webcasted ( Webcast Request) .

3.1. Booking systems

EVO and CERNMCU are booking systems. They let you make a videoconference booking in EVO or CERN's MCU associated to your event. You can make more than one booking of each type for your Indico Event.

This chapter of the guide discusses common functions of both systems. For more details about how to manage booking for the EVO system in particular, see chapter 4.1. For more details about CERNMCU bookings, please see chapter 4.2.

3.1.1. Creating a booking

To create a booking, select a system (EVO or CERNMCU) and click Create .

Figure 3. Creating an EVO booking .

A pop-up dialog will appear, asking you for data. This pop-up has two tabs: Basic and Advanced . The Basic tab contains the basic, important data that you need to fill out in order to make a booking.

Figure 4. Dialog to create an EVO booking. Basic tab.



The content under the Advanced tab contains more details you may want to configure about your booking.

Figure 5. Advanced tab to create a booking.

After you have filled in the fields, press the Save button. If there is a mistake with any of the fields, they will be highlighted in red. For example, in figure 6 below, there are two problems: the description is empty and the end date of the booking is before the start date (which is unreasonable).

Figure 6. While creating a booking, some fields were highlighted in red in order to point out mistakes.

If there were no mistakes, please wait until the booking is created in the EVO system or the CERNMCU system.

3.1.2. List of bookings

After you have created the booking, it will appear under Current Bookings . In figure 7 below, two bookings have been created already. As you can see, the most recently created or modified booking is highlighted in yellow for some seconds.

Figure 7. List of already created bookings.

When bookings have been created, they are organized as rows of a table / list.

Figure 8. Confirmation dialog for removing a booking .

Figure 9. List of already created bookings, showing details of the first booking .

Finally, please notice that the current timezone of the times that appear on this page is shown to you on the top right corner, as a reminder. It is the same timezone as the one you set up for the event in the General Settings section.

Figure 10. Timezone reminder.

3.1.3. Event display

After you have created the bookings, they will appear on the event display page, as shown in figure 11 below:

Figure 11. Event display page for a meeting, showing the bookings previously made .

If you do not want your booking(s) to be publicly visible, check the Keep this booking hidden checkbox in the Advanced tab of the creation and modification pop-up dialogs.

For details about how bookings are displayed in the Event display page, please consult the Indico User Guide (Video Services) document.

3.2. Request systems

Recording Request and Webcast Request are request systems.

Instead of performing a booking in a videoconference system, such as EVO or CERN's MCU, these parts of the Video Services section are useful to request a service for your event.

You can only perform one request of each type for your Indico Event, although you can change its details after you send it.

Click on the Recording Request or Webcast Request tabs to request these services. You will have to fill in a form for this request.

By filling in these forms, you are requesting a CERN Recording expert to come and record your event, or a CERN Webcast expert to webcast your event.

These forms are very detailed and their purpose is to facilitate the communication between you and the Recording / Webcast services. Please take some time to fill them correctly as that will save both you and the services' responsibles valuable time.

We will discuss the details of the Recording Request form and the Webcast Request form later, in chapters 4.3. and 4.4. The common parts to both forms are found at their top and bottom: they are the buttons to send / modify / withdraw the request.

Figures 12 and 13 . Buttons to send / modify / withdraw a request .

Once the request has been submitted, a line will appear at the top with the current status of the request, as shown in figure 14 below.

Figure 14. Status of a request.

The initial status will be Request successfully sent . This means that an email has been sent to the corresponding responsible person with all the details that you input in the form. After the service responsible has decided if he accepts your request or not, he will either accept or reject the request.

If the request is accepted, the status will look like this:

Figure 15. Request accepted status .

If the request has been rejected, the status will look like this:

Figure 16. Request rejected status, showing the rejection reason.

You can see that in this case the responsible has also given you a reason for his rejection.

In both cases (accept and reject), the following people will receive an email as notification:

You can also come back to the page to see the status, or if you do not want to reload the page, use the button to reload (update) the status.

Even after a request is accepted or rejected, you can still modify it, which will trigger another email to be sent to the responsible person.

3.3. The Managers tab

The Managers tab lets you appoint other people to have rights to access and use the Video Services section, even if these people are not Event Managers themselves.

There are two types of Managers: Video Services Managers and Individual System Managers .

Figure 17. Managers tab inside the Video Services section.

People added as Video Services Managers will be able to access all the tabs of the Video Services section (Collaboration, Recording Request, etc., and the Managers tab too) and perform any operation that you can perform there.

In order to add someone, you can either click on Add Existing which will bring a standard user search pop-up dialog, or click Add from favourites which will bring up your the favourite users.

Figure 18. Adding a manager. We can add an existing user by searching or by selecting one of our favourite ones.

Remember you can always change your favourite users by clicking on your name at the top right corner and then going to Favorites .

Figure 19. Indico status bar. The user name is highlighted in orange.
Click on it to go to your profile and then click on
Favorites to add / remove favorite users.

People added as a Manager for an individual system will only see one of the tabs (the corresponding one for that system) and will be able to manipulate only bookings or requests of that system

As shown in figure 20 below, you can see how someone who is a Video Services Manager views the management interface of an event:

Figure 20. View of the management interface by a manager. Only the Video Services section is available.

And here how someone who is only a CERNMCU Manager views it:

Figure 21. View of the management interface by a CERNMCU manager. Only the Videconferencing tab is available.

As you can see, even if the CERNMCU Manager can see the Collaboration tab, he or she cannot see or create bookings of other systems (EVO), unless of course he is also a manager of that other system.

People added in the Managers tab can access the Video Services section of an event by clicking on the icon ( Modify Event ).

In summary, you should add someone as Video Services Manager if you want to give that person great control over the Video Services section, including appointing other Video Service Managers; and add people as individual system managers if you want to keep control over what they can do.

4. Details about individual systems

4.1. The EVO system

EVO is a videoconferencing system where you can book a virtual room (an EVO meeting). Then, users can join this virtual room and share a videoconferencing session together. To use EVO, you will need a PC equipped with a webcam. You will also need to create an account in EVO (click on Register ). For more information, see About EVO and EVO's manual .

Most of CERN's videoconference rooms are equipped with a pre-configured PC that already has an account in EVO; the PC will use the room's videocamera. When joining an EVO meeting through Indico with this PC, the PC will join the EVO meeting automatically (its username will be the room code, such as 513-R-055).

The EVO system is under the Videoconferencing tab.

4.1.1. Creating an EVO booking

To create an EVO booking, select EVO in the list of systems and then click on Create .

Figure 22. Creating an EVO booking.

The EVO creation pop-up dialog will appear:

Figure 23. EVO booking creation dialog.

In the Basic tab, you should fill in the following fields:

Figure 24. Choosing the start time for an EVO booking.

Figure 25. Advanced tab for an EVO booking.

4.1.2. After creating an EVO booking

Once your booking has been created, it will appear under the Current Bookings List.

Figure 26. List of current bookings after an EVO booking was created.

From left to right:

    1. You can press the button to see the detailed information of your booking:

Figure 27. Details of an EVO booking.

    The details given are:

    Also, in case of problems, there will be information in red in the details. More on that in section 4.1.3.

    2. EVO refers to the type of this booking.

3. The initial Status is usually Booking Created . The possible statuses are:

4. Info : normally this will show the starting and ending times, and the booking's community. However, if there are problems in the EVO's system, this will show some information in red. More on that in section 4.1.3.

5. button ( edit ). Press this button to change the data of the booking, in case you need to perform a correction or a change. Your changes will change the booking in EVO too.

6. button ( remove ). Press this to delete your booking. You will be asked for confirmation. It is possible that this button is disabled, like this: . This indicates that you cannot delete the EVO booking. This happens when the booking is ongoing (the status message is Ready to Start! ) or when the booking already took place.

7. button ( start videoconference ). Press this button to launch the EVO client and have your PC join the videoconference automatically. The button will be disabled ( ) if you cannot join the videoconference yet, or if the videoconference already took place. See section 4.1.5. for more details.

4.1.3. Problems when creating or modifying a booking

In the booking creation and modification dialog, it is possible that when you try to save your booking, some of the fields are highlighted in red.

Figure 28. In the EVO booking creation dialog, some fields were highlighted in red in order to point out mistakes.

Situations where this can happen:

Problems when you arrive to the Collaboration tab or when you update the status:

4.1.4. Event display page

As long as you did not mark your EVO bookings as Hidden , they will appear on the public display page of your event.

Indico events of type meeting and lecture will appear like this:

Figure 29. The event display page of an Indico event of type “meeting”.
The previously booked videoconferences are shown.

In Indico events of type conference , the EVO meetings will appear in the Video Services section of the event public page:

Figure 30 . The event display page of an Indico event of type “conferences”.
The previously booked videoconferences are shown in the
Video Services section.

4.1.5. Starting an EVO videoconference

If the ( Start) button is green, it is possible to start the videoconference.

Figure 31. An already created EVO booking. The Start button is green, so the videoconference can be started.

For this, Indico will load to the EVO client ( Koala ), the same way that you would do by pasting the auto-join URL in a browser.

Figure 32. Koala loading (with auto-login already configured in the client)

Figure 33. Koala after auto-joining an EVO meeting from Indico

4.2. The CERNMCU system

The CERNMCU system lets you book videoconferences in CERN's MCU. This allows you to enjoy multi-point videoconferences between rooms and people equipped with an H.323 camera. Indico will allow you to pre-define a list of remote participants (typically, CERN rooms).

Videoconferences booked in this way through Indico can be started and stopped through Indico as well. Indico will tell CERN's MCU to connect all the pre-defined remote participants and start a videoconference. However, other persons or rooms can join the videoconference by following the instructions generated with each boking.

The CERNMCU system is under the Videoconferencing tab.

4.2.1. Creating a CERNMCU booking

To create a CENRMCU booking, select CERNMCU in the list of systems and then click on Create .

Figure 34. Creating an CERNMCU booking.

The CERNMCU creation pop-up dialog will appear:

Figure 35. Dialog to create a CERNMCU booking.

In the Basic tab, you should fill in the following fields:

Figure 36. Choosing the start date of a CERNMCU booking.

Figure 37. Advanced tab of the CERNMCU booking creation dialog.

4.2.2. Managing the remote participants

To manage the remote participants, a list of participants and four buttons are available for you.

Figure 38. List of remote participants for a CERNMCU bookings. One participant was already added.

A remote participant is any entity with an IP address. These participants are supposed to have a H.323 videoconference camera installed at that IP address.

Participants can be people ( ) or rooms ( ).

By default, Indico will try to load your event's room into this list. If this room has an H.323 IP defined in the Room Booking database, the IP will be loaded too, as shown in the above screenshot. Otherwise, you will get a warning reminding you that you need to input the IP.

4.2.2.1. Adding existing rooms

If you want to add a room from CERN's Room Booking database, click on the Add Existing Rooms button.

You will get a dialog showing you all the rooms of CERN's Room Booking database who are capable of H.323 videoconferencing (in other words, rooms who have an H.323 IP defined). Rooms that have already been added as participants will be grayed out.

Figure 39. List of CERN's H.323 – enabled rooms. Each room has a name and a H.323 IP.

Select the room or rooms that you want to add and press the Save button. The recently added rooms will be highlighted in yellow in the list of remote participants.

Figure 40. List of remote participants for a CERNMCU booking, after a room was added.

4.2.2.2. Adding an new room

If you want to add a room that does not exist in CERN's database, or not listed in the Add Existing Rooms dialog, press the Add New Room button.

Figure 41. Dialog to add a new (not present in Indico's DB) room to the list of participants.

You will get a dialog prompting you for the following information:

If Room Name or Endpoint IP fields are not filled in, or the Endpoint IP field is filled in incorrectly, those fields will be highlighted in red. Change them in order to be able to save.

Figure 42. While adding a new room, some mistakes were made. The corresponding fields are highlighted in red.

4.2.2.3. Adding existing users

If you want to add a person from Indico's user database to the videoconference, click on the Add existing person dialog. You will see a standard Indico user search dialog.

Figure 43. Dialog to search and add an Indico user.

Perform your search and select one or more users to be added to the remote participants list. For every user chosen, you will be prompted to input the user's endpoint IP. If you don't fill in this field, you will not be able to add the user. You can always press the Cancel button to not add a user.

Figure 44. Filling in the H.323 IP for a user is needed in order to add the user as a remote participant.
In this case, we chose three users and we are prompted for the IP of the first one.

4.2.2.4. Adding a new person

If the person that you want to add is not in Indico's user database, press the Add New Participant button.

Figure 45. Dialog to add a new person as a remote participant.
This is useful to add a person not present in Indico's database.

You will get a dialog prompting you for the following information:

The Title, Family Name, First Name, and Affiliation fields will be combined to produce what will be displayed to other remote participants. Example: “Mr. MARTIN, David (CERN)”.

If the Family Name , First Name , or Endpoint IP fields are not filled in, or the Endpoint IP field is filled in incorrectly, those fields will be highlighted in red. Change them in order to be able to save.

Figure 46. Some mistakes were made while adding a new person. The corresponding fields are highlighted in red.

4.2.2.5. Editing or removing participants

Once participants have been added, you will notice that next to each of them there are two buttons: the button ( edit ) and the button ( remove ).

If you press the edit button, a dialog will appear to allow you to change the data of either the room or the person you are editing.

If you press the remove button, the participant will be removed from the list.

4.2.2.6. Effect of changing the participants of an ongoing conference

If you are creating the CERN MCU booking, or modifying it before the conference has been started, there are no special consequences.

However, if you have already started the conference by pressing the button ( Start ), changing the participants will have some consequences on the ongoing conference. Everything works the way common sense dictates, and here are the details:

4.2.3. After creating a CERNMCU booking

Once your booking has been created, you will see it appear under the Current Bookings l ist.

Figure 47. List of already created bookings after a CERNMCU bookign was created.

In this case, we created the booking with a start time such that it can be started already after creation.

From left to right:

    1. You can press the button to see the detailed information of your booking:

Figure 48. Details of an already created CERNMCU booking.

    The details given are:

    Also, in case of problems, there will be some information in red in the details. More on that later.

    2. CERNMCU refers to the type of this booking.

3. The initial Status is usually Booking Created . The possible statuses are:

4. Info : normally this will show your videoconference's unique MCU ID and the number of participants. However, when there are problems, this will show some information in red. More on that in section 4.2.4.

5. button ( edit ). Press this button to change the data of the booking, in case you need to perform a correction or a change. Your changes will change the booking in CERN's MCU too. As described before, if you change the participants while a conference is already started, it will affect the connected participants.

6. button ( remove ). Press this to delete your booking. You will be asked for confirmation.

7. button ( start videoconference ). Press this button to start the videoconference. This will tell CERN's MCU to connect all the configured participants and start the videoconference. This button will be disabled ( ) if you cannot start the videoconference yet, or if the videoconference has been started, or if the videoconference's end time has passed.

8. button (stop videoconference). While the videoconference is ongoing, and you want to finish it, press this button to stop it. This button will be disabled ( ) while the videoconference is not ongoing.

4.2.4. Problems when creating / modifying a booking:

In the booking creation / modification dialog, it is possible that when you try to save your booking, some of the fields are highlighted in red.

Figure 49. Some mistakes were made while creating or modifying a CERNMCU booking.
The corresponding fields have been highlighted in red.

Situations where this can happen:

4.2.5. Event display page

As long as you didn't mark your CERNMCU bookings as Hidden , they will appear on the public display page of your event.

Indico events of type meeting and lecture will appear as shown in figure 50 below.

Figure 50. Event display page for an Indico event of type “meeting”.
The previously booked CERNMCU videoconferences appear in the
Video Services section.

In Indico events of type conference , the CERNMCU bookings will appear in the Video Services section of the event public page, as shown in figure 51 below.

Figure 51. Event display page for an Indico event of type “conference”.
The previously booked CERNMCU videoconferences appear in the
Video Services section.

4.2.6. Starting a CERNMCU videoconference

If the Start Button ( ) button is enabled, then it is possible to start the videoconference.

Figure 52. A previously booked CERNMCU videoconference that can be started alredy.
The
Start button is already enabled.

Press the Start Button ( ) to start the videoconference. On the Indico page in your PC's screen, the booking appearance will change:

Figure 53. A previously booked CERNMCU videoconference that has been started alredy.
The
Start button is grayed out and the Stop button is enabled.

As you can see the Start Button has been disabled ( ) and the Stop button has been enabled ( ). This means that once the videoconference is ongoing, you can use the Stop operation.

On your PC's screen, nothing else should happen. However, in your room, if your projector and room screen are on and properly connected and tuned to the signal from your H.323 camera, you should see the videoconference signal from the other participants.

4.3. The Recording Request system

The Recording Request system can be found under the Recording Request tab.

The requester can only send one Recording Request for each Indico Event, although after sending it, the details can still be modified.

Every time a Recording Request is sent, modified or withdrawn, a CERN's Recording Responsible will receive a notification email.

A Recording Responsible is a person who will go and physically record your event, or a person who manages recording petitions.

After receiving the notification, the responsible will review the request, and accept or reject it. The event creator will receive an email notification.

4.3.1. Filling in a Recording Request

To fill out a Recording Request, go to the Recording Request tab in the Video Services section.

You will see a form that you have to fill in.

Figure 54. Top part of the Recording Request form.

From top to bottom, its elements are:

4.3.2. Sending a Recording Request

Once you have filled in the form, click either Send Request button to submit the request to the Recording Responsible.

Figure 56. Send request button.

Once the request has been submitted, a message will appear at the top with the current status of the request.

Figure 57. After pressing Send Request , the status will change to Request successfully sent .

The initial status will be Request successfully sent . This means that an email has been sent to the Recording Responsible with all the details that you input in the form.

Also, the Send Request buttons at the top and the bottom of the form will disappear and will be replaced by Modify Request and Withdraw request buttons.

4.3.3. Modifying a Recording Request

After the request has been sent, you can still modify it. This is useful if you noticed that you made a mistake or if the Recording Responsible asked you to change some of details of it.

Any time you return to the Recording Request page, information entered previously will still be there, and you can always change it and then press the Modify Request button to send the request again.

This will reset the status to “Request successfully sent”, even if the request had been accepted or rejected previously. The Recording Responsible will receive a new mail with the request details.

Figure 58. Modify request and Withdraw request buttons.

4.3.4. Withdrawing a Recording Request

You can always withdraw a request if you consider it is no longer necessary. The Recording Responsible will be notified by mail that your request has been withdrawn.

After withdrawing a request, the Recording Request form will return to its initial state; all the fields will be empty.

4.3.5. Result of the request

Once the request is sent, the Recording Responsible will either accept or reject it.

If the request is accepted, the status will look as shown in figure 59 below:

Figure 59. Request accepted status.

If the request has been rejected, the status will look as shown in figure 60 below:

Figure 60. Request rejected status. The rejection reason is shown.

You can see that in this case the responsible has also given you a reason for his rejection.

In both cases (accept and reject), you as the creator of the event will receive an email notification.

You can also come back to the page to check on the status, or if you don't want to reload the page, use the button to reload / update the status.

Even after a request is accepted or rejected, you can still modify it, which will trigger another mail being sent to the responsible.

4.4. The Webcast Request system

The Webcast Request system can be found under the Webcast Request tab.

The requester can only send one Webcast Request for each Indico Event, although after sending it, the details can still be modified.

Every time that a Webcast Request is sent, modified or withdrawn, a CERN's Webcast Responsible will receive a notification email.

A Webcast Responsible is a person who will be responsible of webcasting your event, or a person who manages recording petitions.

Then, the responsible will review the request, and accept or reject it. The event creator will receive an email notification. If the request is accepted, your event will be added to Indico's list of events to be webcasted.

4.4.1. Filling in a Webcast Request

To fill in a Webcast Request, go to the Webcast Request tab in the Video Services section.

You will see a form that you have to fill in.

Figure 61. Top part of the Webcast Request form.

From top to bottom, its elements are:

4.4.2. Sending a Webcast Request

Once you have filled in the form, click either Send Request button to submit the request to the Webcast Responsible.

Figure 65.The Send Request button.

Once the request has been submitted, a message will appear at the top with the current status of the request.

Figure 66. After sending a request, the status will change to Request successfully sent .

The initial status will be Request successfully sent . This means that an email has been sent to the Webcast Responsible with all the details.

Also, the Send Request buttons at the top and the bottom of the form will disappear and will be replaced by Modify Request and Withdraw request buttons.

4.4.3. Modifying a Webcast Request

After the request has been sent, you can still modify it. This is useful if you noticed that you made a mistake or if the Webcast Responsible asked you to change some of details of it.

Any time you return to the Webcast Request page, information entered previously will still be there, and you can always change it and then press the Modify Request button to send the request again.

This will reset the status to Request successfully sent , even if the request had been accepted or rejected previously. The Webcast Responsible will receive a new mail with the request details.

Figure 67. The Modify request and Withdraw request buttons.

4.4.4. Withdrawing a Webcast Request

You can always withdraw it if you consider a request if you consider it is no longer necessary. The Webcast Responsible will be notified by mail that your request has been withdrawn.

After withdrawing a request, the Webcast Request form will return to its initial state; all the fields will be empty.

4.4.5. Result of the request

Once the request is sent, the Webcast Responsible will either accept or reject it.

If the request is accepted, the status will look as shown in figure 68 below:

Figure 68. The Request accepted status.

If the request has been rejected, the status will look as shown in figure 69 below:

Figure 69. The Request rejected status, showing the rejection reason.

You can see that in this case the responsible has also given you a reason for his rejection.

In both cases ( accept and reject ), the creator of the event will receive an email notification.

You can also come back to the page to check on the status, or if you don not want to reload the page, use the button to reload (update) the status.

Even after a request is accepted or rejected, you can still modify it, which will trigger another mail being sent to the responsible.