New Tools for Collaborative Media Production
New Tools for Collaborative Media Production offers a high-definition, low bandwidth, streamlined experience for transmedia content creation. These tools enable both media researchers and practitioners to work more effectively in a coproduction environment. They include: a shared desktop and videoconferencing utility, remote mouse control, and captioning and translation services. A practical implementation of these tools would allow video post-production houses to receive instantaneous feedback from participants while working across geographic divides. This reduces the need to transfer large video files between facilities, making workflows more efficient.
The project, which emerged in 2004 shortly after the AccessFabrik Lab was founded in 2003, is the result of Ryerson University’s research initiatives in improving and adding HD visualization and remote desktop control to the Access Grid.
Until now, shared desktop environments were accomplished primarily with commercial software that shared graphical content with significant latency. As well, open-source videoconferencing and shared space applications like the AccessGrid (AG) have traditionally allowed for only lower-fidelity configurations (H.261 video stream at 352 x 288 resolution). By leveraging prior work in developing new services for the AccessGrid, we devised solutions to extend and advance the state of the art of distributed collaborative visualization over the AG.
Objectives for this project include:
- Creating new tools to facilitate HD shared visualization and remote desktop control
- Experimenting with real-time captioning and translation services as part of the visualization process
- Enhancing shared interactive media production tools
The project is mainly funded by the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Communication and information Technology, with additional support from the Rogers Communications Centre. The goal is to provide shared space multimedia interaction. In partnership with Magna (Industrial partner) and Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (Research partner), the research initiative aims to improve collaborative visualization and integrate semantic technology.