In week 13, Øyvind Klungre from NTNU visited one of the end-user partners, Premier Media, as part of the validation of the AdMiRe system. It was NTNU’s first visit to one of the use partners. The main goal of the visit was to run one of the research protocols designed to independently assess the AdMiRe system. The intention was to complete this research protocol assessment during real-life testing of the system. An additional objective was to make recordings of the tests for later video quality assessments. The tests were carried out at Premier Media’s technical facilities, located in Dublin’s city centre.
The protocol to be utilized was research protocol 1, titled Capture & Stream – effects on social presence. The protocol’s purpose is to validate the Capture and Stream module and assess the quality of experience (QoE) for all participants – both presenter and guests. The Capture and Stream module realistically inserts a remotely-located guest into a television studio in such a way that the interaction with the presenter resembles an authentic face-to-face conversation. Hence, the protocol focuses on Social Presence – the degree to which one perceives the presence of participants in a communication.
The plan was for two participant groups to take part in the tests, one group within a green screen environment, and the other in an open space. The participants would be filmed and their video images virtually inserted into the TV studio, where they would be interviewed by a presenter. Each interview would last for two to three minutes. Filming would be achieved using two different types of everyday technical devices, a laptop video web camera and a mobile phone. Each participant would take turns sitting and then standing. This would result in four combination scenarios per participant (seated, standing, webcam, mobile phone). After each of the four scenarios were completed, the interviewer and each participant would fill-in an on-line questionnaire.
The technical tests commenced with the green screen setup. Mark Pilkington from Premier Media took on the role of Presenter, while five employees were recruited to the roles of Remote Guests. An on-site technician set-up the AdMiRe system, tweaked the settings and recorded the sessions, while getting assistance from the technical team at Brainstorm in Spain. This being the first test at an end-user partner site, some technical issues were expected. It should be noted that it took some time to adjust the AdMiRe system settings when switching between standing and sitting positions, and when changing the capture device between a webcam and a mobile phone. The green-screen lighting had to also be adjusted when switching between seated and standing positions. However, the green screen setup was successfully completed with all five guest participants, in all four test scenarios (seated, standing, webcam, mobile phone).
Premier Media intend to complete the open space experiments later, once the system has been fine tuned and any glitches and bugs have been ironed-out. After this initial visit from NTNU, Premier Media will be able to self-manage the experimental tests going-forward, whilst ensuring consistent test conditions.
Despite some minor initial hitches, the green-screen evaluations were completed. This allowed us to learn how different aspects of the testing affect the performance of the AdMiRe system. For example which type of camera (webcam or mobile device) is being used for filming. These results will be helpful as we move forward through the testing process. The validation of the AdMiRe system continues in May, when Asim from NTNU travels to TVR in Bucharest. Research protocol 1 will again be the main focus, after being adjusted and customized to TVR’s scenario.Your Content Goes Here
