This section of the installation manual describes what Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software is required, and optional, and how to set up and install this software. See Software Installation Map for a guide as to what computers the software needs to be installed on.
The LiveSpaces environment has been developed to be operating system independent however the majority of testing and development has been carried out with Windows XP Professional. For this reason we recommend using Windows XP Professional as the main Operating System. For the workstations (with WACOM tablets monitors) you may want to install XP Professional Tablet Edition to provide the extended tablet edition features such as handwriting recognition, annotations etc.
Each networked computer or device should be given a hostname on your domain. This includes all servers, workstations and any device that is TCP/IP capable and connected to the network (e.g. VTC, Audio/Video Matrix).
Generic user accounts should be created on the display servers so that they can be left logged in and used by all participants in the room. This is particularly important as some services, such as Livepoint, will only run while the machine is logged in, so logging in and out of the ‘group’ computers will reduce the usability of the LiveSpace.
A shared network drive should be created on the main server computer to provide a central location to store general files, installers, applications etc. This shared drive should have, as a minimum, read permissions for Everyone and write permissions for administrative users.
More shared drives will need to be created, to serve as the media repository, services datastore and tomcat 'webapps' directory, will need to be created once the Livespaces server and Apache Tomcat is installed. This will be described later in the Livespaces Server and Apache Tomcat sections.
Some devices within the LiveSpace will require device drivers to be installed on the computers they are attached to.
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
There is a variety of COTS software that needs to be installed within a LiveSpace. This section describes the relevant software requirements and how to install this software.
The LiveSpace environment has been developed using Java, so a Java runtime environment is required to be installed. Go to the Java download page to get the latest Java runtime environment, either version 1.4.2 or 1.5 will work (we haven't tested on 1.6). If development work is planned then the SDK should be downloaded and installed, otherwise the JRE will be fine.
Apache Tomcat hosts the Ignite web application that will serve as a universal interface for controlling the LiveSpace.
Download the latest version of Apache Tomcat from http://tomcat.apache.org and install it. During the installation process accept the default options except for the default connector port which should be set to port 80 (unless another HTTP server is using port 80 in which case leave as port 8080). A username and password for administering Tomcat will also need to be created. Once the installation process has completed check it was successful by opening a browser to http://localhost (if the default connector port was not set to 80 include the port number), a web page confirming Tomcat has been set up successfully should be shown.
The webapps directory of Tomcat should be shared so it can be accessed from anywhere on the network. It should have write permissions for administrative users (users who will be deploying the LiveSpace softwate) so that the deployment process (using Eclipse) can copy the Ignite war file into this directory.
An Elvin router is required to serve as the Enterprise Bus for the LiveSpace. It is desirable to have an Elvin router hosted within the LiveSpace facitility so that if connection to the outside world (outside the LiveSpace) is broken the LiveSpace will still function effectively (without connectivity/interactivity with other LiveSpaces etc). Each LiveSpace also requires a unique Elvin router to function correctly (Note: this will change with the next generation of the LiveSpaces framework).
To run an Elvin router a license is required, see the Mantara homepage for more information. Once you have a license you should have an Elvin license file, named elvind.pac, which should be placed in the config directory of the Elvin Router install directory.
Federation
To set up federation between different Livespaces see the Federation page.
Microsoft Office is an optional component within a LiveSpace and is very useful for the authoring of documents and presentations, which are usually critical to the work that occurs within a LiveSpace. The actual operation of the LiveSpace is not dependant on Microsoft Office so it can be omitted, or replaced with an alternative suite of office applications if you desire. If you are going to use Microsoft Office within the LiveSpace then it should be installed on all the machines within the LiveSpace including display servers, workstations etc.
Microsoft SharePoint is a web-portal technology that is very useful in groups and organizations for hosting documents, information, meeting minutes etc. If you wish to install and use SharePoint within the LiveSpace you will require a server running Windows Server operating system. There are two version of Sharepoint available, Windows SharePoint Services which can be downloaded for free and installed on Windows Server, or SharePoint Portal Server which requires a license and includes more features than SharePoint Services. For more information see the SharePoint homepage.
An important feature of Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint is their integration so a good option for an integrated office suite of tools and a web portal is to install Microsoft Office and SharePoint.
If you require AccessGrid (Software VTC) capability then you will require the AccessGrid software to be installed.
AccessGrid requires other software to be installed before it can be installed itself. The pre-requisite software for AccessGrid will depend on what platform you will be running AccessGrid on (see the Access Grid software page for more information), we recommend running on Windows.
For assistance on the installation and configuration of Access Grid see the Access Grid website.
If you are using eBeam or Mimio devices within the LiveSpace for capturing notes and drawings on a whiteboard, or to provide interactivity with a projected display then you will need to install the software that comes with these devices (should be supplied on CD with the device). The software needs to be installed on the computers that the devices are connected to. The decision on what computers to connect the devices to will depend on how the devices are to be used.
If you are using these devices to capture notes/drawings etc from a whiteboard then you should take into account if you want the software to capture the drawings ‘silently’, or to display the drawings in electronic form on one of the group displays. The software automatically opens into the foreground (upon capturing content) on the computer the capture device is attached to. This means connecting and installing the device on one of the display servers will cause the software to be opened and to display the electronic form of the drawing to the users of the room (that is if the display server is being used to ‘drive’ a projected display which is not the case if another screen has been forwarded up to a group display). This can be useful for replicating what is happening on a whiteboard so users of the room that would need to turn around to see the actual whiteboard can see a replicated version of what is happening without this inconvenience.
Alternatively, if you want the device to be used in a more ‘silent’ way then the devices can be connected (and the software installed) to one of the server computers that is never displayed to users and that way the users themselves never see the capture software running. The decision on the approach to use will depend on many factors such as how the room will likely be used, and the layout of the room.
If you are using these devices to provide interactivity for the projected displays then the devices and software will need to be installed on the display server that will predominantly provide the video source for the projected display. This can cause issues when other computers are forwarded to the group displays as this will mean the relationship between the computer being displayed and the computer the device is connected to will not correspond.
Sometimes you need to record the dynamic contents of a computer screen for later playback (perhaps for tutorials or presentations). There are a number of tools for this, some of which we've used and some we haven't. Peter was interested at one point in using them as part of preparing a meta-app - you could start developing a meta-app, record it in draft state and send it out for review by colleagues.
Other software may also be installed to provide appropriate functionality to users of the room. This could include: