?? AMX Meeting Manager ??

VLCNCRZR

One of my large educational clients is contemplating specifying AMX Meeting Manager in an upcoming BID early next year.

I would like to say that integrating this beast would be no problem at all, but I have only heard horror stories about the application and the code programming that is required to support it. I have not worked with this application, and at InfoComm this year, I was unable to get some straight answers from the AMX guy doing the demonstrations on it.

I would like to know what experiences anyone has had with this product, and if it is indeed as easy to integrate as they say.

Our goal is to build a comfort level so we can bid the project with confidence that everything will integrate perfectly.

Thanks for any responses.

[Deleted User]

Hello VLCNCRZR,

I am sorry you did not get the answers to the questions you were asking at InfoComm, but feel free to post your questions here and I'll try to get you the information you are looking for.

Thanks,
Robert

[Deleted User]

Easy with a little help.

VLCNCRZR wrote:

I would like to know what experiences anyone has had with this product, and if it is indeed as easy to integrate as they say.

Our goal is to build a comfort level so we can bid the project with confidence that everything will integrate perfectly.

Thanks for any responses.

Tracy, Getting MM integrated in a project is a piece of cake with a little training. Contact JT or give me a call to schedule some one-on-one time.

Brian

JohnMichnr

Meeting Manager

Just make sure to allow plenty of time to interface with the IT departments. I am in the middle of my first meeting manager installation and I had to go before 2 different IT commities to allow the product on the network. Each time answering the same questions. But my customer is a health care group - they are real picky about stuff on the networks.

Now however they want to look at the Take Note software I've been installing... Boy am I looking forward to that.

kkettrey

Meeting manager does have a learning curve, but once you understand how it all jives together, it will be smooth sailing.

In addition to what some of the other user have mentioned, I have some recommendations and notes that I hope will help you.

-- Since this is your first MM project, you might want to polish off your general program (without MM) before you start implementing the MM side of it. In other words, get your room working, projector feedback working, etc, and correctly sending data back to your touch panel (such as lamp hours, etc.) first. This will allow for smoother troubleshooting. Believe you me; the most important thing to your client is whether or not the actual room functions correctly.

-- Make note that MM should be viewed as TWO SEPARATE SOLUTIONS. It has the ?scheduling? component, and it has the ?asset management? component. Though they are both MeetingManager, they actually function almost completely independent from each other (with the exception that they share some common modules, virtual devices, and include files). The scheduling is the easiest portion to implement. Specific actions (that a user might choose to happen) that occur with a scheduled event simply come across the vdvClActions virtual device (just as if it were a touch panel and a button was being pressed). Just think of that device as another touch panel in your system.

The asset management side is more complex, but is where you get to be creative. This is where you get to send information on various things back to the server.

-- Once everything is setup correctly, updating the status of a device, from anywhere in your program, is easily done with one simple line of code. Here are some examples.

? This example updates the Lamp Mode parameter of a document camera. In this example, LAMP_UPPER is simply a constant that equals 1

MMChangeIndexParam (dvDocCam, 'Lamp Mode', LAMP_UPPER)

? This example updates the Lamp Hour parameter of a video projector. In this example, the response from the projector (DATA.TEXT) is equal to ??0120?,$0D?

RMSSetLampHours (dvProj,ATOI(DATA.TEXT))

-- Of course, there is some overhead required to configure these ?parameters?, but as you can see, implementing it throughout your program is SIMPLE.

-- Make sure your client (end user) is aware that he will be responsible for ?administrative? type functions, such as adding user accounts, passwords, email addresses (for notifications), notification types, and adjusting thresholds settings to their liking. Though you can put in the initial threshold settings of a device (such as 1500 hours for a projector lamp), your end user needs to fine tune these settings, as well as choose who receives the notification, and even what type of notification it may be categorized under (such as Maintenance, none, or something else). If you have allot of rooms, this can be quite time consuming. If your client thinks that this should be your job to enter all this, and then plan on adding a considerable amount of time to do this (for EVERY room)

As an independent programmer, I have fairly extensive MM experience, and would be glad to answer any of your questions directly. My services can also be hired to implement all or a portion of the MeetingManager code if you wish to only write the main program.

Hope this helps,

kyle.kettrey@kraytech.com
214-906-7357
www.kraytech.com