Re: WG meeting structure

[Mark Nottingham <[e-mail]>]

From a mic tech standpoint -- this is how we set up QUIC interims (although it's just concentric U-shapes); we use a MXL AC-404 and remote participants regularly report that the sound is very good. It seems to be able to cover a roughly 15 meter squared room; for larger, I suspect we'd need to use more than one.

http://www.mxlmics.com/microphones/web-conferencing/AC-404/


> On 14 May 2019, at 11:36 pm, Joel M. Halpern <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> Given the other disucssions about the importance of remote participation, it would seem we would either need a lot of microphones, or very different (and I suspect expensive) microphone technology so that the folks at those tables could simultaneously
> 1) engage in effective conversation
> 2) be heard remotely
> 
> Yours,
> Joel
> 
> On 5/14/19 7:14 PM, Pete Resnick wrote:
>> In part inspired by Dave Taht's thread on the IETF list; in part something I've been thinking about for some time.
>> Some of us chairs would like more discussing and less presenting in WG sessions. Even for the largest of WG sessions, I tend to see one or two dozen people coming to the mic and discussing, and the rest just visiting, so this is not an inconceivable idea for most WGs. Getting this accomplished is in part having the chairs structure the agenda somewhat differently, and we should really start discussing ways to accomplish that. But a practical tool to promote discussion is changing the room layout. The secretariat has already said that they're willing to set up something like this if there are enough takers, and I know a few chairs (including myself) who really want this, but I'd like to know if we've got enough critical mass to try this out, at least for one or two rooms:
>> The idea is to set up the room like this (check out this ASCII art!):
>>              +------+
>>              |screen|
>>              +------+
>>   X  X  X  O +-+  +-+ O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O | |  | | O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O |T|  |T| O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O |a|  |a| O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O |b|  |b| O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O |l|  |l| O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O |e|  |e| O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O | |  | | O  X  X  X
>>   X  X  X  O | |__| | O  X  X  X
>>            O +______+ O
>>    M        O  O  O  O        M
>>       X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X
>>       X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X
>>       X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X
>>       X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X
>> Basically, the idea is to have U-shaped table setup, with the screen up at the open end. You'd get people at the table all the way around (the Os) who plan to participate in the discussion. (I've also seen this done with nested tables for more folks in the discussion.) Rows behind (in 3 directions; the Xs) are for folks who plan to mostly just listen; those could fill the rest of the room and could probably scale to 100 or more seats depending on the size of the room. There would be a few wireless mics to pass around the tables, with perhaps a fixed mic at the bottom of the U for the WG chairs, and a couple of floor mics (the Ms) for folks who aren't around the table who happen to have comments.
>> How many of you be willing to run a WG session this way if the setup was offered?
>> pr
> 

--
Mark Nottingham   https://www.mnot.net/