This is a continuation of an earlier post on XenApp Platinum related video interviews from Citrix Synergy.

As part of Synergy Underground project, we interviewed many of the people in the XenApp booth in the TechLab to talk about the different features and components of Citrix XenApp Platinum.

(Each of these videos were shot and streamed live to the Underground site via a Nokia N95 cell phone. The convenience and ability to stream live video directly to the net is the trade off for the lower audio and video quality. Read this post for an explanation of the process and a video on how the live streaming worked.)

Smart Auditor for Citrix XenApp with Kiran Kulkarni

Citrix Edgesight Monitoring for XenApp with Sean Connelly

Citrix EdgeSight for Load Testing with James Millington

As part of Synergy Underground project, we interviewed many of the people in the XenApp booth in the TechLab to talk about the different features and components of Citrix XenApp Platinum.

(Each of these videos were shot and streamed live to the Underground site via a Nokia N95 cell phone. The convienience and ability to stream live video directly to the net is the trade off for the lower audio and video quality. Read this post for an explanation of the process and a video on how the live streaming worked.)

Here are three of those video interviews -

Jay Tomlin on Smart Access

David Wagner talks about the new User profile Manager Tech Preview

Victor Thu talks about Easy Call
(low audio in first half)

Many you have seen the Synergy Underground site by now. As I wrote in the post announcing Synergy Underground prior to the conference, the goal for Synergy Underground was to give those of you unable to attend an inside view into the event. I have received many questions about how the concept came into being, how we did the live video, and how many video views the site has had since the site launch last week. I put together a presentation that answers these questions.

Several of my friends have given me a lot of well deserved grief over the live interviews I shot where you can hear me do a count down at the beginning. Yes, you can hear me say "two, one" in several of the videos. I did a countdown to help the interview subject prepare for the beginning of the live video. Some people were more than a little nervous about being broadcast live on Citrix.com (very understandably) so I thought a countdown was a good idea at the time. In my defense, most of the time when I hit the stream button on the N95 there was a couple seconds delay before the connection was established and the video began to stream. Obviously, that delay was inconsistent, so on some videos you do hear me count down. I have also heard about how many times I opened a video with "Okay". The interview subjects were not the only ones being broadcast live for the first time on the internet, the guy behind the camera was new at this as well. C'est la vie. I could have spent a lot of time editing that part out of all the videos I did and reposted them, but I decided to leave them as is, warts and all.

Despite the audible count downs, the intermittent data signals and the eternity it takes to upload videos to BrightCove, this project was a lot of fun and a big success in my opinion. I hope we get the opportunity to do this again.

There are many changes at the Citrix user conference this year. The new name, Citrix Synergy, is only the most obvious difference.

iForum is now a breakout session track, and the IT 2.0 Business Symposium track, the Application Delivery track and the Geek Speak track (including Geek Speak Live! and Geek Speak BarCamp) are all new. There are more technical sessions than ever (over 90 total). There are more industry heavyweight keynote speakers than ever before, and a keynote by a Senior Vice President from the largest software company on the planet (and our most important partner).

For the first time ever, we have an opening keynote from a best selling (and controversial) author on technology and business, and a closing keynote by a very accomplished comedian and actor. Citrix Synergy is shaping up to be the most engaging, interactive, technical and relevant Citrix user conference in our history.

I recognize that many of you across the world will not be able to attend Citrix Synergy for a number of reasons (such as the rapidly increasing costs of energy and fuel). Due to constraints such as distance, time or an overwhelming work load, several of you may have not been able to come to a Citrix conference in sometime (or ever).

The members of the Community and Solutions team at Citrix would like to bring a taste of this conference directly to you. We have put together a plan to show you the face behind the name Citrix Synergy - the faces of the attendees, partners and Citrix employees who all come together to make this event happen. We want to bring you an inside (and unofficial) look at the people and events at our user conference.

Citrix Synergy Underground will bring you inside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston during the conference. Our team (including Rich Crusco, Vishal Ganeriwala, Gus Pinto and me) will bring you instant text updates from the keynotes via Twitter. You will see numerous live video (via Qik and Mogulus TV) and recorded video interviews (via BrightCove TV). These video will be taken inside the Convention Center common areas and halls, the Exhibit floor, Tech Lab, and Geek Speak Live and Geek Speak BarCamp (no keynote or breakout videos). We plan to speak to as many customers, partners, resellers, and Citrix employees as we can at the event, and show you many of the great demos and new technology that will be unveiled. We hope to give you an inside look at the event that you have never seen before at any user conference.

Our team put together a short video to introduce themselves and the Citrix Synergy Underground site.

(Thanks to Bryon Thomas for pointing me to Qik. Thanks to Gus Pinto for putting together the web page with Microsoft Expression Engine, and Saul Gurdus and his Web Services team for hosting the site for us and providing tech support)

Our underground coverage will begin formally on Tuesday, May 20th. Tune in to http://community.citrix.com/underground to watch.

Voting is now closed on the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest. Here are the final vote talliesfor the best desktop virtualization video tip -

The Winner of the 16 GB Apple iPod Touch is "20 Desktops Delivered in 20 Minutes" -

The winner of the 8 GB Apple iPod Touch is "VDI Made as Easy as Pie" -

The winner of the Apple iPod Nano is "XenDesktop User Experience" -

Congratulations to the winners. All of the other finalists will receive an Apple iPod Shuffle 2 GB. If you are a winner and are attending Citrix Synergy, please let me know. I would like to recognize any winners at the Geek Speak BarCamp event on Wednesday evening.

I ask each of the winners to send me your address and contact info to citrixblogger
@citrix.com.

Thanks again for participating and voting in the XenDesktop Video Tips contest.

There is one day left to get your vote in for the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest here. As of this posting, there have been almost 300 votes. The video tip "VDI Made as EASY as Pie" by Gareth Jameshas expanded its lead a bit over the "XenDesktop User Experience" video.

VDI Made as Easy as Pie

XenDesktop User Experience Comparison

The "XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V" video is in third place.

XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V

Check out these great desktop virtualization videos and cast your vote now.

The creators of the top three video tips as voted by you will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.

You still have time to get your vote in for the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest here. As of this posting, there have been almost 200 votes. Currently "VDI Made as EASY as Pie" by Gareth James maintains a slight lead.

The creators of the top three video tips as voted by you will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.

It is time to start taking votes for the best XenDesktop Video Tip. The creators of the top three video tips will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.

Here are the XenDesktop Video Tips -

XenDesktop User Experience Comparison

VDI Made as Easy as Pie

XenDesktop User Personalization with AppSense

20 Desktops Delivered in 2 Minutes

XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V

XenDesktop from Germany

Voting Now Closed

Voting will remain open until next Friday, May 16th.

OMG! This is way too funny. I really don't know who's behind the Caveman mask, but this video is just hilarious.

I can't help notice Derek trying not to laugh - standing on the corner while the "caveman" dances and talks about XenDesktop. LOL

cheers,
Gus

I have not checked UTipU.com in a while for XenDesktop Tips. A couple of the recent tips from YouTube have been cross posted to UTipU.com in higher resolution versions.

XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V 

 XenDesktop personalization with AppSense

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

I was just sent this XenDesktop video posted on YouTube from Germany. Much of the text on the video in in German (though Mark Templeton's comments are in English).

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Brian Ehlerthas put together a XenDesktop video that shows XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper-V.

Brian wrote a brief blog entry regarding this desktop virtualization video, and has quite a few more covering Hyper-V server virtualization.

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Suddenly alot of XenDesktop videos are appearing on Youtube. This is another video for theXenDesktop Video Tips Contest
.

See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.

Someone from Appsense has created a video for XenDesktop Video Tips Contest
.

There will be numerous XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy. I will see you in Houston.

Gareth James has created a new XenDesktop Tip video for the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest.

Gareth blogged about this video on Dabcc.com. Gareth created an online XenDesktop beta test site when the first beta was released, and has blogged about it numerous times. He likely knows as much or more about the producty than anyone outside of Citrix. Check out his post and his great blog.

I have received a few links to more Tip video, so I will post them later.

There will be numerous XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy. I will see you in Houston.

A key part of my job as Product Strategist for Multimedia Virtualization is to stay tuned in with the evolving needs of our customers for graphics and multimedia technologies. Citrix has many different ways of collecting such market input, and your comments on my blog posts are one source that I particularly appreciate. Another highly valuable source of input is the Citrix Customer Advisory Community, a global group of customers who provide their perspectives and opinions in an online community forum. What are they saying about their needs around graphics and video?

The technology referred to most frequently in a recent dialogue with the Citrix Customer Advisory Community was streaming video. At least a third of respondents specifically mentioned Adobe Flash. Obviously - and this was no surprise - Flash has been widely adopted in the enterprise for employee training and corporate communications. And Flash content has become prevalent on the Web. Many Citrix customers are publishing a web browser or a complete Windows desktop to their users, so Flash support is becoming increasingly important to them. As I noted in my blog post Secrets for Optimizing Flash Performance - Part 2, significant improvements to Flash support were introduced in XenApp 4.5. And there's more to come. One of the priorities of the Citrix Multimedia Virtualization Initiative is to adapt our RAVE (Remote Audio and Video Extensions) technology to further optimize the delivery of Flash videos and animations while dramatically increasing server scalability. We are also looking ahead to Silverlight, an important new technology from Microsoft.

A wide variety of graphics-intensive applications were named by the Advisory Community. Several were OpenGL applications like Dassault CATIA, which will be well handled by Citrix's new Virtual Design Studio product based on our Pictor technology. Others were DirectX based applications such as Autodesk AutoCAD/Inventor and Bentley MicroStation, for which our new Apollo accelerated bitmap remoting technology will be very well suited. Customers in the Healthcare space mentioned 3D echocardiograms and high contrast CT scans that generate large graphics models requiring hardware acceleration, again a great opportunity for Apollo technology.

Customers running 2D and lightweight 3D graphics applications commented on the excellent graphics performance of XenApp Presentation Server 4.5, thanks to the new SpeedScreen Progressive Display technology. Applications mentioned included SolidWorks eDrawings, Intergraph PDS and SmartPlant, AutoCAD Map 3D and ESRI ArcGIS. SpeedScreen Progressive Display is truly a needle-mover for the vast majority of graphics applications being used by our customers today.

Some customers are using client-side application virtualization (also known as "application streaming") to deliver graphics applications. They get the benefits of centralized management and application isolation while fully leveraging the capabilities of the user's PC.

Tickers that scroll horizontally were mentioned a couple of times. Today's SuperCaching algorithm is optimized for vertical scrolling, but we've been doing some research into an enhanced algorithm that will accommodate scrolling in any direction. It will be interesting to test out the new algorithm with applications like on-screen "readerboards" that display text in this way.

What are your priorities for multimedia virtualization, including graphics, streaming media and real-time communications? What experience have you had delivering graphics applications with SpeedScreen Progressive Display? What are your plans for adopting unified communications, voice chat or desktop video conferencing ? I look forward to your comments!

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

You still have until this Friday by midnight to get in your video tech tip for the first leg of the XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest.
You have to place in the top 10 of one of the four bi-weekly votes to be entered to win the top prize - a 16 GB iPod Touch.

Your video could be as short as a minute or two, so it will not take you long to get it done. Follow this link to get the contest rules.

As I noted in my first blog post about optimizing Flash performance on XenApp, SpeedScreen Flash Acceleration currently checks for specific binary file names such as flash8b.ocx or flash9.ocx. Therefore, new versions of Flash require the creation of hotfixes to accommodate different binary file names. After reviewing this issue, I challenged our Engineering team to come up with an improved design. They devised a creative new solution that they predict will gracefully handle Flash updates and thus eliminate the time lag between new releases of Flash and the development of new XenApp hotfixes. That enhancement is now working its way through development and test.

In the meantime, we still need hotfixes that will look for newer Flash file names. I previously highlighted that a limited release hotfix (PSE400R03W2K3091) is available for customers with active Preferred Support Services contracts who are running XenApp Presentation Server 4.0 on Windows Server 2003 (see KB article CTX115426, login with appropriate access privileges required). Subsequently, our Support department received requests for a solution for XenApp Presentation Server 4.0 on Windows Server 2000. In response, the Life Cycle Maintenance (LCM) team has created and released hotfix PSE400R04W2K012 for PS 4.0 with HRP04 on Windows Server 2000. This limited release hotfix adds support for Adobe Flash versions 7a, 8, 8b, 9, 9c and 9d. Customers with an approved support contract can obtain the Knowledge Base article describing this new hotfix by visiting our Support web site at http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX115555 (login required) or by searching for CTX115555.

Meanwhile, Adobe has released Flash 9e (9.0.115.0). I wish I could tell you that the new hotfix handles 9e but, as Aaron Parker has already identified in his blog post on stealthpuppy.com, it doesn't. However, the wheels are in motion to create a hotfix that will handle 9e. If all goes well, this might be the one that introduces Engineering's new generic solution that isn't tied to specific binary file names. Stay tuned to this blog for further updates.

Derek Thorslund
Product Strategist, Multimedia Virtualization

The first entry in the Citrix XenDesktop Video Tip contest has been cross posted to both UTipu.com and YouTube.

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The poster added several notes to explain each step of the video. Unfortunately, notes do not display for embedded videos from UTip.com, so go to this link to watch it with the notes that explain each step.

Here is the YouTube version -

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As you can see, UTipU has a higher screen resolution so you can certainly see more on the UTipU version.

The race for the 16 GB iPod Touch is on now! You can post as many videos as you like, and there are no limits on eligibility. I look forward to seeing more great videos like this one.

XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest

Are you taking the plunge into the XenDesktop Beta? Record your experiences as video tips for the Citrix Community and you could win an iPod Touch.

Announcing the XenDesktop Beta Video Tips Contest

The XenDesktop beta has been an an extremely popular download on MyCitrix.com (currently #1 in most popular downloads). Many people are pulling down the code and getting it installed in their labs. A few videos of user experiecnes have already appeared on YouTube.

Here is one video I just came across on YouTube  -

Citrix XenDesktop Performance Comparison

We would like to see even more videos, so we are creating a XenDesktop Video Tip Contest. Record a technical tip of XenDesktop and you could win an iPod Touch!

How to Win

Every other week, we will post what we judge to be the Top 10 videos posted for the past two weeks. We will take a vote on the best videos here on the blog until Wednesday of the following week. The top two video creators as voted by the blog readers will receive an iPod Shuffle. There will be four bi-weekly reviews and EIGHT bi-weekly winners.

You can post videos up until May 9th. Starting on May 15th, we will be taking votes here on the Official Citrix Blog on the eight winners from the bi-weekly voting.  The Top video winner receives a 16 Gb iPod Touch, second place receives an 8 Gb iPod Touch, and Third Place receives a 4 GB iPod Nano.

Contest Setup

Create a screen recording video of one of the following -

- XenDesktop Components Install

- Desktop Setup and Configuration

- Provisioning Server Configuration and Administration

- XenServer Configuration and Administration

- Application Delivery to Virtual Desktops - (Published apps on XenApp, application streaming, etc...)

- Performance Testing and Load Simulation  

- User Experience

- Third Party Integrations (Profile solutions, Microsoft Application Virtualization, Altiris SVS, etc...)

The XenDesktop Beta Getting Started Guide is full of different processes that need to be completed to install and configure XenDesktop. You could record one of these processes and add in some audio narration and notes that detail the steps and your thoughts on the process.

Videos that include notes (also called call outs) and/or narration are preferred and will have a better chance of winning.

Tools

In order to make these videos tips viewable here on the Citrix blog, we are requiring the videos be posted at either UTipU.com or YouTube.com

About UTipU.com

UTipU.com is a website that provides a free Tool (TipCam) that you can download and use to record your screen. TipCam gives you the ability to Zoom, Annotate (draw), or add a voiceover ( or redo a voiceover without redoing the video). You can then upload the video to the UTipU.com website.

Here are a few Tip videos on how to use UTipU.com

Intro to UTipU
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/405/

How to Install TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1250/

How to Record Using TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1251/

How to add Notes to Your Videos
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/1274/

How to Use Zooming in TipCam
http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/329/

Here is a very brief sample video of the Setup Tool for Citrix XenDesktop that I quickly put together as an example.

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If you choose to use an existing tool you already have (Camtasia or ScreenCast from TechSmith for example) you can upload the video to YouTube. Click below for help on Uploading videos to YouTube -

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?topic=10524

Tags

For both YouTube and UTipU, please use these tags -
Citrix XenDesktop Video Contest VDI

Please add a tag for the type of video (Install, Desktop Setup, Provisioning Server, XenServer, App Delivery, Performance, User Experience, Third Party).

A few times a week we will highlight new videos that are posted by linking to them from the Official Citrix blog.

We are looking forward to seeing your tips and examples of the creativity, expertise and innovation that is out there in the Citrix Community.

Good luck!