Talktimer is a Matlab code written by the authors of Numerical Renaissance to coordinate the timing of multiple parallel sessions at both small workshops and large conferences. This code has been used successfully at some pretty large conferences (over 1000 attendees), such as the recent meetings of the American Physical Society/Division of Fluid Dynamics (APS/DFD). It is a short, stable, flexible code that can precisely coordinate a large number of parallel talks. An example screenshot is shown below.




To set up this software to coordinate parallel sessions at your own conference, all you need is a computer running Matlab. The easiest way to use the code is simply to pipe the video and audio output from a single computer into the hotel's video system, then to plug in a TV monitor (tuned to the appropriate channel) in each meeting room. Most modern hotels seem to have this capability nowadays.


NOTE: YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET "TV" VIDEO (NTSC or PAL) OUT OF YOUR COMPUTER TO GET THIS TO WORK. PLAN AHEAD BECAUSE THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY EASY.


Another way to set this system up is to use N different computers (with all their clocks accurately synchronized!) with one in each room of the meeting. If you go this route, note that you can often hear the bells from multiple computers at the same time in the various meeting rooms, so the clocks must be accurately synchronized (down to a fraction of a second if possible) for this to work smoothly.

 

To prepare the software for the conference, use the example scripts "sunday.m", "monday.m", "tuesday.m" (included in the gzipped tarball) as a guide to make a script file for each day of the conference. The inputs should be self-explanatory based on the example provided (the scripts provided are designed for the APS/DFD conference). Then, when the conference arrives, just fire up the computer each morning of the conference, start the appropriate script in matlab, click the figure window so it fills the screen, and turn on the TVs.

 

If there is a fire alarm or some other type of delay to the schedule, all you have to do is hit the ">" key (while the mouse is in the figure window) and you can delay the whole schedule by a few minutes - then you can shift it back later if you like (like during a coffee break or lunch) by clicking the "<" key.

 

Note that the talktimer code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

 

The full Matlab source codes, together with the appropriate .wav files containing the bell sounds to transition between speakers, are available here as a gzipped tarball:  talktimer.tar.gz

 

After downloading this file on your computer, execute the following commands (in unix) gunzip talktimer.tar.gz and tar xf talktimer.tar, and all the necessary .m files and .wav files will be created in a directory named talktimer. Three final points of caution:

 

  1. Bullet  ALL BUGS IN YOUR CONTROL SCRIPT WILL CAUSE ERRORS THAT WILL ADVERSELY AFFECT AN ENORMOUS NUMBER OF PEOPLE. I cannot overstate the importance of debugging your scripts properly. I am quite happy to help you debug your script and answer any other questions regarding the setting up and running of this software for a nominal fee (free registration at your conference if I'm going, or 25 cents per registered participant if I'm not, subject to negotiation). Please contact me if you are interested in obtaining my help and/or advice. If you don't want my help and/or advice, you are welcome to use the code at no charge; please send me an email either way so I can keep track of the usage of the code.

  2. Bullet  THE CODE IS SLAVED TO THE SYSTEM CLOCK ON THE COMPUTER, SO THAT MUST BE SET ACCURATELY. The following web sites can be used to get an accurate fix on the time:                         http://www.time.gov and http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com.


  1. Bullet  NOTE THAT YOU REALLY REALLY MUST HAVE THE SCREENSAVER AND "SLEEP" MODES ON YOUR COMPUTER TURNED OFF.    Make sure you have actually accomplished this on your computer well ahead of time. This simple little thing can be more complicated than you first anticipate, as operating systems often have peculiar little quirks with regard to power management.

Best of luck and have fun at your meeting!

- Tom

 

 

(soundtrack for page:  Talktimer Bells)