Kevster

My boss: 'Kev, for the new development lab we're going to need some console-type of games and maybe some other computers with networked or internet games to simulate real-world traffic and new applications. We'll probably need to demonstrate voice conferencing simultaneously as well so that when the marketing folks look at it, they'll see how our new system has enough flexability and capacity for our customers' growing needs. Oh, and we'll probably need a couple slingboxes too.'

Me: (trying hard not to smile ear-to-ear at the I just heard) 'I'm not saying I like to play games, but I think I can have this covered for you pretty quick.'

Boss: 'Oh good! Do you know any good games then?' (he's in his late 40's)

Me: (Trying not to chuckle) 'Y-yeah, I might know a few we can get'

Holy Smokin' Moses! I'm getting PAID for this?! OMFG this rocks!

Ok, I love my new job.

Oh, any suggestions on what I should get?

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I think over again
My small adventures, my fears.
The small ones that seemed so big,
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach.

And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing:

To live to see the great day that dawns,
And the light that fills the world.

-old Inuit song

ray

What's your budget? =)

Kevster

Considering I'm getting over 270k in test equipment, 120k in routing and switching hardware, 100k in optical transport and G-PON gear, plus about 65k in IPTV and video head-end gear, I think it's probably going to be decent. The budget for the gaming gear will be about 25-30k, in addition to the four 30" and two 40" HDTVs we'll be getting for our video testing and displays.

What do you have in mind?

Yossarian

well, if you like star wars, get Empire at War, its no too bad

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"Now that your limelight has been sufficently trashed I will leave"- Nija

Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. The Christians say 'you are a sinner', and you better just zip up your trousers and give the money to the pope and we'll give you a room up in the hotel in the sky.
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bachviet

Can I come and work with you???

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Kevster

Know anything about optical transport? Wireless engineering for wimax or meshed wifi? (we have openings)

cadetevon

Anything Tom Clancy related....they're all good. And they all scare the crap outta me. LOL

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Yvonne
Funny: My Next Wife.

ray

Since this is all for development purposes, I would start with the XBox360 and utilize all of the video and audio outputs to their fullest extent with the A/V hardware that was aforementioned. I would definitely get an XBox Live Account with that and purchase a few games which can be played on XBox Live to be able to demonstrate voice communications integrated into the video game etc etc. As far as other consoles are concerned, I would say the Nintendo Wii should be on your wishlist when it is released later this year. It will provide a new way to play video games and again the new playstyle would fit in well with changing technologies and what your company has to offer its clients.

I haven't kept up with recent PC hardware changes, but I can definitely recommend a standalone HTPC with Windows XP Media Center edition (and Windows Vista when it comes out) and configure it so it is able to handle all of the tasks that Media Center has to offer (streaming wireless audio/video, record to hard drive from cable, DVD playback, Picture slideshows, slideshows, etc). I think your main focus on the wireless capabilities that are currently in place and then offer up a quick presentation on what's to come in the near future.

Games for a gaming PC (i think other people would be able to provide fantastic specs for that): Pick up 1 mmorpg. I think your best bet would be World of Warcraft since it's the most popular title right now. Heck, you can even get the source code somewhere to run your own World of Warcraft server to imitate what traffic could potentially be like. BF1942 or Half-Life2 have great internet-play dynamics as does a game like Civilization 4 and again you can demonstrate both sides of these games. Hosting servers and playing games as well. There are obvious restrictions right now on trying to play these games over wireless devices, but you can learn a lot from the design of the game and the capabilities of today's hardware by trying to play these games over some kind of WiFi or wireless means.

I know my post isn't technical and doesn't offer too many specfics in terms of hardware, but with what you're doing and what you're trying to accomplish there are endless possibilities.

cadetevon

I forgot.... what I meant to say was...

Well, it sucks to be you.

/sarcasm

I'm not jealous. I'm not.

Kevster

I was thinking of two XBox 360 Live consoles to start with, more later depending on what we need.


I already have 3 Windows 2003 servers on order for media streaming (can get 10 streams per server) and we can pipe that down through our G-PON gear that I'm testing (gigabit fiber to the home, which when engineered correctly will give 32 homes about 75Mb of access per G-PON port). We'll be streaming one or more HDTV signals while having an MMORPG and an Xbox going on the same access port. I have to build all this end-to-end and I have a good plan on how to do it for testing and presentation (with a 18kft fiber cable included too).

Thanks for your input there Ray, I really appreciate it.

hapoo

Can you buy that stuff through my very reasonably marked up prices?
I also sell toilet seats for $5000... thats 50% off!!!

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brainsmile

didn't Sprint just choose to integrate wimax?

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"Nobody beats Vitus Gerulaitis 18 times in a row." - Vitus Gerulaitis on beating Jimmy Connors after 17 failed attempts.

Kevster

Yes they did. We're in the process of deploying our own right now as well. The main problem with the technology is the maturity isn't there currently and we're having to deal with those limitations, as is everyone else who is looking to deploy these networks right now.