Multiparty Video Conferencing Questions
What ports are being used?
Ports 80 and 443 (standard web services ports); port 1270 (standard
Microsoft communications port); port 37000; and two or three additional
default ports available.
How much bandwidth does the Web and Video Conferencing use?
Hosts and participants require a broadband connection. As a general
rule, video participants will use 56 kbps/each at low settings, and 128
kbps at medium settings. The system adjusts bandwidth dynamically. In
addition, there are host/presenter manual controls (for audio, video
and desktop sharing quality).
PowerPoint & document sharing use almost nothing, because the material
is sent only once, thereafter, only page change commands go over the
wire.
What is a concurrent user?
This is an industry standard term that refers to the total number of
people (web browsers) that are connected to a server or online service
at any one time. For example, a license for up to 25 concurrent users
means you can have one conference with up to 25 people; five
conferences with 5; or any combination totaling 25 or less.
What are the different roles available in the video conference
- Host/Owner - A Host owner is the user who starts a conference and has the highest level rights in a conference. The Host can present any document, share the desktop, enable the audio and video features, promote presenters and participants and expel users from a conference. A Host / Owner cannot be expelled from the conference or demote. A Host / Owner and a user promote to Host have the same visually identity in a conference.
- Host - The Host can present any document, share the desktop, enable the audio and video features, promote or demote other users and expel any user from a conference except the Host / Owner.
- Presenter - A presenter can only present documents or share the presenter's desktop with other users in a conference. Presenters cannot expel, promote or control the audio and video features for other users. A Host user will typically promote a participant to Presenter if the user is required to present in the conference. There are no limits to the number of Presenters allowed in a conference, so care should be taken when promoting users because it could impact bandwidth and performance.
- Participant - A participant can only enter and view activity in a conference. This user class is typically assigned to most users in a given conference.
How do I start a conference?
To start a conference, you must first log into the web conference server with a valid account. After logging in, you can choose to start a conference using either method described below:
- Create Conference - This option allows the Host to schedule a conference for a later date and to enable specific features in the conference.
- Quick Conference - This option starts a quick conference with the audio and video conferencing features enabled. This is also known as an Ad-Hoc conference.
How do I get my participants to join my video meeting?
You have one of two options, for users to join your meeting in progress:
- You can invite participants to your meeting by directing users to ( http://video.batipi.com ) and enter the conferencing ID in the "Join Conference" field.
Note: The conference ID is generated automatically when the conference is first created using the Create Conference method. As a host, you can edit the conference ID and define an ID that is more meaningful.
Conference ID is the last 3 numeric letter/numbers, of your meeting URL.
- Send an email, with the conference URL of your video meeting, and be sure to include any passwords if required
How do I let another user share a document?
To give a user rights to share a document the user must be promoted to either a Presenter or Host, follow:
- Right click the username
- Select Make Host or Make Presenter.
If you need to give a user rights to control a document that is already shared, follow these steps:
- Right click the username
- Select the Make menu and one of the following options from the fly out menu:
- Host with All Privileges
- Presenter with All Privileges
- Participant with All Privileges
How do I change user rights, from within a meeting?
In some situations you may want to assign special rights to Participants without promoting the user to Presenter or Host. This is done by right clicking on the user and selecting the "Privileges" option. From the Privileges menu, there are specific rights you can enable for the selected user. These rights include:
- Give Control - This option gives the selected user rights to control a document that is already shared. The control includes navigating the document being shown or having the ability to stop sharing the document. This right can only be assigned to a user who is a Presenter or Host. Upon selecting this option, an arrow will appear next to the user's icon in the user list.
- Give Look Ahead - This option gives the selected user the ability to navigate a shared document if the document contain multiple pages. Once this right is assigned to a user, the user can navigate the pages independently of the host user. However, the host user still has overall navigation control. Example, if the user is viewing page 3 and then goes back to page 2, and the host moves to page 4, the user's view will jump to page 4.
- Give Annotate - When this right is assigned to a user, the annotate toolbar will appear in the conference client.
- Give Change Layout - This right allows the user to change the layout for all users in a conference. To assign this right to a user, you must first promote the user to a Presenter or Host. After promoting the user, right click on the user, select Privileges and Give Change Layout rights.
How do I enable audio (VoIP) conferencing in a meeting?
The meeting audio is available for any users with a microphone and headphones/speakers connected to a sound card. If you want users to speak in the conference using the VoIP feature, you must enable the user's audio. Follow these procedures to unmute audio:
- To unmute audio for all users at the same time, click the Conference menu and select Unmute All
- To unmute the audio for a single user, right click on that user and select Unmute Audio.
Note: The first time the VoIP feature is enabled for a user, the conferencing client will start the Audio Tuning Wizard on the user's computer. The Audio Tuning Wizard is designed to assist the user in configuring the audio settings for the conferencing software.
How do I enable video in our online meeting?
In order to activate the multi-point video conferencing capabilities, users require to have one of the following:
- A USB camera attached to the USB port on the computer.
- A firewire camera attached to a firewire port.
- Camcorder attached to a compatible video capture card like the Osprey capture cards.
- An external conference room camera attached to a S-Video, RCA input or other compatible connector.
- DirectX 8.1 and higher.
The host of your meeting can follow-these steps to enable the video option:
- To play the video for all users, the host must click on the Conference menu and select Play and Show All.
- The host can also play video on a per user basis. Select a user, right click, and select Play Video.
- To stop or pause the video for all users, click on the Conference menu and select Stop All.
- To stop or pause the video for a single user or a group of users, right click on the user or group and select Pause or Stop Video.
The video option is not available, but I have a camera connected to the computer?
You must ensure Windows recognizes the camera before you can broadcast video to other users. To do this, use the "Scanners and Cameras" option in the Windows Control Panel. If you do not see your video, select the installation wizard to install your camera.
Otherwise, you may try the following:
Note: After trying the above, ensure that you log-out of the video conference room, and then re-login.
How do I enable the chat feature?
You can intiate a chat session with "all users", or with a "single user".
To enable with all users:
- Click on the share menu, and select chat
- From the dialog box, select the user or users that should be present in your chat session
To enable with a single user:
- Right click on the user's name
- Select chat to intiate a private chat session
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