Provided by the Digital Media Group. Video Conferencing Support

Transcription

1 Provided by the Digital Media Group Video Conferencing Support

2 This manual is for room: IP Address: Telephone Number: 2 Chapter

3 Contents Placing a Call Quickstart guide to connecting to video conference calls 4 In Call Options Mute, Keypad, Cameras, Content Sharing 6 Best Practice Preparation, Camera Framing, Eye contact, Microphones 8 Troubleshooting and Support 11 Etiquette Contents 3

4 Placing a Call These pages show you step by step how to place a call using the IP address of the endpoint you wish to connect to. Using the touch panel This room uses a touch panel to interact with the video conferencing equipment. You should see this panel in the middle of the meeting table. Control of the video conferencing equipment, including the televisions is done via this touch panel. This guide provides instructions for placing a call using an IP address. If you have sites programmed into your directory you can reach this from the favourites button instead. 1. Powering up the equipment Most likely, when you enter the room the television screens will be off. Please do not turn on the televisions manually. To get started, from the main menu of the touch pad, press the grey arrow to the right of the screen to move to the second home screen 2. Navigate to the camera options You should now see three new icons. Select Cameras from the three buttons now visible. The Polycom touch panel allows you to interact with all the equipment in the room. 4 Placing a Etiquette Call

5 Placing a Call 3. Adjust the Camera You should now see a control panel to to pan, tilt, and zoom the camera. Make adjustments as you see fit, for some further advice on framing consult page 9 of this manual. Once you are satisfied, return to the primary menu screen: 1. First press the glowing home button. 2. Now press the grey arrow on the left of the screen to move back to the first home screen 4. Place the Call You should now be back at the main menu screen. From here, select Place a Call.This will bring up a screen for you to enter in the IP address of the endpoint you are calling. Enter the IP address here and press the call button 5. Wait for the call to connect This often works like a normal telephone, so you may have to let the device call for some time until someone picks it up. Some devices are automated and will answer reasonably quickly. Once the call is connected you will see remote participants on the screens, you will also have a display on the touch screen which allows you to quickly make adjustments to the camera, and perform other actions such as muting, content sharing etc. To learn about these functions, turn the page. Etiquette Placing a Call 5

6 Mute, Keypad & Camera Once in a video call, the touch panel provides a number of options to you for controlling your call. This section explains what these options do and how to use them. Mute Unsuprisingly this mutes the microphone. While there are some obvious occasions when you may want to mute the microhpone to have a brief private conversation with other local participants in the room, best practice is to also mute microphones when no one from your site will be speaking for long periods of time. For more details on when muting microhpones is useful, as well as some further details about microphones, please refer to page 11. Keypad Often, if you are making a call to a video conferencing bridge, you will need to enter a room ID or PIN before gaining entry to the meeting room. In these cases, the keypad can be access from te toughpad via the keypad button. Once selected, enter numbers as requested. Note you can use the touch to close button at the top to return the call control options. Cameras This allows you make adjustments to the camera during a call. This can be useful if you want to zoom in on someone speaking in your room. Or for zooming out to the whole group during wider discussion. 6 In Call Options Etiquette

7 Sharing Content Sharing content allows you display a presentation of any kind on the screens of all other participants in the video conference. Sharing Content During a video conference, you may want to share various types of content with participants at other sites. The types of documents most often shared a Word documents, Powerpoint Presentations and PDFs (Portable Document Format). There are two primary ways to share content, via a flash drive, or via a laptop. If you have a simple PowerPoint presentation, or PDF that you wish to share, using a USB stick can be an easy solution. Use a laptop for more flexbility in terms of what you can share. Sharing Content via a flash drive If you have a file on a flash drive, you can simply plug it in to the side of the touch panel, provided it is one of the following file formats: bmp, gif, jpg, png, ppt, pptx, pdf Once plugged in, you can open a file by first pressing show content and then selecting the file you wish to display. Once selected, press Show Content You can now use the various buttons to move through slides/pages etc. Sharing Content via a laptop To do this, plug your laptop into the blue VGA cable which you willl find near the table. Once this is connected, ensure your laptop is set to share its screen with a second monitor, then press show content. Finally, select computer from the following options. For best results it is recommended that you use a resolution of either 1024x768 or 1280x720. In Call Options 7

8 Preparation While video conferencing tries to recreate the experience of meeting with people in person, there are several things worth considering if you want to have a more enjoyable experience Preparation Making sure you can tick all the items on this checklist will help meetings run smoother, as well as provide you with ways to ensure that if things go wrong, you can mitigate any inconvienience. This list is particularly useful for those new to video conferencing. Checklist Arrive early For larger meetings, to avoid potential technical interruptions or delays consuming the beginning of your meeting, arrive early and plan to connect minutes before a meeting. This allows everyone to sort out any trouble they may have before a meeting officially starts Check your requirements can be met If you need to share a presentation, use a document camera, or have some other special requirement for your meeting, check in advance with the technician or booking service that the room or desktop system you are using can support such requests. Bring some additional contact details It always pays to have a mobile or room number of someone at the far site you are connecting to. This ensure that is something goes wrong, such as a technical fault, you still able to contact them and inform them that you will be delayed in connceting to the meeting. Nominate a chairperson For meetings involviong several groups, it is recommended that you nominate a chairperson to help control the flow of the meeting. R R R R 8 Best Practice

9 Framing & eye contact Camera position / Framing Ensure your camera is framing your endpoint well. This means for a room with several people that it is zoomed out enough to include all participants in the image. In a dedicated video conferencing room, check the framing of your camera before you connect to the meeting. Depending on what you are using video conferencing for, you may want to consider different framing: For a presentation with long components from indivdual speakers Set up the camera for a head and shoulders shot of the current speaker. You can reposition the camera as the speaker in the room changes. For a group discussion Making eye contact In order to better engage with your audience making eye contact with them occasionally is important, particularly if you are the primary speaker for long periods of time. When speaking in a video conference, eye contact with your audience is acheived by you looking at the camera which is recording you. A common habit is to instead look at the screen with your audience on it. From your audience s perspective, you will appear to be looking at either the floor or the ceiling, depending on the placement of the camera recording you. Remember, you don t need to make eye contact all the time, but glancing at the camera when you can will help keep your audience engaged. It is often easiest to simply frame the entire group, thus not needing to constantly jump between speakers for a closer shot. Best Practice 9

10 Microphones Etiquette & Conduct Remaining attentive While it may be difficult to stay attentive in a long video conference or presentation, it is important to remember that although it may feel as if you are watching a one way video stream, your image is being broadcast back to the speaker, and fidgeting, gesturing and whispering can be very off putting. Try to refrain from being overly animated or talking excessively to people in your own room while a speaker is talking at another location. Even with muted microphones this behavior is very difficult to ignore when you are the speaker. Avoid eating, or leaving the room while people are presenting If you are the organiser of a long meeting, consider hourly breaks for 5-10 minutes to let people refresh themselves. Microphones Microphones on video conferencing systems are generally very sensitive to sounds. Therefore, it is important to be aware of where they are located in order to avoid amplifying distracting sounds which are then broadcast to other participants in your call. Muting Microphones When in meetings which involve one person presenting for a long period of time, it is always best practice for other participants to mute the microphones until someone at their location needs to speak. This allows all sites to hear the speaker clearly, and means the listeners can discreetly talk to each other at their respective sites if required. Avoid making noises near the microphones Any noises that may appear quiet to you can be greatly amplified if they are near the microphone, which is often placed on the table. This can make it very difficult for all other sites to hear voices over. This includes shuffling papers, tapping pens, feet etc. Also, avoid placing laptop with fans near microphones for the same reason. Be aware that whispering may be picked up Often, people naturally whisper to each other during meetings while discussing a response, or to clarify somethign with a colleage. Depending on the configuration of your microphone, this may be loud enough for it to pick up, meaning your whispering may not be as discreet as you intend. The microphone lights will be red when muted, and green when live. 10 Best Practice Etiquette

11 Troubleshooting & Etiquette Support While we do our best to provide a ready to go solution for video conferencing, sometimes problems occur. Occasionally, there are some simple things you can do to resolve the problem yourself. If not however, do not hesistate to contact technical assistance If the other sites can t hear you Make sure your microphone is not muted! If the lights around your microphone are red then your microphone is muted and no audio will be transmitted to other sites. Unmute the microphone and this should resolve the problem If your video or audio is distorted or hard to see/hear Technical Assistance For all other problems, the quickest way to resolve them is generally to call technical assistance at the Digital Media Group Extension on Campus 3388 External Number videoconference@canterbury.ac.nz This can be the result of an issue somewhere along the network between your video conferencing system and the site you are connecting to. In these cases sometimes simply disconnecting from the call and redailing can fix this. If your call disconnects unexpectedly Again, sometimes network issues can cause video conferencing units to disconnect from a call. If this happens, try redialing the meeting. We hope we have provide you with all the relevant information to use this video conferencing system with ease. If you feel we have omitted some important or useful details, please contact us at the Digital Media Group. Etiquette Troubleshooting & Support 11