Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Running Scopia Videoconferencing from Windows gordonjs 3/4/2011
Table of Contents Contents Installing the Software... 3 Configuring your Audio and Video... 7 Entering and Participating in a Meeting... 12 Desktop Showing... 18 Audio and Video Controls... 25 Text Chat... 26 Exiting a Meeting... 28 1
Running Scopia Desktop Videoconferencing for Windows This document will explain how to install and use Scopia by Radvision. If you are going to run your own session you need a meetingid (room number). Contact Jeff Gordon at: jeff.s.gordon@vanderbilt.edu to make the request. If you are simply participating in a meeting you do not need an account on the system. You just need to install the software and put in your name and meeting ID. Because of the unique nature of webcams, this document assumes you already have your webcam installed and it is working correctly with other applications such as Skype. Scopia is a desktop videoconferencing system that allows you and your colleagues to hold a video call. You can hear each other and you can see each other (and you can even show or see a participant s desktop). The video quality varies depending on your network connection, the network connections of those with whom you are speaking, the quality of everyone s respective webcams, and the general health of the Internet at that moment. If you expect full screen HD quality images you are going to be sadly disappointed, we don t support that. But the overall video quality can be fair to good. It is more important for audio quality to be good. Radvision uses the Skype audio algorithms so Scopia audio is the best it can be in a voice over IP environment. Again, network quality impacts sound quality. Pay attention to the audio requirements below. That will pay dividends in quality of experience. To download and print this document click here: https://nursingapps.nursing.vanderbilt.edu/howtoscopia/scopiaprocedures.pdf All work occurs at the following URL: http://conferencing.nursing.vanderbilt.edu The first 4 steps only need to be done once per machine. After that, most of the software is installed. You MUST have system administration privileges on the computer to install this software. 2
Installing the Software Step 1: Begin the software installation. Click at where it says Click here to install these updates Step 2: Check ONLY the Conference Client. The way we run Scopia there is no reason to install the Outlook add on so leave that UNCHECKED. Click Install. 3
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Step 3: Wait for the software to download and install. This may take several minutes, depending on network connection. Step 4: Again, ignore the checkbox and click Close. 5
Your software is now installed. You will never again have to repeat the steps above UNLESS you uninstall the software or we transmit a software update. 6
Configuring your Audio and Video NOTE: This MUST be done immediately before every meeting. Step 1: Start from a FRESHLY freshly booted computer, then go to: http://conferencing.nursing.vanderbilt.edu You MUST check your audio and video EVERY TIME before you enter a meeting. Click Check your Audio next. 7
Step 2: You SHOULD be using a headset to handle your audio. It not only gives you more privacy on what you hear, the audio quality through the headset microphone is much clearer to the other participants and there is less of a chance of a feedback loop or a situation where other participants hear themselves repeat what they say because it is routing from your laptop speakers into your laptop microphone. So, always use a headset for videoconferencing unless you are using a special system that does not require it. Make sure your headset is plugged in when you start your computer. You should be able to see your headset in the dropdowns below. Select it for both microphone and speakers. Then click Start Audio Test. As you talk you will hear yourself (the only time that happens) and you will see the volume bar (green dots) move across to the right. If you are constantly pinging in the red, move the slider bar of the microphone left. When satisfied with the quality click Apply and OK. NOTE: sometimes Windows doesn t recognize the name of your device. If that is the case you may have to just try various combinations of microphone and speaker devices until you find one that works. When you start your audio test you should talk and hear yourself. It is the ONLY time you will hear yourself. Scratch the microphone with your fingernail. You should hear the scratch and see the volume bar reflect the scratch. If you do not hear or see the scratch then it is quite likely that the microphone device you selected is not your headset. 8
Step 3: Now from the original screen click Check your Video OR click the Video tab in the test window. Both will take you to the same place. Select your camera from the dropdown (usually the default) and click Preview. 9
If your webcam is working properly, you will see yourself in the window below. Close the window and click OK. 10
You have now properly configured your audio and video for the conference. You MUST do these steps EVERY time you have a meeting. 11
Entering and Participating in a Meeting Step 1: Now you are ready to enter the meeting. Put in the name you want to be recognized by. (There is no authentication on this. The name is what will appear below your video image.) Put in the meeting ID which is like a room number. Instructors are assigned rooms that begin with 6. Students will be emailed the room number they are to go into for the class. The room number works for that instructor FOREVER. Once assigned to an instructor they do not change, nor are there distinct room numbers for different classes taught by an instructor. If multiple instructors are going to participate in a common class, they need to decide which room the class will meet in and communicate that to the participants, usually through an email. Click Participate Now. You will see the following screen. Sometimes it may even freeze up momentarily. That is normal. It may take several minutes for the following screen to go away. 12
Step 2: Everyone will see the screen below. You will also hear the woman s voice say, Please wait for the meeting moderator. If you are a student you just have to wait for your instructor to show up. You can text chat in the chatbox with your fellow students but you will not be able to see or talk to each other verbally until the instructor types in the Moderator Pin. If you are the instructor, click the button labeled Enter Moderator PIN. 13
Next screen for instructors (meeting moderators) only, enter the Moderator PIN you have been assigned and click OK Everyone waiting to get in, including the instructor will all enter the room at the same time. People arriving later, after the instructor has entered the moderator PIN will automatically enter the room. The screen below is the Scopia desktop screen. Clicking the box just left of the red X in the upper right hand corner or double clicking the handlebar (the top line where it says Scopia Desktop) will make that 14
window full screen. You will see all of the signed in participants in the participant list on the left. Next to each is a microphone icon and a camera icon. If you are the instructor and you are the only one in the room you will see yourself in the full screen image on the right. If one other person is in the room you will see that person full screen on the right. If multiple people are in the room you will see them all (up to a maximum of 16) in that window on the right. If you look to the lower right of that window you will also see yourself. That is your personal window that always shows you to make sure you are in frame. Although we will show you later how to close your personal window, we recommend you leave it open to see how you look to others. If people say you are too loud when you talk OR you notice that the volume bar at the top just next to the microphone icon above Participants is always pegging to the end, move the slider left. If people say you are too silent move it to the right. If someone is talking and they are too loud you can move the speaker slider left (to lower the audio) or right to raise the audio. You should also check the volume control on your headset AND the volume control on the task bar to see if either of those need adjusting. 15
If you need to cut off your microphone temporarily you can click the microphone icon at the top. It will put a line through it indicating you are muted. If you are the instructor you may click, instead, the microphone icon next to your name. That will also mute the microphone. If you need to shutoff your camera feed temporarily you can click the camera icon at the left above the video window. If you are the instructor you may click, instead, the camera icon just to the left of your name. Both accomplish the same task. 16
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Desktop Showing Scopia allows anyone in the room to show their desktop, or selected applications on their desktop. Unlike webconferencing programs, Scopia does not allow someone to remote control applications on your desktop but it does allow you to show your desktop to all of the participants. While this is typically an instructor function, anyone in the room can actually do it, though only one desktop may be showing at a time. The desktop shown is appearing in real time. This means that if the user changes their desktop by moving a window, entering data in an application that is showing, or brings up a new application, all of the users will see it with a few seconds delay. You should also be aware that people will NOT see your mouse moves. Your mouse is hidden from the users point of view. We will discuss a workaround for that shortly. NOTE: If you plan on showing your desktop we STRONGLY advise you to change your screen resolution to 1024x768. Large screens make text difficult to read on a user s smaller screen. Furthermore we have noticed that some wide screen resolutions present a warped image of the screen to the participants, making the screen look like the bottom was dragged right while the top was in its present location. You avoid ALL of these problems by temporarily switching your screen resolution to 1024x768 BEFORE you show your desktop. (You can alter your screen resolution AFTER you are in the meeting however.) Also note that desktop showing is currently limited to Windows machines only. Macintosh users may view desktops but cannot show their desktops unless they are using the Windows version of Scopia in a Windows partition on their Macintosh. To show your desktop click the screen icon at the top. (If you are full screen there will be text next to the icon). You will then be asked if you want to show your desktop or specific applications. I always recommend showing your entire desktop. We have had fewer problems that way. The first time you show a desktop you may be asked if you want to install a small software application. Agree to do so. 18
Always move the application you want your participants to see (in this case Excel) to the top and adjacent to the smaller video window. Everyone s video will now compress into the tiny space showing so that the visual focus will be on the application. You want to make the application window as large as possible but it is also possible to extend it beyond what your users are capable of seeing with right or bottom scrolling. Changing to 1024x768 screen resolution helps prevent this. But another thing you should do is slowly drag the right edge of the window you want to show right, a little bit at a time, until someone in the class says STOP. Tell them to say that when the right edge of the window you are dragging is right at the right edge of their own computer screen. Do the same thing moving the bottom edge of the window down. IF you do not get all the way to the edges of your own screen, make a mental note as to where the right and bottom limits are and make sure you never go beyond them for any other application you are showing. I often put a small piece of tape on the screen s bezel to indicate the screen limits for the class. The participants may have to be reminded to make their Scopia window full screen (by clicking the square or double clicking the handlebar) in order to see everything you want to show. (Ok, but what about Powerpoint presentations. The easiest way to show Powerpoint files is to display them in edit mode. You will then advance the slide by clicking the new slide in the ribbon column containing thumbnails of all the slides on the left of the Powerpoint editor window. Of course you lose all animated transitions. Now the reason you don t run Powerpoint in full screen display mode is you will lose your view of the participants because the Powerpoint window eclipses everything else.) 19
Now let s say you want to highlight something on the spreadsheet by putting a circle around it. With webconferencing applications the participants can follow your mousemoves. This product, however, is not quite webconferencing so the participants cannot see your mouse moves. We work around the problem by entering drawing mode. Enter drawing mode by clicking the paintbrush at the top abovecenter the video window. 20
That will remove the participant list temporarily and replace it with a paint pallet. You can adjust the thickness of the line by adjusting the slider below the swatches. Above the swatches you can select either a solid color (for a line for example) or a semi transparent color (highlighting, it works like a yellow highlighter on paper). In the swatch area itself you can select the color you want of the solid line or highlighting. 21
In the example below I have hand drawn (with my mouse button depressed) a solid red line around the sum in cell A6. 22
NOTE: The mouse button does not behave like a mouse button when in drawing mode. Rather, it allows you to draw and only draw. If you want to advance a screen in a browser or add more data to your spreadsheet you would like to click to do it but first you MUST turn off drawing mode. Turning off drawing mode erases anything you have drawn. Drawings are not permanent. To turn off drawing mode click on the paint brush icon again. You will see anything you have drawn disappear and now the mouse will work with your application as it is supposed to. In order to end desktop showing, click the screen icon at the top that has a red X in the corner of a screen icon. 23
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Audio and Video Controls Now we will look at some audio and video controls that are available to instructors and to participants. You can move your personal video window to any of the 4 corners of the screen. That can be useful if someone is talking in an area blanketed by your personal window. Click the down arrowhead next to the personal window icon and you will see 4 choices of window placement. Select the one you want. You can also make the personal video window go away by clicking actual personal window icon itself, not the down arrow. You can also make the personal window re appear in its last position by clicking on the personal window icon. IF you are the moderator (you are the one who put in the moderator pin) you may mute your own microphone OR anyone else s microphone by clicking the microphone icon left of their name. ONLY the moderator may do this. When that happens the hand icon at the top goes bright. If someone wants to talk they can click on the hand icon. The moderator can then choose to recognize them by clicking on the person s microphone, thus giving them their mic back. You will see a hand icon next to their name. The second you click on their microphone to release it the hand icon will disappear and they may talk. 25
Text Chat Anyone in the room may text chat with the entire group or with a selected individual in the room. To text chat simply type in to the window below. Where it says Public you can click the down arrow and select a specific individual in the room to chat with. This enables a private chat between two participants. Private chats are just that, private and the results are now in the output pane for everyone to see. The only people who may see a private chat are the chatting participants themselves. When the person chatting clicks the green arrow key the contents of the chat is moved into the chat window. 26
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Exiting a Meeting Now if the meeting is over and you want to leave you can click the red circle highlighted. You will see the message below. This is to prevent you from inadvertently exiting a meeting by mistake. If you are a participant you will then exit the meeting if you had clicked Yes. However, if you are the moderator you are asked if you want to terminate the meeting or allow it to continue without your presence. I suspect most of the time you want to terminate it, however you may want to allow students 28
to continue chatting. The analogy is you have a meeting in your office. If you terminate the meeting you throw everyone out. If you elect to allow the meeting to continue without your presence it is like you leaving your office to go down the hall while people can stay in your office and continue on. It is really your choice. The meeting will conclude when the last person leaves. NOTE: At this time the meetings cannot be recorded. NOTE: If you are the instructor, be sure to schedule your space in the public Scopia calendar. Failure to do so may result in your room not being allowed to continue its meeting. We only have a limited number of concurrent seat licenses so scheduling (and playing nice in the sandbox) is critical to avoid future controls on this environment. NOTE: the maximum number of participants in a meeting is 17. While you can have more, you can only see 16 people at a time (plus yourself in the personal window). Last revised: JSG: 6/13/11 29