Virtual meeting attendance set up over Skype (i.e. attending a Dal meeting from out of town)
Audio setup with echo-cancelling
speakerphone
Sharing the screen via web services:
Live Classroom
Sharing the screen via installed programs (more hassle):
Netmeeting
Teamviewer
(Windows)
Skype Extras
VNC Server/Viewer (Windows and Linux)
Audio setup with echo-cancelling speakerphone
Note: Skype now offers echo cancellation. However, built-in microphones (or external headsets) are not always of good quality, so getting a high-quality echo cancelling speakerphone eliminates problems due to poor audio equipment.
If there is more than one participant on the Halifax side, then the echo-cancelling speakerphone must be used (a single partipicant can use a plain headset or a pair of earphones and a microphone). A Toshiba dual-core laptop is available at the Help Desk for this purpose. This laptop has Skype and the audio setup utility for the speakerphone installed on it already.
If you want to use the speakerphone on your laptop, Install
the audio
setup utility of the USB
speakerphone: instructions
download
It recognizes when the speakerphone is plugged in and makes it the default audio
in/out device
It offers a simple panel to set volumes and save them.
1. Set up the Toshiba dual-core laptop with Skype installed in the meeting room.
2. Plug laptop into a physical ethernet socket (not wireless).
3. Plug in the USB speakerphone (Instructions)
4. Start Skype and login as "DalFCSmtg" (password: "virtual")
5. <If do not have the audio setup utility, you must ensure Skype sound
device settings are correct:
Tools -> Options -> Sound Devices
Select "AK4571" both as Audio In and as Audio Out
device.>
6. Test the Skype connection and audio setup by calling "echo123" from the Skype contacts.
7. Anyone can now call into the meeting from out of town, if they know the
Skype name "DalFCSmtg".
Someone local needs to accept the call by clicking on the green phone button
in the Skype popup window to establish the connection.
NOTES:
1. Seat local people around the speakerphone.
2. If a larger room needs to be accommodated, multiple USB speakerphones can
be ganged together.
3. Circulate materials to be discussed electronically before the meeting
4. If the audience is large, the USB speakerphone has a speaker output that can be connected to an audio system with amplifier.
5. To mute the microphone on the USB speakerphone, press the corresponding button on the speakerphone.
6. For Skype conference calls, the party with the fastest Internet connection should be the host.
Alternatively, Skype offers a "mute" soft button, at either end.
How to connect to the virtual classroom (for remote attendees):
1. To log in to the virtual classroom go to http://ilocluster.ucis.dal.ca/webct/entryPageIns.dowebct
2. Check your browser to make sure it has all the features required for Live
Classroom
3. Log in with your Dal NetID user name and password (this is not your CS username/password).
Your NetID is shown in your personal information page on Banner.
4. You should see MALNIS: Group Research Seminars under "Course
List". Go there.
5. Click on "Student View" tab
6. Click on the link to visit the Live Classroom. This takes you "outside"
the virtual classroom for the course
7a. Click on "Enter this room" - "Run Wizard" the first
time you use Live Classroom to ensure your computer and browser are properly
set up.
7b. If I have done my end correctly (i.e. open the classroom and share the screen)
you should see the lecture screen on your screen and listen to my voice.
7c . Press on TALK to talk to the class.
If you have a presentation, please send me your slides in Acrobat or Powerpoint
format. I will upload them to the Live Classroom as jpeg images so that they
can be viewed and annotated.
For help information, click on or "Live Classroom Help" in step 7
above or visit http://www.wimba.com/support/students.php
HOW TO UPLOAD AN ACROBAT PRESENTATION (for the host)
You can save an Acrobat file as a bunch of images, one image per page
Zip up all the files and upload them into the content folders.
Or you can add the pdf file itself (but students need to have the reader!)
How to do this:
- export slide file from Acrobat into jpeg (it will be one image per page, place
in new directory)
- zip up the files in this directory (files flat, not the directory itself!)
- upload it: Teach tab => Add&Manage Content => Add&Manage Room
Content => New Folder (upper right, may need to enlarge window to see it)
=>
Current Presentation => New Content => Upload New Content
- select which window the slide images will appear, Content or e-board
- go to the main window (console),
- select Lecture01 => Go
- step through the slides to present
HOW TO UPLOAD A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION (for the host)
In PowerPoint, save presentation as jpg, in a separate directory
Then follow the instructions as above
IF THERE ARE LOCAL AND REMOTE PARTICIPANTS
- Use the data projector as a second screen
- Make the resolution of the second screen 800x600
- Resize the Live Classroom window to be larger than 800x600, so that only the
e-board and the list of slides are shown (the talk pane and list of students
is off the bottom of the screen)
SHARING A WHITEBOARD USING SKYPE SHARING EXTRAS
Skype offers free versions of third-party extras that are hit-or-miss. Many are limited versions of commercial software (limitations: screen size, session duration, number of objects on the shared whiteboard).
1. Download and install Skype Extra:
- Skype => Tools => Do More => Get Extras => Sharing => <choose
an extra for screen sharing>
- Click on the green right-pointing triangle to download and install the extra
2. Once installed on both parties' computers:
- Both parties start Skype and the extra (Skype=>Tools=>Do more=><the
extra>)
- One party adds the other as a participant.
- Both parties share the screen, drawing board, whiteboard.
NOTES:
Sketchpad was found simple and reliable, but screen size is limited and it cannot
be expanded.
Talk and Write did not work for one of us (crashed). The free version has a
10min session limit.
WhiteBoardMeeting has a limitation of 65 objects, where a pencil stroke is an
object. Plus it uses vector graphics and has no eraser.
SHARING THE DESKTOP USING VNC SERVER/VIEWER
1. Download and install VNC Server/Viewer from here. Available for Windows and Linux.
2. Read documentation.
The server is the computer, the desktop of which is viewed remotely by the client.
The server is started using the VNC Server program (user-mode
version).
The client is runs the VNC Viewer program, and connects to
the server based on its name or IP address.
The server can be set up with no authentication or with password authentication.
In the latter case, the client needs to provide the password, in addition to
the name or IP address of the server.
Note: The free version of VNC Server/Viewer
lacks encryption, file transfer, and other features. It has no support. It appears
not to have a time limit.
See here for details.
Note 2: VNC interacts
with firewalls, so it is more elaborate to set up than TeamViewer, and may
not always work.
Also the server IP address of the server needs to be found from http://www.whatismyip.com/
SHARING THE SCREEN (DESKTOP) USING TEAMVIEWER
1. Download and install Teamviewer from this site. Teamviewer is already installed on the help desk Toshiba dual-core laptop.
2. Make a Skype connection with the other party.
3. Both parties start Teamviewer and select "Remote support"
mode. One party is the "server" and the other is the "client".
The server can control the client's computer remotely.
Detailed instructions on how to connect to a partner
4. Send the other party, using Skype chat, your Teamviewer ID and password, displayed in the Teamviewer startup window.
5. The other party clicks on "Connect to partner" and enters your ID/password. They become the "server" and you are the "client".
6. You are now sharing your (the client) desktop. The other party (server) has remote control of your desktop and can manipulate your desktop with their mouse and keyboard. The client/server assignment can be switched by the server clicking on the double straight arrow icon in the server toolbar ("Request Server Mode", it is the one before the last).
Note: For the capabilities of the free version of Teamviewer see licensing.
SHARING THE SCREEN OR A PROGRAM USING NETMEETING
- If you have Windows XP, NetMeeting is preinstalled.
1. Go to the start menu and choose "Run".
2. Type in "conf" and press "ok".
- Access URL http://www.whatismyip.com/
to find your IP address
- Call your other party (using regular phone or Skype) and exchange IP addresses.
Skype is better because you can cut and paste IP addresses into a text chat
session.
- Option 1: The other party calls you at your IP address:
- Accept the call in the pop up window
- Option 2: You call the other party at their IP address:
- click on the telephone icon
- enter their IP address
- click on "Call" button
- they answer the call
Once connected, you can now share programs, text chat, share a whiteboard or
transfer files by clicking on the corresponding icons at the bottom of the Netmeeting
console, or by selecting the action from the Tools pulldown menu.
For a presentation, the party giving the presentation starts Powerpoint or Acrobat,
and shares this program with the other party.
Alternatively, the desktop can be shared, by selecting the action from the Tools
menu.
The two computers sharing programs or desktop must have the same screen resolution.
Use Control Panel -> Display -> Settings to achieve this.
If sharing the desktop, also make sure that *neither* computer has the desktop
extended to a second monitor.
NOTES:
- Sometimes, firewalls at either end will block Netmeeting packets, making Netmeeting
communication infeasible. Dal FCS does not block Netmeeting packets.
- Try calling in both directions before giving up on Netmeeting
- Netmeeting supports voice communication, once connected (not needed if using
Skype).
- For one-on-one communication, a combination of Skype and Netmeeting works
fine.
- For a presentation to an audience by a remote speaker, to enable the audience
to ask questions, an echo-cancelling speakerphone is required. Using voice-over-IP
through the loudspeakers of the computer on the audience side generates echo
that makes two-way voice communication very difficult.