Best Practices for Using Connect Pro VoIP

There are several factors for achieving the best audio experience using Voice Over IP (VoIP) in Connect Pro.

High-Quality Voice Capturing and Audio Fidelity

Invest in a good quality microphone or headset to get optimum volume levels into Connect Pro. Don?t use speakerphone or devices that may degrade the capture and rendering of your voice. View a tutorial on selecting the right microphone >>

Generally speaking, the microphone should be positioned close to the speaking source but not so close as to overload the microphone or positioned such that plosives affect the audio. A good headset microphone placement is at the corner of the mouth or tip of the nose.

A headset is a good choice since the fixed microphone position affords the users any degree of movement and the earphones provide a great deal of acoustic isolation.
Other considerations are optimizing acoustic isolation between microphone and speakers to avoid feedback that, when coupled with inherent internet latencies, results in echoes.

Enhanced Audio Controls with Meeting Add-In

When a Participant joins a Connect Pro Meeting, the meeting is launched from, and rendered in, the Adobe Flash Player, a plug-in installed on 98% of computers. This ubiquitous plug-in offers basic audio controls.

For more advanced audio enhancement functions, it is recommended using the Connect Pro Meeting Add-In. It is a lightweight, Flash-based add-on that Connect Pro users should install when they are promoted to the role of Hosts or Presenters and intend to share a document or their screen with meeting participants. Among other things, the Meeting Add-In provides enhanced audio features and controls, such as echo cancellation and automatic microphone gain control.

All Connect Pro VoIP users, regardless of role, can benefit by installing the Meeting Add-in and using the Audio Wizard to set optimum audio levels. To download and install theMeeting Add-in form a Connect Pro room, go to Help > Check for Updates; a Downloads page opens up in your browser and you can install ?Adobe Acrobat Connect Add-in?. Otherwise, Presenters can temporarily promote Participants to Presenter role where they will be prompted to install the Meeting Add-in.

Optimize your Settings by using the Audio Setup Wizard

Once installed, Meeting Add-in users should use the Audio Setup Wizard to configure their individual microphone levels. This is important since improperly configured audio settings may result in too low or too high levels, spoken phrases being truncated due to incorrect silence levels, and excessive echoes due to incorrectly configured enhanced audio.
Go to Meeting > Manage My Settings > Audio Setup Wizard. The Audio Setup Wizard is fairly straightforward and walks users through each setting to determine optimum volume levels and background silence detection. For best results, all VoIP users are strongly recommended to do the following steps from within a Connect Pro Meeting:

• Click Next and follow the instructions on the screen.
• When done, click Finish. Each time you are in a new setting you should run through the Audio Setup Wizard as it configures your audio setup based on location it is run. So for example, if you run the Audio Setup Wizard in a noisy environment, the Connect Add-In is going to account for this. But using these same settings in a quiet environment may result in a completely different experience. View a tutorial on how to setup your computer for VoIP audio >>
• On the last screen, you can optionally click on Advanced Settings... to see the settings configured by the wizard and optionally fine tune. This is an example of commonly used settings:

Use the Voice Controls in the Voice Toolbar

Learn how to use the voice controls supported by Connect Pro. View a tutorial on how to use VoIP in Connect Pro >>

To broadcast audio, you can use the Camera and Voice pod or the Voice buttons toolbar, in the lower left-hand side of the room. You have a few options for how to broadcast your audio.

Hold down Talk to speak. When you are finished speaking, release the button. Optionally select Hands-free. When the Hands-free button is selected, all of your audio is broadcasted to the meeting until you explicitly delect this button. Click the button again to turn off hands-free audio broadcasting. Since sound levels of individual microphones can vary greatly, adjust the volume of your microphone from the VoIP toolbar (click the Voice Options menu and select High, Medium, or Low). Adjusting the volume is useful if others in the meeting or training session tell you your voice is too loud or that you cannot be heard. If you are a host, you can turn audio broadcasting on and off for all attendees, and enable one or multiple attendees to speak at one time. Voice Off: Turns off all audio broadcasting for all attendees. Voice On - Multiple Speakers: Turns on audio broadcasting for multiple users enabling meeting attendees who have the appropriate permissions to broadcast audio. Any attendee can talk when holding down the Talk or Hands-free button and all audio streams will be broadcasted. Voice On - One Speaker: Turns on audio broadcasting, enabling meeting or training session attendees who have the appropriate permissions to broadcast audio. However, when a speaker holds down the Talk button, the Talk button is disabled for other users so only one attendee can speak at a time.

You can use the various VoIP options to ensure that attendees are experiecing the right audio experience for your meeting.

Be Judicious When Allowing Attendees to Speak

While it may seem undemocratic to control who can speak in your meeting, having a good handle on who is allowed to speak and when is an essential part of ensuring a good VoIP experience. As the meeting host is your responsiblity to control the audience. Here are some tips and tricks to use when allowing meeting participants to use VoIP:

1. Take your time and don?t just give everyone VoIP access until you have carefully explained how the Talk button works.
2. If headsets are not an option with the attendees, instruct them to turn down their computer volume before granting VoIP access.
3. Always use Push to Talk unless the attendee(s) have a properly installed headset microphone.
4. Always use a high quality headset/mic yourself.

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Set Meeting Room Bandwidth Accordingly

As the meeting host, you have the ability to set Meeting Room Bandwidth to determine the speed (kilobits/second) at which data from the meeting is sent to attendees. You should choose a room bandwidth that matches the connection speed used by attendees. If attendees are using a variety of connection speeds, choose the lowest speed that attendees may be using. For example, if some attendees are using modems, choose Modem for room bandwidth to ensure that all attendees have a good connection and client computers are not overloaded. Connect Pro will automatically sacrifice audio quality to minimize audio drops or latency for attendees on low bandwidth connections. Properly setting room bandwidth helps the meeting understand how to best balance performance and quality with bandwidth. Improperly setting room bandwidth often times results in dropped audio because the meeting is sending over more information than an attendee's computer can handle.
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In order to determine your attendee's connection speeds, you can use the Connection Status feature, which is turned off by default. To turn on this option, open the Attendee List pod options menu.

A group of bars, like the bars indicating signal strength on a mobile device, can appear next to an attendee name in the Attendee List pod to indicate potential issues with the attendee?s connection status. (This option is off by default.) ?When the attendee?s connection falls below the current meeting room bandwidth, the number of bars in the icon decreases. Hosts can configure the network connection status indicators to be on or off any time during a meeting. The network connection status is shown for all attendees that have a bandwidth set lower than room bandwidth you selected. For example, if the room bandwidth is set to DSL/Cable, connection status is shown for attendees with a connection speed set to Modem. (Attendees can set their own connection speed by clicking Meeting > Manage My Settings > My Connection Speed). So if you see a yellow indicator next to an attendee name, they are likely having issues hearing meeting audio. If you see a red indicator next to an attendee's name, then you can be certain that they are having issues hearing meeting audio. In these situations it's best to lower the room bandwidth accordingly and to minimize the high bandwidth activities in the meeting. If you are sharing video, pause the picture or stop sharing. If you are are screen sharing, consider pausing or stopping all together until attendees catch up. ? View a tutorial on understanding Connection Status >>

Turn on Connection Status to monitor the bandwidth of your attendees.

As always, it is best to start familiarizing yourself with during a meeting with friendly users, joining from inside and outside your organization, before using it with a larger audience during a business presentation.