#1 2009-01-28 16:13:40

**_craigbell_**

Audio drops/lags on Connect

Hello,

Quick background on the situation.  We have a burstable to 100megabit connection in an office building, and running our presentations on new laptop with more than enough computing power.  Our platform is hosted by Adobe.  All of our presentations are done from a wired computer using a USB microphone for most, but some others will use a different style of microphone.

We run regular classes/meeting in the meeting room feature, with presenters from all across Canada.  Just about every class/meeting has some sort of audio problem when broadcasting the audio exclusively through the computer (we don't have a teleconferencing solution yet). 

The audio problem occurs intermittently and what will happen is all audio will drop for 3-5 seconds, and then "catch up".  This seems to occur every few minutes and while not a dealbreaker, it does make it very annoying.  So far it hasn't been a big issue, but our graduate society is planning to put on a very large scale, big dollar, webinar in about a month and I need to resolve this (or find a new job!).

Since it seems to happen from various locations, I don't think it would be our office connection.  On a recommendation from our vendor, I changed the audio to "Voice On - One Speaker".  The weird part is that certain people, both in our office and in our satellite offices across the country, had no problems whatsoever, but probably over 80% experienced the audio issue.

Any ideas?  Any settings I might also need to change?

**_dyun_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Are the people who are broadcasting audio running through the Audio Setup Wizard?
(http://seminars.adobe.acrobat.com/voipsetup)

**_craigbell_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Yes, ran through all that as the audio was being broadcast from my system.

**_dyun_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

What is the room bandwidth setting on?  What kinds of activities are you doing in your meetings? Video?  Screensharing?  Is there any correlation between what activities you are doing and when you experience the audio issues?

I haven't done a ton of testing myself with the Advanced settings in the Audio Setup Wizard, but I've had someone tell me that these settings work great for them:

So turn on Enhanced Audio, Select Half Duplex, Silence level 10, check Auto sense Acoustic Echo Cancellation, Check Automatic Gain Control, and select Best instead for sound quality.

Hope that helps.  Good Luck!
David

**_craigbell_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Thanks David, I'll try some of that out.

The thing is, we weren't doing anything intensive when the sound problem hits and it's not related to any activity as it happens randomly.  We were just running a power point presentation and talking to it.

**_kbconn_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

hi,

we had similar experiences. it is recommended to turn the enhanced audio option off. until version 7 sp1 this was by default activated. so everybody has to deactivate it manually. apparently even if a single or a few persons have it activated it can cause troublesome audio.
but i suppose connect hosted does have version seven sp 1. the problem might occur if persons still activate enhanced audio.

kathrin

**_craigbell_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Thanks Kathrin.

Now when you say "apparently even if a single or a few persons have it activated it can cause troublesome audio." is this for all attendees or just for those broadcasting the audio?  If it's for all attendees that would be a virtual nightmare to try and get 300+ people, most of whom would be new to Adobe Connect and online webinars, to follow the steps to turn it off.

**_kbconn_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Hi,
It affects not everybody but certainly not only the broadcasters.
At our last meeting some experienced audio drop offs while
Others did not. We only had audio and a presentation, none of
The participants did have bandwidt problems.

Of course with 300 people you cannot ensure that everybody
Is set up all right.
I suppose to definitely get a well performing meeting
You have to use a phone bridge.
Otherwise you will not get the reliability that
is necessary.
Kathrin

**_MelissaFreundAO_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Funny enough Dyun about this. We have been having random recordings lose audio during playback but PPT/video keeps going. If you try it again a day later the audio returns. We are a licensed solution btw.

Adobe Platnium Support have been telling us that we should uncheck Enhanced User Audio in the Audio Set up wizard to help control this.

We find this crazy since it is so random and does not happen to every session we produce. We 30 seminar rooms to manage and hundreds of  courses a week, it really only happens to a few.

Anyone have any drops in audio during recording playback? Not during live sessions, but during reocrding playback is our issue. It is currently in Engingeerings' hands but still waiting for answers.......

Melissa

**_roysdenc_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Melissa
    From my experience, the issue is on Adobe's side and playing back the content.  I currently have a large ongoing issue with audio where it drops during the live presentation, but is present on the recording.  Being that I am ona a hosted account, that tells me the audio is getting to Adobe's servers, but is not playing back.  I am confident of this because the audio is present on the recording.

   For your issue, it sounds as though audio is present during the live presentation, but randomly drops during playback of the recording.  That tells me that there is something on the playback side that is messed up, not the recording side  This means enhanced audio shouldn't make a difference (especially since the audio is sometime there sometimes not).

   I find it funny that Adobe reccommends turning off enhanced audio as a solution to audio problems, when it is there to improve the audio in the first place.  I have found that the quality of the audio can be almost to the point of unusable with enhanced audio off if anything else is going on in the room (we often have hardware running, which can be loud).  Turning off enhanced audio is not a solution, but only a bandaid that isn't staying on very well.  We have done testing with enhanced audio both on and off and found that we have the same problems, so that is not this source of the problem.

   Unfortunately I don't have good information for you, only that I have also reported the same thing with no solution.  I hope they find a solution for you, and if they do, please post it so that we all know about it.

-Chris

**_MelissaFreundAO_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Thanks Chris - I will keep you posted what Adobe says. Now that "engineering" is looking at the issue I know this will now take forever and I probably will never actually hear of a "reason" why this occurs. If I get lucky I will let you know.

Thanks so much!

**_roysdenc_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Oh, and in case I didn't say it, bug the hell out of them and make them respond.  I didn't and it took them 3-4 months to let me know that their update (ACP 6 SP3) broke my recordings and they couldn't fix them.  Since then I talk to Adobe at least once a week (usually more), and that happened a year ago.

Good Luck
-Chris

**_MelissaFreundAO_**

Re: Audio drops/lags on Connect

Oh yes we know. We have Platnium Support and last year had a case open for 6 months until it was resolved. We have no issues with bugging and always keep up with cases open. For teh most part they are fine except when we find "actual bugs" they have to try and fix.

We also agree with you here. The Enhanced Audio solution (on vs. off) is not something we feel comfortable with either in changing and we find that keeping it on is best