#1 2009-08-19 17:15:46

**_famouscookies_**

Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Hello,

First post here. A wealth on info in this site. Thanks. Here's an issue I haven't been able to find anything regarding:

I use Adobe Connect Hosted. I've created an 89 slide, 1.25 hr Ondemand with Presenter and have uploaded it to My Content and linked it to a share pod in a meeting room.

We were hoping to play this prerecorded content and then follow it up with a live Q&A session.

Everything seemed to be going well at first, but then suddenly a couple people were behind a few slides though synchronized navigation was checked. Since I was also streaming the audio via phone some people complained of the audio being out of sync by 2 to 3 slides. I dropped the room bandwidth to modem in hope that it would catch up.

In addition to that there were people who logged in late or logged off and back on were also "out of sync" or starting at earlier slides than they left off or back the same slide they left off.

I recently patched presenter from 7.0 to 7.02 and republished the content. I still seem to be having the same issues when testing it out.

I had hopes that Adobe Connect would keep all participants on the most current slide regardless of speed or time they have joined. Has anyone had this issue or know what I could be doing wrong?

Thanks!
Luke

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

I'm also noticing that when I recall an existing but hidden Note pod the presentation in progress jumps back to the first slide containing audio. Is this typical? Any general steps to troubleshoot would be appreciated.

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

I've discovered that if I advance the slide by hand after the audio ends, but before the slide advances by itself it seems to sync my test participants to the same slide. I know, it sort of defeats the purpose. I'll be doing this tonight, but if I can't figure out a better solution I'll probably just play the audio separate and advance a PPT while I follow the transcript.

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Ok. I tried it again with slightly more success, but with a still unhappy client. The manual advancing of slides worked when new particpants arrived. That is, when the current slide was finished they became sync'd up after I manually advanced to the next while playing.

However, a presenter arrived late in the presentation for the Q&A session and just after giving him presenter rights (he logged in as a guest) everyone's slides jumped to the beggining of the Ondemand, creating 60 annoyed cardiologists and a unhappy client. She wanted everyone to believe it was live. My best guess is that he may have wondered why the slides were off and tried to hit sync or advance the slides or he some how became the lead person to sync to when he logged in. Eitherway I should have got him on the same slide before changing from a participant to presenter.

I'm guessing ondemands just aren't made to be used in this type of situation. I haven't tried them in the training module yet, but have hosted them independently of the Adobe server.

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Ok. I think this will be the last update. I believe the majority of my problems have come from 2 different items.

First being the keyboard shortcuts for controlling Presenter content in the share pod.
I have several people logged in as hosts and presenters and they use a chat box for communications. If the letters P, S, or M are pressed without a cursor in the dialog box this can pause, stop, or mute the presentation. My fix for this is to uncheck the "Show Presentation Playbar" option in the share pod after beginning the presentation. The shortcuts don't seem to work when this is hidden.

The second issue was opening new or hidden pods during the playback caused the presentation to jump back to the beginning. I have locked the layout and have explained that if something non-essential has been "accidentally" hidden I will not restore the window.

Hopes this helps anyone who runs into this issue in the future.

**_roysdenc_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Sorry you haven't been getting replys to your posts.  I can tell you that we will record a presentation with Presenter, and play it back as a live webcast with live chat, so you are not unique in this.  Ours aren't as long, but sound like they are basically the same.  One main difference is we often do this without the participants being synched for our own reasons, but have also run with everyone in synch.

You are on the right path with the keyboard short cuts based on other posts I have seen.  Other than that I am not sure of any other causes.  One thought for the Q&A is to completely change layouts to one with no slides, but rather additional chat pods or poll pods, then you can mask the change (to some extent) from recorded to live person. 

Just some thoughts for you.
-Chris

**_roysdenc_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Oh, and make sure you go ahead and update Presenter to 7.0.5, which will give you more Office 07 support amung other things.

-Chris

**_p_mo_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

I'm running into some similar issues and would appreciate any input.

We have a number of Adobe Presenter presentations with embedded audio that we would like to present during live Connect Pro sessions.  The students will be aware that the Presenter component is pre-recorded.  Unfortunately, these Presenter presentations will not play unless the sharing is NOT synced.  Even if I advance the animations automatically, the embedded audio is truncated.

Although I could allow the students to advance the presentations at their own pace, this woud defeat my intention.  I was hoping that everyone could watch the presentation simultaneously and, if a student raised a question, the host could pause the presentation while the question was answered and resume the presentation thereafter.

Any thoughts on how to successfully run a synced presentation would be most appreciated.

Paul

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Thanks for sharing Paul.

In my situation I was just very diligent about hiding the controls when not being used, advancing the slide manually at the end of the slide (when the audio was over, but before it automatically advanced) to sync new people back up every time someone logged in after the presentation began. It was flawless after I figured it out, but it wasn't as easy as just hitting play and waiting for it to end.

You say that you are using a number of presenter presentations. How are you deploying it? Are they in separate share pods in one layout or are you add/removing share pods as you go or are you switching layouts with a presentation in each layout. This might make a difference.

I didn't have any issues with audio being cut short. Could you describe this part in more detail. How much audio was typically cut out and was it always at end of the slide?

My first couple recommendations would be to make sure the presentations were published in Presenter 7.05, there was a recent critical patch. The other would be to get an extra computer or two next to you (or open different Web browsers) and play the scenario out and see what works and what doesn't. This might help you narrow the specifics of the issues anyway.

Luke

**_p_mo_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Hi Luke,

Thanks for the prompt response.  We'll typically use only one of our Presenter presentations during any given Connect Pro session and I'm having the problems in testing with just a single presentation being shared.  I am using a second computer to monitor the activity as you have suggested.

When I advance the presentation manually, I only get a fraction of a second of audio before it stops.  I suspect from your description that you do not have animations within each slide and that you are lettting the audio for each slide run completely before you are manually advancing to the next slide (rather than the next animation within a slide).  Am I correct with this assumption?

Thanks again,
Paul

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Hi Paul,

That's correct. I've added animation cues before, but I've never used it in a live meeting situation. I've had issues with the audio sometimes repeating the same fraction of beginning audio twice (almost like a stutter) when embedded in a share pod, but nothing like what you are describing.

So when you are advancing the slide to the next animation it plays the correct audio afterward, but just a small snippet? Is it doing the same thing when the slide advances and advancing through animation cues? Also, I assume it's doing it on the host side and participant side, but only when Synchronized Navigation is checked?

If you play the ondemand off the desktop do you have the same symptoms? This might help isolate where the problem is originating.

Some other things you might want to consider is if this worked in the past what has changed since then, like PPT vs PPTX or the quality settings in presenter, also publishing directly to Connect via Presenter vs publishing to a .ZIP locally then uploading to content.

I'm doubting this will help, but you might want to play with the room speed settings and see if by bringing it down to DSL/Cable or Modem makes any difference.

Ok. Sort of jumbled, but those are my thoughts

-Luke

**_p_mo_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Hi Luke,

I started testing today with a file from Presenter 6, then a file from Presenter 7.0.2.  Both exhibited the same problems I described earlier.  I then republished the 7.0.2 file as a 7.0.5 file and things got worse.  It still had the same truncation in sync mode and, when NOT synced, I started to experience the stuttering audio that you described.

So far I've only been uploading the zipped files.  I'll start fiddling with the alternatives and different settings as you've described and I'll keep you posted.

I have a real love-hate relationship with these products.  The potential is enormous and they do 90% of what I want them to do, but the other 10% sure causes a disproportionate amount of frustration!

Thanks again for your timely advice.

Paul

**_simonbyrne_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Hi Luke,

Doing a search for forum postings here, I came across your issue.  I have the same problem.  Latecomers to the meeting start from the beginning of a recorded (Presenter) PowerPoint.

So the only way you have found to avoid this is to manually advance slides?  That seems a bit stupid!  Adobe really need to fix this.  I can't sit there and advance slides in that way, make it look professional and be on top of everything else that's going on in presenter chat and Q&A.  Having "Sync" turned on should mean that participants are synced with the presenter's slides, no?!

Have you or anyone else found another way around this since your last posting?

Thanks,
Simon

**_famouscookies_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Hi Simon,

Unfortunately I have not, but the "good" thing is that you only need to advance the slide once (per instance) to catch up, but if the slide is particularly long the latecomer will have to wait until to the end of the slide before being caught up. Also, if you are using it in conjunction with an audio conference line it can be chaotic since the phone audio is synched, but latecomer's screen is not.

It's particularly dangerous if you promote a latecomer to a presenter or host before manually advancing/synching or if you open a new pod while playing. Both of these will make everyone jump back to the beginning of the presentation. Talk about a being in the hot seat when this happens.

So, for now, that's my fix until it can be addressed by Adobe.

Luke

**_simonbyrne_**

Re: Synchronized navigation issues with Presenter embedded in share pod

Thanks for your reply, Luke.  Yes, I have also experienced the restart on open new pod as well.  What a shambles that looks to participants!!  Hopefully both will be fixed some time soon.