FAQ

Unfortunately there are a few parameters that influences audio in Adobe Connect:

• Settings in Adobe Connect
• Your bandwidth
• Your system sound settings
• Your sound software
• Your sound hardware (internal and external) and switches there-on
• The physical connections and plugs
• Your environment (noisy or calm office)

 Make sure that you have choosen the right audio and microphone settings in your system preferences and in the Adobe Connect Meeting.

Do the Audio-Wizard found in the Meeting-Menu in the upper left.

As a participant, there are two things you can do to make sure your sound will be adequate:

• Do the Meeting Connection Diagnostic (D/F/I) before entering the web conference.

• Do the "Audio Setup Wizard" in the web conference. To do this, go to the menu "Meeting", select "Audio Setup Wizard" and follow the instructions.

As a presenter make sure to install the Connect Add-In in the web conference. To do this, go to the menu "Help" and select "Downloads".

How do you know that your sound is being sent to participants? When you speak after having connected your audio (to do this click on the arrow next to the microphone symbol in the top menu)...

• Your microphone icon in the top menu should turn green and emit sound waves.
• A microphone icon emitting sound waves beside your name should appear in the participants list.

If your microphone is muted, you can turn it on/green by cklicking on it. If you're a participant, the host of the meeting might have disabled your microphone and you can't click it green.

If there is an asterisk next to the microphone 'single Speaker Mode' is enabled. Hosts can change this via the Audio-Menu.

Check your headset:

• Is your headset plugged in? Is the correct plug in the correct spot?
• Has your headset a physical volume that can be adjusted?

In the Audio Setup Wizard:

If you cannot hear the sound in the test sound output:

1. Check the sound settings of your computer's system. There could be several places where the sound could be turned off on a PC or a Mac.
2. Check your system settings, if your headset is selected as output system.

Check your headset:

• Is your headset plugged in? Is the correct plug in the correct spot?
• Has your headset a physical volume/mute switch for the microphone that can be adjusted?

Check your rights in Adobe Connect. If you do not see the microphone icon on the top menu, you are probably set on "participant" status and need to ask the host to give you the microphone or to upgrade your rights. In order to do this, you can click on the "Raise Hand" icon in the top menu.

Check your microphone volume by clicking on the arrow next to the microphone symbol in the top menu, then select "Adjust Mic Volume". There you can adjust your microphone volume for the meeting.

In the Audio Setup Wizard:

If your recording does not work (the sound indicator does not move):

1. Check the sound settings of your computer's system. There could be several places where the recording could be turned off on a PC or a Mac.
2. Check whether you have selected the right recording device.

Other sound communication programs such as Skype, VoIP, MSN, etc. may interfere and should be turned off. Best reboot completely.

Try changing the bandwidth settings in the menu "Meeting", "Preferences", "Room Bandwidth".

Check that no participant is using a loudspeaker feeding your sound back into a microphone.

Right click somewhere in the meeting room. Select "Settings". Select the microphone. Check the box "Reduce Echo".

Other actions that have helped

1. If you use an USB-plugged headset, switch to another USB-port at your computer.
2. Restart or change your browser.
3. Reboot your computer.
4. Install Adobe Connect Add-in even if you are not a presenter. Find the Add-in in the Adobe Connect Meeting Help Menu "Downloads".

Further suggestions

• You can reduce problems by adapting connection speed in the "web meeting" menu to the bandwidth of the participant with the lowest bandwidth.
• Don't give more than 10 participants the right to speak. In a presentation only the presenter and moderator need access to the microphone. Participants can ask for the microphone with the status indicator ("Raise Hand" icon in the top menu).
• If the success of the meeting or class depends on free-flowing discussion, consider using a phone bridge instead of Adobe Connect's VoIP so several people can talk at the same time if necessary.
• Turn participants' video off, once the presentation starts. In discussion phases upgrade individual contributors to co-presenters for a limited duration of time.
• If at the end of the Audio Setup Wizard your microphone is sounding too loud or distorted to others, go through the above-mentioned steps to correct this.
• Set the talk options to multiple speakers to avoid interfering with your own talking.

If you still have problems, please mail to interact-support@switch.ch 

Make sure you're webcam is generally working by testing with other programs.

Check if your webcam is not used by another programm.

There is no real limitation. You have to watch the resources as every video stream uses bandwith and it might get slower with each stream. But as long as you only have 5 to 8 streams you should be good. Your internet connection is the main factor of how well the streams are delivered to you.

Interrupt your flow of information (every 10 to 15 minutes) to

1. Ask a question and invite participants to use the chat or their microphone to give feedback. Make sure your question fuels the discussion and does not lead to a "yes" or "no" answer.
2. Ask participants to give feedback with their "Agree"/"Disagree" status to questions such as
   1. Can you hear me well?
   2. Do you see the screen with the … that I am sharing just now?
   3. Let’s see, how many of you knew this information?
   4. Do you like this information?
   5. Will this information make you change your …?
   6. For whom of you is this information surprising/not surprising?
3. Use polls with prepared multiple choice or multiple answer questions to engage your audience and to receive a quantifiable feedback.
4. Invite participants to use the chat to provide information, feedback, suggestions, questions, useful links, etc.
5. Use the whiteboard for brainstorming and collect "one word/short phrase" suggestions.
6. Create a ranking for these items by letting the participants place stars beside the item they prefer. Each participant has a limited number of stars that can be placed.
7. Invite participants to share their screen, a file or a link (in this case they need to install the Add-in).
8. If you are the presenter, share your task with a moderator. The latter can jump in to help participants with technical problems, scan the chat for questions and forward inputs from the participants to you, so you can concentrate on your presentation.
9. If you are using Adobe Connect to hold a class and your students have high-speed connections, you can designate some students to be in the "hot seat" to answer questions and contribute to discussions. By rotating the hot seat designees, you can include everyone in the class and keep their attention because they don't know when you will put them in the hot seat or what the topic will be. This works especially well for math classes where students in the hot seat can be called on to work problems on the whiteboard and highlight parts of the problem they don't understand or mistakes.
10. You can assign students to lead a discussion or to present something themselves.

1. Have an mp3-music file running half an hour before start of the web meeting as a welcome for the participants.
2. Present together with a colleague and alternate frequently.
3. Prepare several layouts change between a
   1. Pre-conference layout where participants can chat (i.e. before the start of the web meeting) with each other. It will have a big chat pod and a small or  no share pod.
   2. Presentation layout with a prominent share pod where you can show a powerpoint presentation and little space for the camera & voice pod.
   3. Discussion layout with more space for chat, notes and whiteboard pod.
4. When presenting slides, use the whiteboard overlay to add highlights and other prompts.
5. Do not only share a powerpoint but also share your screen, a webpage or a prepared whiteboard.
6. Click on the "Full Screen" button when you present or share your screen.

The echo suppression is a nifty tool − as long as there is only one person speaking. However, if several microphones are working simultaneously the echo suppression might trigger a problem by mistaking a real speaker for echo. To avoid this enable the "Single Speaker Mode". To do this, go to the menu "Audio" and check "Enable Single Speaker Mode". We recommend not to check the echo suppression button if you are planning a multi-speaker discussion.

Adobe Connect supports all modern browser.

If you want to be browser indipendent Download the latest Add-in of Adobe Connect.

If presentations in the web meeting are not properly loading or resulting in a blank or stalled screen, simply clearing the history and the cache may resolve the problem. If you have more than one browser installed, clear all of them. Simply clearing one browser may not resolve the problem.

If your presentation is freezed, try to use the Adobe Connect App.

• If you plan to have more than 50 participants please contact us. The number of participants basically depends on the usage scenario.
• A traditional presentation where participants only listen and provide input via chat generally causes no difficulties.
• However: The more interactive a session, the smaller should be the group.
• As long as you share files of a decent size, the number of participants doesn't matter technically.
• Strain comes with a large number of people using a shared application at the same time, such as a poll or whiteboard.
• A large number of video connections might be confusing: We therefore do not recommend to have large groups participating via web cam.
• Several open microphones can cause difficulties too. If you are planning a discussion in a collaboration setting, stick to the rule "The smaller the group, the better".
• Avoid having several microphones open at the same time. Let participants ask for the microphone with the "Raise Hand" icon. When you give them the microphone, remind them to mute their microphone when they have finished speaking.

1. Upload in Adobe Connect (Drawback: The file format changes.): The host can upload files in Adobe Connect home. The content menu has a "New Content" button that allows the upload of the following formats: *.ppt, *.flv, *.swf, *.pdf, *.gif, *.jpg, *.png, *.mp3, *.html, or *.zip. Each upload receives a specific URL that can be shared with participants. Drawback: The format of the file will change and might be difficult to read.
2. Upload outside Adobe Connect (Drawback: You need a server that is publicly accessible.): Place any file on a server you can gain access to and indicate the URL in the chat or the pod for web links.
3. Flash files (swf) are the easiest formats for file sharing. If you have any difficulties with a format convert it to Shockwave Flash format with this Converter.

To provide an offline-viewing of a recording go to the "My Meeting" space and save your recording with the "Make Offline" menu. You can chose to create either a MP4 file which is better supported by media players or a FLV file (Flash Video) format that can be watched with any media player that supports FLV, such as Adobe Media Player.

Too many prepared pods waiting to be used may slow down your web meeting. Delete what you don't really need. Close microphones that are not necessary. Don't open several sessions in parallel.