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Table of Contents » Linktivity WebDemo » Audio Conferencing - VoIP
Audio Conferencing - VoIP
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Linktivity WebDemo offers an audio over the Internet facility (VoIP) feature that allows the presenter and the participants to talk to each other during a meeting. In WebDemo this feature is called Voice Chat.
Review Overview
This review discusses the following aspects of the voice chat option within Linktivity WebDemo:
Enabling Voice Chat
When participants enter a WebDemo meeting, they cannot talk to each other immediately, nor can they hear the meeting presenter speak. The meeting host needs to turn voice capability on by clicking on the voice chat icon in the top toolbar of the host control panel. All attendees can now hear the meeting host. However, this action only turns on the microphone of the meeting host. Attendees may speak after the meeting host turns their microphone on as well.
Enabling voice chat in WebDemo
Granting Attendees the Microphone
To grant attendees the right to use their microphone, the meeting host needs to first select one or more names from the attendee list and then click on the microphone button at the bottom of the host control panel.
Handing attendees the microphone in WebDemo
Excluding Attendees from Voice Chat
By default all attendees may listen to the current broadcast or conversation. In the context of audio conferencing a broadcast is a sound message sent out by one person to all other people within the conference. In contrast to this a conversation is a two-way process, involving at least two speakers. Which participants can hear the sound being transmitted is indicated by the speaker icon next to their name in the attendee list. The meeting host may exclude attendees from the current audio conference by right-clicking on that person's name to open the context menu, followed by deselecting the option Audio/Video > Broadcast > Neither. The options listed in the context menu and their names depend on the type of version of WebDemo that is being used. The option names used here in the review and as shown in the snapshot apply to the registered Enterprise version.
Excluding attendees from an audio conference in WebDemo
Controlling Audio Options
As soon as voice chat is enabled, a new browser window is opened containing the voice chat control dialog box. The voice chat control dialog box not only allows attendees to adjust the volume of their speakers and microphone, but also contains the option to switch the audio source from microphone (mic) to the common sound format wave or to line-in. The advantage of this option is that it allows attendees to broadcast any sound currently playing at their computer, like an existing recording, sound files or an audio CD.
WebDemo voice chat control dialog
Evaluating Conclusion
WebDemo voice chat is more convenient than other similar tools because it provides hands-free operation of the microphone. Although the full-duplex speech technology allows both parties to speak simultaneously, the slight delay in sound transmission naturally encourages attendees to speak in turn. The sound quality of WebDemo voice chat is good.
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Posted on June 20, 2003 at 09:37 PM
Updated on November 24, 2004 at 05:09 PM
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