Quick Start Checklist

Before Joining a Meeting
Before joining a meeting there are several things you need to do.
(Also see Requirements in this section for more information.)

1. You will need a Penn State Access Account or Friends of Penn State Account (View the tutorial.)
2. You will also need a fast internet connection, updated web browser and Flash Player
3. You will need to test your computer and Internet connection at https://breeze.psu.edu/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

   ( View the tutorial.)

   Note the connection speed indicated as you will need it to set your connection speed once you enter the meeting room.

   If the report you get back from the connection test indicates that you are unable to connect to the Penn State server, it is almost always caused by a firewall or proxy server at your location. Your local network administrator would be most knowledgeable to help you solve these issues.

   Another potential issue could be 3rd party firewall software on your computer, or possibly web proxy software that you might have your browser configured to use. Your local tech support staff should be able to help you adjust your settings. The ITS Help Desk may also be able to help you determine if it is a local software issue. Use the form at http://meeting.psu.edu/issueform to let them know what was in your report and what firewall/proxy server software you may be using.

4. If you will be sharing your desktop, an application and/or files in the Share pod, you will need the Adobe Connect Add-In (View the Tutorial.)

   The Add-In should have been installed when you ran the connection test in the previous step. If you receive a message when you enter the meeting room that you need to install the Add-In, you will need to follow the steps in the tutorial. If all else fails, the Add-In can be found at the URLs below and installed by clicking the appropriate link for your operating system. Sharing is not an option for the Linux operating system as there is no Add-In for Linux.

   • Windows: http://www.macromedia.com/go/breeze_addin_install_win/
   • Mac: http://www.macromedia.com/go/breeze_addin_install_mac/
5. If you will be broadcasting video, you will need a USB web camera. If you will be listening to audio from within the meeting room (VoIP) you will need speakers or a headset. If you will be broadcasting audio from within the meeting room (VoIP) you will need a USB mic or a USB headset with a mic.

Joining a Meeting
(See Joining/Leaving a Meeting in this section for more information or view the tutorial.)

1. Enter the meeting URL in your browser (or access the Meeting Manager Interface at http://breeze.psu.edu and find your meeting)
2. Log in to the meeting

Configuring Audio/Video and Connection Speed
(See Setting Up Audio/Video in this section for more information.)

1. From the "Meeting" menu select "Audio Setup Wizard..." and follow the instructions. (View the tutorial.)
2. From the "Meeting" menu select "My Connection Speed" and select the option that matches the connection test report speed. (See step 5 above for more information.) (View the tutorial.)
3. If broadcasting video, from the “Meeting” menu select “Camera" and choose your camera. (View the tutorial.)

Participant's Guide to Pods
If this is your first Adobe Connect meeting or you have very little experience using Adobe Connect, you may want to view our brief tutorial about all of the pods available in a meeting and how how to use them. (View the tutorial.)

Using Adobe Connect
Learning to Use Adobe Connect contains information about web resources, interactive demos, and support information.

Requirements

The requirements for Adobe Connect at Penn State are:

Access Account or Friends of Penn State Account
Penn State faculty, staff, and students need an active Access account to be able to log in to Adobe Connect. Guests can quickly obtain a Friends of Penn State (FPS) Account. ( View the tutorial .)

Internet Connection
Minimum bandwidth requirement is 56 kb/sec.

Test Your Computer
You can test your computer at https://breeze.psu.edu/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm to make sure that your it is set up to run Adobe Connect. (View the tutorial.) This test will also tell you your Internet connection speed.

Flash Player
You will need the most recent version of Flash Player. Adobe Flash Player is standard in most browsers. You can find out which version of Flash Player you have at the Adobe Flash website: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/

Adobe Connect Add-In
The Adobe Connect Add-In allows you to share your screen and upload files to meetings. To install the add-in, follow the appropriate link ( view the tutorial ):

• Windows: http://www.macromedia.com/go/breeze_addin_install_win/
• Mac: http://www.macromedia.com/go/breeze_addin_install_mac/

Note: At this time, there is no add-in available for Linux.

A small number of Intel Mac users running OS X have reported problems with Adobe Connect installing the wrong version of the add-in. See http://aralbalkan.com/965 for a possible workaround.

Web Browser:

• Windows (98se+)
1. Internet Explorer 5.0+
2. Netscape Navigator 7.1+
3. AOL 9+
4. Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3+
• Macintosh (OS X 10.2+)
1. Safari 1.1+
2. Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3+
• Linux
1. Mozilla 1.2+
• Solaris
1. Mozilla 1.4+

Please Note: As of June 30, 2006 Penn State will no longer support Windows 98se or Windows ME. Although Adobe Connect may work with these systems, Penn State helpdesk support staff will not be available for help with any problems you may encounter.

FlashPaper (optional)
FlashPaper allows you to share any document in meetings by converting it into Flash (SWF file) format.

• Windows: Download the stand-alone FlashPaper application for free with your Penn State Access Account or Friends of Penn State Account: https://breeze.psu.edu/admin/home/homepage/FlashPaper.exe
• Mac: You will need to purchase Macromedia Studio 8 (available at the Penn State Computer Store, http://computerstore.psu.edu) and install Contribute or purchase and install Contribute by itself to get access to FlashPaper. Once Contribute is installed on a Mac, FlashPaper becomes an option in all applications in the printer list on the Print screen.

Joining/Leaving a Meeting

There are two ways to log on to an Adobe Connect meeting:

• By going directly to the meeting room using the URL supplied by your meeting Host, ( view the tutorial ) or
• By accessing the meeting through the Meeting Manager interface on the Penn State Adobe Connect server: http://breeze.psu.edu. This option is only available to Attendees who's names have been added to the "Participant List" for the meeting.

Penn State faculty, staff, and students need an active Access account to be able to log in to Adobe Connect. Guests can quickly obtain a Friends of Penn State (FPS) Account to use for logging in. (View the tutorial.)

Logging in to a meeting room using the URL
The easiest way for Attendees enter a meeting room is with the URL, which you should receive from the meeting Host.

[inline:Login6.jpg]
Login Screen for Entering an Adobe Connect Meeting

To enter the meeting room using the URL, do the following:

• Enter the URL for the meeting room in the Location text field.
• If you aren’t already logged in to Web Access, you will need to log
  in with either your Access Account ID and password or your Friends of Penn
  State ID and password.
• Click the Login button to proceed.

After logging in, the meeting room will open on your screen.

Logging in to a meeting room using the Meeting Manager interface
Your meeting host must add you to the "Participant List" in order for the meeting to be accessible from your Meeting Manager interface. (Hosts: see Editing Participants under Creating/Editing Meetings for details.) To access the Adobe Connect Meeting Manager interface, log on to the Penn State Adobe Connect server: http://breeze.psu.edu

[inline:MtgMgrHome.jpg]
Adobe Connect Meeting Manager Interface

If your meeting has been scheduled for a time in the future, you will see the name of the meeting displayed on your Meeting Manager Home Page. If the meeting has not been scheduled, you will need to click the "More..." link on the light gray bar at the bottom of the "My Scheduled Meetings" section to see a list of meeting rooms in which you are a member.

Click the "Enter" button next to the name of your meeting to enter it. Alternately, you can click the name of the meeting and click the "Enter Meeting Room" button at the bottom of the screen or the URL for the meeting room in the middle of the screen to enter the room.

Note that once a meeting is created in Adobe Connect, attendees can enter the meeting room at any time until it is closed or deleted by the owner. An "expired" meeting is just a meeting that hasn't been scheduled (or rescheduled) for a time in the future. Being expired has no effect on the contents or accessibility of the meeting room.

Leaving a Meeting
To leave a meeting, simply close the computer window containing the meeting room. On a Windows computer, click the red X in the upper right corner of the window. On a Mac, click the red circle in the upper left of the window.

The content of an Adobe Connect meeting room does not change when anyone (including the host) leaves. The only part of the room that changes dynamically is the list of attendees who are currently present in the room.

Setting Up Audio and Video

Note that in order to broadcast audio and video, your meeting Host must assign you at least Presenter permissions. To learn more about permissions, see Roles and Permissions under Using Adobe Connect.

Configuring Audio
( View the tutorial.)
In the Adobe Connect meeting room:

• From the "Meeting" menu at the top of the window, select "Audio Setup Wizard..."
• Follow the directions on the screen.
• Note: If any of the Wizard tests fail, you will need to troubleshoot your microphone and speakers. Please be aware that the Wizard will allow you to continue even if your computer fails a test.

Configuring Video
(View the tutorial.)
In the Adobe Connect meeting room:

• From the “Meeting” menu at the top of the window, select “Camera"
• A Settings window opens, with the "Camera" tab selected
• Click on the camera icon and select your camera from the drop-down list. You may see a window pop up on the screen asking you to allow your video to be broadcast – click “Allow.” This window appears only once during a meeting no matter how many times you turn off and on your camera.
• Note: If no camera is connected, a “No Camera Found” message appears instead of the Camera drop-down list. If you do have a camera connected but you get a "No Camera Found" message, check to be sure your camera is turned on and not being used by another application.
• Click "Close."

Audio Captioning (Optional)
Adobe has an extension that allows for real-time audio captioning for greater accessibility. It is available as a free download from Adobe: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?view=sn511&extID=1032548 (you may have to create a new user name and password if you are not already registered with Adobe). Note that in order for a meeting to be captioned using the extension, the meeting creator or Host must set up a captioning service ahead of time. Captioning companies do charge a fee for their services.

Instructions for using the captioning extension, including tips for captioning services, can be found at http://www.adobe.com/resources/education/k12/campaign/communication/comm...

For general accessibility information, see the Adobe Connect website at http://www.adobe.com/macromedia/accessibility/features/breeze/

More Audio/Video
For more information about broadcasting audio and video, see Camera and Voice Pod: Broadcasting Audio and Video under Using Adobe Connect.

Learning to Use Adobe Connect

Here are more resources for learning to use Adobe Connect:

Using Adobe Connect
Here in the community, Using Adobe Connect under the top menu contains information about roles and permissions, using audio/video, sharing files, and other meeting room functions.

Interactive Open Demo Meetings
ITS at Penn State hosts frequent interactive open demo meetings of Adobe Connect online. All users are welcome to attend, ask questions, and see the features of a meeting room in action. For more information and upcoming demo dates, see the Events Calendar or Announcements in the Forums.

Training, Seminars, and Support Resources at Penn State
ITS at Penn State also hosts face-to-face orientation seminars about Adobe Connect. For more information about this and other support resources for Adobe Connect at Penn State, see Penn State Support Resources under Help/FAQ.

Adobe Connect Tutorials (Flash Videos)

During the Fall semester, we have been experimenting with creating modular tutorials for Adobe Connect (Breeze). A preview of these materials was posted on October 26, 2007 at http://meeting.psu.edu/node/292.

Anyone who has tried to teach others to use Adobe Connect can tell you that there is no straight path from where you are to where you want to be. For example, if you want to use the Camera and Voice pod to broadcast audio and video, you have to use many of the options in the Meeting Menu, first.

How to present this maze of options, menus, and pods to people who need to learn to use Adobe Connect was a major stumbling block in developing the tutorials – and I didn’t really start to make progress until I realized that, rather than looking at teaching how to accomplish tasks from within Adobe Connect, I needed to look instead at how to chunk the information about the options, menus, and pods so it could be assembled in any number of ways to provide “just in time” information about how to accomplish a task.

Before beginning to develop the content, I created a list of requirements. Much of this information came from focus groups we held in April, 2007 and includes:

• The tutorials need to be short and address a single item (short and to the point)
• The materials need to be readily available and easily searchable
• The materials need to apply to all audiences, including faculty, staff, and students
• The materials need to address all six roles a user can be assigned in Adobe Connect, including Host, Presenter, Participant, Moderator, Meeting Creator, and IT Support
• The materials need to be generic so they can be used anywhere by anyone in any unit at Penn State
• The materials need to be of high quality and need to be maintained – people looking for help or developing training don’t have time to hunt through a long list of materials to find the ones on the topic they need that are current and correct
• When used to develop training, the source files need to be readily available so the materials can be easily customized by trainers throughout the Penn State community depending on the goals of lesson

In addition to the above requirements, I wanted the materials to be flexible enough to be delivered through a variety of methods, including:

• Through our CMS, ANGEL
• During an Adobe Connect meeting
• At a Web site
• On CDs
• On a streaming video server

We used the following to develop the materials:

• MS Word to write the scripts
• Captivate to record live full-screen motion with narration
• Adobe Connect Presenter to record narrated PowerPoint with embedded .swf full-motion screen captures and .mp3 narration
• Adobe Captivate full motion recording (FMR) editor to assemble the Captivate chunks into a single .swf file that can be used in Adobe Connect Presenter and Adobe Connect Pro
• Audacity to assemble the .mp3 files exported from Captivate to create a single audio file to import into Adobe Connect Presenter
• QuickTime Pro to re-combine the compiled audio and video files into .flv and .mov files for streaming

So far we have created about 45 tutorial objects and modules, which I will begin posting on January 3, 2008. How quickly the files load depends on the speed of your Internet connection. If the audio loads and begins to play before the video, restart the animation as soon as the video appears. Some animations embedded in Adobe Connect Presenter files are fairly large and do require extra time to load.

Following is the schedule for posting:

January 3, 2008:
Participants’ Guide to Pods (https://breeze.psu.edu/participantpods/)
Create a Friends of Penn State Account (https://breeze.psu.edu/createfpsacct/)
Test Connection (https://breeze.psu.edu/testconnectlo/)
Test Connection Module (https://breeze.psu.edu/testconnectmo/)
Enter a Meeting Room Using a URL (https://breeze.psu.edu/enterurl/)
Installing the Sharing Add-in (https://breeze.psu.edu/shareaddin/)
Selecting Attendee Connection Speed (https://breeze.psu.edu/selectconnectspeed/)

January 4, 2008
Audio Setup Wizard Basics (https://breeze.psu.edu/audiowizard/)
Audio Wizard Advanced Settings (https://breeze.psu.edu/audioadvanced/)
Audio Setup Wizard Module (https://breeze.psu.edu/audiowizardmo/)
Selecting a Camera (https://breeze.psu.edu/selectcamera/)
Flash Player Settings Window (https://breeze.psu.edu/flashsettings/)
Select Camera and Flash Player Settings Module (https://breeze.psu.edu/selectcameramo/)

January 7, 2008:
Creating a Meeting Room (https://breeze.psu.edu/createroom/)
Creating a New Meeting Room Module (https://breeze.psu.edu/createroommo/)
Meeting Manager Interface – Edit Participants (https://breeze.psu.edu/mmieditparts/)
Auto-Promote Option (https://breeze.psu.edu/autopromote/)

January 8, 2008:
Attendee List Pod (https://breeze.psu.edu/attendeelist/)
Camera and Voice Pod (https://breeze.psu.edu/cameravoice/)
Camera and Voice Options (https://breeze.psu.edu/cameraoptions/)
Chat Pod Introduction (https://breeze.psu.edu/chatintrolo/)
Chat Pod Options (https://breeze.psu.edu/chatoptionslo/)
Clear Chat and Save Chat (https://breeze.psu.edu/chatclearsavelo/)

January 9, 2008
Poll Pod Introduction (Hosts) (https://breeze.psu.edu/pollintrohost/)
Create Poll (Host) (https://breeze.psu.edu/createpollhost/)
Create Poll (Presenter) (https://breeze.psu.edu/createpollpresent/)
Create Poll Pods (https://breeze.psu.edu/createpoll/)
Enter Poll Question (https://breeze.psu.edu/pollquestion/)
File Share Pod Introduction (https://breeze.psu.edu/fileshareintro/)
File Share Pod Download (https://breeze.psu.edu/filedownload/)
File Share Pod Upload (https://breeze.psu.edu/fileshareupload/)
File Share Pod Options (https://breeze.psu.edu/fileshareoptions/)
File Share Pod Module (https://breeze.psu.edu/fileshare/)
Note Pod (https://breeze.psu.edu/note/)
Web Links Pod Options (https://breeze.psu.edu/weblinks/)
Web Links Pod Module (https://breeze.psu.edu/weblinksmo/)

January 10, 2008:
The Present Menu (Host) (https://breeze.psu.edu/presentmenu/)
Activating Preparing Mode (https://breeze.psu.edu/preparemode/)
Using Preparing Mode (https://breeze.psu.edu/preparemodemo/)
Setting Roles (https://breeze.psu.edu/setuserroles/)
Using, Creating, and Editing Meeting Room Layouts (https://breeze.psu.edu/layoutslo/)

The Share pod tutorials are still under development. Share pod Learning Objects completed to date:

Sharing PowerPoint Presentations Introduction (https://breeze.psu.edu/shareppt/)
Sharing PowerPoint Presentations Navigation Introduction (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharepptnavigation/)
Sharing PowerPoint Control Strip Buttons (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharepptcontrol/)
Share Pod Options (https://breeze.psu.edu/shareoptions/)
Sharing your Desktop (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharedesktop/)
Sharing Windows and Applications (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharewinsapps/)
Share Pod Preview Tool (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharepreview/)
Share Pod Passing Control (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharecontrol/)
Sharing a Whiteboard (https://breeze.psu.edu/sharewhiteboard/)

Please post questions and comments here or send them to breeze@psu.edu.

Adobe Connect Listserv

By letting us know how you are using Adobe Connect, we can better serve you. If you complete this brief form, which is available at http://meeting.psu.edu/listserv, you can receive Adobe Connect announcements and alerts.