Camera and Voice Pod: Broadcasting Audio and Video
Hosts and Presenters can broadcast live audio and video to all attendees using the Camera and Voice pod. To broadcast audio, the broadcaster’s computer must have a microphone connected to it. To broadcast video, the broadcaster’s computer must have a video or web camera connected to it.
Each time you enter a meeting room, make sure your headset and camera are properly configured, as outlined in Setting Up Audio and Video under Getting Started.
View Camera and Voice pod tutorial.
View Camera and Voice pod options tutorial.
To Begin Broadcasting Audio and Video
For participants to broadcast audio and video, they must be assigned either a Presenter or Host role. After running the Audio Setup Wizard, start broadcasting your audio and video by clicking the "Start My Camera and Voice" button in the lower left corner of the Camera and Voice pod.
"Start My Camera and Voice" Button
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 your camera or microphone on and off.
Camera and Voice Pod Controls
While broadcasting your audio and video, you have access to a number of controls in the pod:
- Stop my camera and voice button: Stops broadcasting your video and mutes your audio if the “hands-free” button was locked on. Your name, image, and media control buttons will disappear from all attendees' Camera and Voice pods. However, unless the Host has changed your meeting room permissions to “Participant,” you will still be able to use the Talk button to broadcast audio.
Stop My Camera and Voice Button - Camera button: Controls the video broadcast by toggling between start and pause. When paused, the last image broadcast to attendees remains visible in the Camera and Voice pod. Click the button again to toggle back to live broadcasting.
Camera Pause/Resume Button - Pod options: Allow Hosts and Presenters to change broadcasting settings for everyone in the meeting room
Camera and Voice Pod Options Button
Broadcasting Video
Having a number of people broadcasting audio and video at the same time can cause the system to run slowly and result in poor quality of both audio and video. To avoid this problem, meeting members should pause their video broadcast when they are not speaking.
Broadcasting Audio
To broadcast your voice, do one of the following:
- Hold down the Talk button to speak during a meeting. When you release the Talk button, you are no longer broadcasting audio.
Talk Button - Alternatively, click the Hands-Free button (lock icon). After it is enabled, the Hands-Free button lets you speak at any time during the meeting.
Camera and Voice Pod Options ButtonA little microphone icon will appear in front of your name in the Camera and Voice pod (if you are also broadcasting video), a Speaker icon will appear beside your name in the Attendee List pod, and, when you speak, a green line under the talk button indicates your audio broadcast level.
Audio IndicatorsYou will continue to broadcast audio until you click the Talk button again to release the hands-free feature -- the little microphone icon beside your name in the Camera and Voice pod will disappear as will the speaker icon beside your name in the Attendee List and the green bar under the Talk button.
Hands Free Lock ButtonSince sound levels of individual microphones can vary greatly, adjust the volume of your microphone by selecting High, Medium, or Low from the Talk button Options menu. Adjusting the volume is useful if others in the meeting or training session tell you your voice is too loud or that you cannot be heard.
- Selecting "Voice Off" turns off all audio broadcasting for
everyone in the room. - Selecting "Voice On - Multiple Speakers" turns on audio broadcasting and allows more than one person to broadcast audio at the same time.
- Selecting "Voice On - One Speaker" turns on audio broadcasting but only broadcasts one speaker at a time.
Talk Options Button
Hands-Free Button
Clicking the Talk button only when you want to speak, instead of using the Hands-Free button, may reduce problems with echo and improve the quality of the sound in the meeting.
Audio Broadcast Options
Options for audio broadcasts are located in the dropdown menu of the Talk button. All Attendees who are able to broadcast audio and video are also able to turn audio broadcasting on and off for all attendees in the meeting room, and enable one or multiple attendees to speak at one time using the options in the dropdown menu.
Selecting a volume option sets the audio broadcast of the person making the selection.
The Help Option
Finally, selecting the Help option at the bottom of the menu takes you to general help documentation at the Adobe Web site.
Audio Captioning for the Hearing Impaired
For information about audio captioning for the hearing impaired, see Setting Up Audio and Video under Getting Started.
Audio and Video Icons (Block/Unblock)
You can choose to block (mute) an individual's audio and/or video broadcast from the Camera and Voice pod. Blocking broadcasts from others on your own computer does not block them from other attendees in the meeting. Blocking video and audio is only a choice if video is being broadcast. If only audio is being broadcast, there is no way to block just selected Attendees.
Two icons let you control the ability to block video and/or audio from selected participants to your computer. To access the icons, move the cursor over the name of the Attendee located directly under their video broadcast. As you move the cursor over the name, a camera icon and a speaker icon will appear to the right of their name.
Mute Audio and Block Video Icons
To block audio or video, click the speaker or camera icon next to the participant's name. A red line over the participant's icon indicates that broadcasts from that participant to your computer are blocked. To reactivate the broadcast, click the icon again. No line indicates that broadcasts from that participant have resumed.
To turn off an Attendee’s video broadcast for everyone in the meeting, click the “X” icon on the far right beside the Attendee’s name. Note that the Attendee can turn their broadcast back on by clicking the Camera icon in the Camera and Voice pod.
Camera and Voice Pod Options
All Attendees who are able to broadcast audio and video also have access to the Camera and Voice pod options in the lower right corner of the pod and to the Talk options in the dropdown menu of the Talk button. The options selected will be applied to everyone in the meeting room except for the volume choices which apply to each individual computer.
Option Button
In the Camera and Voice pod options menu, there are two sets of pod options. Selection of these options applies to video broadcasts for everyone in the room.
Camera Off Option
Selecting the "Camera Off" option will stop video broadcasts for everyone in the meeting room. To turn all video broadcasts back on, select one of the other options from the menu, such as "Fast Images." Selecting lower-quality video options from this menu may improve the sound quality and performance of the meeting.
Using "Camera Off" to stop broadcasting VIDEO for everyone in the meeting does not affect the AUDIO broadcasts. Even if the microphone is in the video camera, audio broadcasts are still audible.
Image Options
The Slow Images option samples and transmits the camera image less frequently than other image settings. Images tend to be low-quality and can shift abruptly. Use this setting if most attendees have low-speed connections or if you are not concerned about image quality. A less distracting option for low-speed connections would be to pause your camera instead of using the Slow Images option.
Fast Images, the default setting, provides a clear but NOT high-quality image. Use this setting if attendees are connected at a variety of speeds.
High Quality Images provides very good quality images. Use this setting if all attendees are connected at high speeds.
High Bandwidth provides the highest-quality images. Like the High Quality option, this option is suitable for use with the highest connection speeds.
Video Display Options
The next section of options allows you to adjust the video images of everyone in the room to better fit the size and shape of the Camera and Voice pod in a given layout. When creating a layout, you will want to try each of the settings to see which one looks best.
Portrait displays video with a square aspect ratio.
Standard displays video with a width-to-height aspect ratio of approximately 4 to 3.
Landscape displays video with an aspect ratio of approximately 9 to 5.
Granting Audio Access through the Attendee List Pod (AKA Passing the Mic)
There are two additional ways to give Participants the ability to broadcast audio.
Use the Attendee List Pod Fly-out Menus
The first way is by using the Attendee List pod fly-out menu attached to each Attendee’s name. This feature is available only for meeting Hosts to use.
Attendee List Pod Fly-out Menu
To grant audio broadcast permissions to a Participant, roll the cursor over the Participant’s name and select the microphone icon from the fly-out menu. To allow the Participant to also use the Share pod, select the Share pod icon from the fly-out. The icons on the fly-out menu are toggles. To remove permissions, roll over the Attendee’s name and select the appropriate icon. More than one Attendee can be given access to the microphone and/or Share pod at a time.
Use the “Revoke Microphone Rights From All” option in the Attendee List pod options menu to cancel everyone’s audio broadcast permissions at once. Since Presenters and Hosts permission to broadcast audio is based on their assigned roles in the meeting, selecting this option simply mutes their microphone. To actually revoke their broadcast rights, the Host will need to change their “Role” settings in the meeting room.
Attendee List Pod Options Button
Revoke Microphone Rights from All Option
Use the “Raised Hand” Emoticon
The second way to give Participants the ability to broadcast audio is for the Participant to use the “Raise Hand” emoticon either in the Attendee List pod or from the emoticon button in the lower left corner of the screen. Again, only a Host will see the request and be able to grant access to the microphone.
Emoticon Button
The type of signal the Host sees indicating that an Attendee has raised their hand will depend on the role of the person raising their hand. A Presenter already has access to broadcast audio. The Host will see a popup in the lower right corner of the meeting room and only needs to verbally acknowledge the Presenter’s raised hand and ask him/her to go ahead and talk. A Participant doesn’talready have access to the microphone. The Host will see an icon of a raised hand and a popup in the upper right corner of the screen when a Participant uses the Raised Hand emoticon. By approving the Participant’s raised hand signal, the Host grants mic access to the Participant. Since Participants and Presenters don’t see the popup signals that the Host sees, they may not know that, rather than just indicating that they want to ask a question, they are actually indicating that they want to broadcast audio.
Host View of Participant Raised Hand Signal and Presenter Raised Hand Signal
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