Guide to Protocol for Video Conference Meetings Thanks go to the AARNet Advisory Committee (AAC) for its guidelines, developed following experience at several videoconferences. A. Prior to the Meeting: •
The Chair must ensure there will be some technical support on hand for the meeting (at least at the start), to deal with any technical problems, and to set up the image configuration (see F below). The technical support person's phone number should be advised to all participants prior to the meeting.
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Participants must register with the AARNet Gateway before they can join any multi-way video conference.
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Participants must resolve firewall problems at their site before connecting, to allow various kinds of traffic in and out on various (nominated) ports.
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Participants should check their units out some time prior to the actual meeting.
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Participants should ensure that their lighting conditions are suitable - there needs to be light on the face, and wearing darker clothes helps. It is also advisable to sit close to the camera, so that the image predominantly is the person's face, not the room background.
B. Setting Up the Meeting: •
The date and time of the meeting should be agreed well in advance (at least one week). It should be clear which time zone the start time relates to, and whether or not it refers to daylight saving time.
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Ensure that you know the number to connect to the conference.
C. Agenda for the Meeting: •
Video conference meetings work well with a smallish, focussed agenda. The agenda should be circulated before the video conference commences. The limit for a video conference seems to be between 1-2 hours maximum.
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D. Joining the Meeting: •
Participants should join the meeting at least 10 minutes before the start. The microphone should NOT be muted at the time you connect. Mute the microphone after the connection is established.
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If there are problems coming in by video but getting no sound (in one direction or the other), then it is best to disconnect and retry.
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If participants fail to connect properly after several attempts, rather than trying to sort out technical problems at the time, they should instead dial in using a regular phone, and connect by voice only.
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At the start of the meeting, the Chair should go through the list of expected attendees and get them to verify their presence.
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Anyone joining after the start should await a gap in the proceedings to announce their presence to the Chair and other attendees.
E. Speaking During a Meeting: •
Participants should keep their microphone muted unless they want to speak, otherwise feedback can occur, extraneous sounds can disrupt, and when the "auto-appear in a quadrant" feature is being used (see F below), they'll suddenly appear on screen.
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If people want to speak, they should identify themselves first, and wait to be invited to speak. If necessary, call out and give your name to attract attention - but wait to be invited to speak.
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The Chair should remember to invite comment from anyone/everyone, and leave gaps long enough for people to unmute their microphones and ask to speak (and people need to be ready to take up those opportunities, rather than relying on interrupting when something happens to cross their mind).
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The use of video conferencing as opposed to face-face meetings can be a little dampening to "vigorous debate", but in principle there is no real reason why people cannot still have their say they just have to be a little disciplined about it.
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F. Modes of Multi-Way Images: •
There are a number of modes of picture, each having some advantages and disadvantages. In one, the viewing window is divided into 16 images, with each participant appearing in one image. In another mode, the picture is divided into 4 quadrants. This can be augmented with features that (a) lock one person (eg the Chair) into one quadrant, and (b) bring into vision anyone speaking.
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The 16-way picture has the advantage that you can see everyone all the time, but the disadvantage that the images are small. This can be partly compensated by ensuring that people sit close enough to their camera that their faces fill the screen.
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The 4-way picture has the advantage that you can see people more clearly, but the disadvantage that it requires more technology (to fix one image, and to sound-activate others) and you cannot see everyone all the time. In the 4-way version, it is beneficial to have the Chair fixed in view.
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One way of addressing not being able to see everyone all the time in the 4-way version would be to try to "aggregate" a few people in a few places.
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If trying to aggregate people regionally, then using the Access Grids would be advantageous, to achieve decent-sized images.
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