Conference Room Instructions

Welcome, this page contains a download link, which you can find below, for my Conference Room. This offers easy to use, audio, video, and text communications both with me as your host and with other people around the world who may also be invited to a conference call.

To use this software you must be running Windows on a standard PC connected to the Internet. To speak to other participants you will need to have a microphone and loudspeakers or a headset connected to a functioning sound sub-system on your computer. To use video, you will need to be connected via broadband and a web-cam attached to your computer.

The Virtual Conference Room uses the very latest Flash version which requires no download – just click on the link below to use Bruce’s Conference Room.

Do not worry about the connection: every release of the software has been scanned for viruses.  The software does not install anything else, no spyware, no adware, no malware, nothing!

Go to: Bruce’s Conference Room – to connect

After you click on the link, the system will auto-connect and open in your browser.  Just follow the instructions to sign in.

There is a help button in the upper right corner of the screen that should access clear, comprehensive instructions on all details of operation. However the basic operation is quite intuitive.

To login and logout of the software, you click on the appropriate button in the upper right of the program window.  If you choose “login” the software will present a panel and ask you to login. It will also ask for your first name and last name. Normally, the software remembers the “screen name” that you use from session to session.

If you want to talk to all the other people in the room, put the mouse over the talk button in the lower left of the application screen and press and hold the left mouse button while you watch the list of attendees in the left column. When you are selected to talk, your name will then change color and move to the top of the list and you will be able to talk. When you are finished talking, lift your finger from the mouse button.

You must press and hold the key so that the system can tell who is waiting to speak.

You can also use “text chat” by using the Chat window to enter text input.   The messages appear in the Chat window on all the connected machines. There is also a private text chat facility that allows you to direct a private text message to a particular user. First type your message then select the person you want to send it to from the drop down list.

To control the sound, you will see two slider control bars for your sound volume and for your microphone volume in the lower left corner of the screen. If you cannot hear, slide the sound volume to the right. If people cannot hear you when you talk, slide the microphone volume to the right. To slide, move the mouse over the slider and press and hold the left mouse button, then move the mouse. You will see the slider move.

If you have a webcam attached to your system, and the webcam has been selected as active in the software menu for the Virtual Conference Room, it will transmit an image, which you will also see, while you are talking. The webcam feature does not work for dial-up connections. Most standard webcams are supported.

Similarly, if there is a Webcam attached to their computer, then you should also see the video image of the person who is speaking. That is to say, the person who has currently pressed the “talk” button and is talking. The moderator of the room controls what features are active during a meeting. The system defaults to a sensible set of options if a moderator is not present.

You can see the name of everyone who is logged into the room in the column on the left. When the conference room is used for extended collaboration you may sometimes find that people may be logged into the room, but have left their PCs unattended. In that case, obviously they will not respond if you talk to them. It is courteous to use one of the status indicators (“out to lunch” etc.) when you leave the system live but unattended.

If you wish to try the system before the time we have agreed just to check that it works for you and go over the controls then please feel free, you will probably just be the only person logged in and have no-one to talk to!  But you can use the time just to check that you understand where everything is and how it works.

This product has supported meetings and seminars of over 250 participants using audio, shared browser, whiteboard and text. The peer-to-peer technology used in the product means that central servers do not limit the number of participants it can support in a single meeting. However, for bandwidth reasons, the maximum number of simultaneous users when using web-cam video is 25.

If a particular user has difficulty with the system, we suggest they logout and login again. This will reset their system and should eliminate poor quality connections that might have been made. Where there are poor quality connections, you may notice the system will reset connections itself from time to time in order to drop the poorly functioning links, this is normal behaviour.

It is best to turn your email client off if you are participating in an extended webinar rather than just monitoring activity. The arrival of new messages can disrupt the continuity of the conference software.

Please remember that I do not provide the Internet infrastructure or choose the route through the Internet used by this service. Rather like the manufacturer of a telephone, we are in the position that our performance can only be as clean as the “wires” we are connected to, using the connections that are selected by the Internet.

Legal Notice and Disclaimer:
If you do not agree to these terms, or you do not understand these terms, then do not use the service. If you are below 18 years old, do not use the service, because you cannot legally give your informed consent to these conditions. The providers of this service and associated software disclaim any and all responsibility for damages, losses, or consequential damages and consequential losses suffered by anyone as a result of using the service in any manner whatsoever. You use the service at your own risk and responsibility in all aspects. Please behave sensibly when you use this service. For example, if you do not know the people in the room, then do not give details you would not want made available to strangers. Be aware that sometimes people assume false identities on the Internet. Although the system is using secure end-to-end protocols, please be aware that criminals and government agents regularly tap Internet communications in all countries.

Please do not pass access details about this room on to people who you think might abuse it. Please report ANY abuse to me using the Contact page of this site specifying: the kind of abuse, the login name of the abuser, and the time and date of the abuse.

Best regards,
Bruce Bird