Guest List and Voice Control
The next section of the Meeting Room is the Voice & Guest List section.
Even if your Meeting Room is under another application such as a Word document, spreadsheet, or browser window, the tone lets you know when to begin speaking. In other words, it works like a walkie-talkie so that no one talks over the person speaking as often happens in a typical telephone conference call.
The green bubble identifies the current speaker, whose name automatically moves to the top of the list. When someone else presses their control key while someone is already speaking, their name is automatically moved just under the speakers name and placed in queue in the order in which they press their key. Users who have been muted will have a red bubble next to their name.
Hands Free: By pressing CTRL-H, you are able to lock your microphone in the "On" position, thereby allowing you to continue speaking without having to continue to press your CTRL key. To release your microphone, simply press and release the CTRL key. You may also use CTRL-H to hold your position in the queue.
There are speaker volume and microphone gain slider controls that allow you to manually adjust the sound coming through your speakers or the sensitivity of your microphone.
The Meeting Room has built in Automatic Gain Control for your microphone. This allows the software to adjust the microphone gain automatically to a comfortable setting. To disable this feature, simply uncheck "Automatic Gain Control" within the Audio tab of the Preferences found in the Options menu. You can then manually adjust the volume of your speakers and mic as desired.
The Meeting Room also includes a "User Count" and an Internet connection quality meter within the Status Bar that appears at the bottom of the Room window. This meter should normally show the words "Excellent" or "Great". It provides an approximate representation of your connection to/from the servers and through the Internet.
If you see something other than "Excellent" or "Great", this may indicate that your Internet connection may be experiencing some Internet congestion which is usually due to your Internet provider temporarily processing a larger than normal amount of Internet traffic, thereby leaving your own local connection unable to sufficiently keep up with the amount of voice data being sent to and from our servers. It could also indicate that the servers are temporarily experiencing heavier than normal use. When the connection meter shows Good or Bad, the voice quality may possibly degrade and "break" a little. In most cases this should clear up in only a few seconds, but if it continues to show Bad, close other applications, freeing resources for the meeting room, and if still necessary, you should disconnect from the Internet and reconnect. If you are on a permanent Internet connection, you may need to talk to your Internet Service Provider or your local system administrator.
Most computers will have the speed and memory to run other applications at the same time as the meeting room, but some will benefit from closing those applications that compete for your system resources and Internet speed. This is especially important for the person who is making the presentation. If his or her connection or computer is congested, then everyone in the Room will hear the poor quality.