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Frequently Asked Questions about RTAG
What if something goes wrong during the live event?
What do I do if I am having trouble getting stuff installed?
I am in, but it looks strange!?!
Frequently Given Answers
What should I see?
This software is designed to fit entirely within your browser on your desktop pc. You should see a small video window (in the top left hand corner of your browser). The video will be from a series of live presentations from the Knowledge Media Institute here at Walton Hall in the UK.
At any point, you may click in the region below the slides in order to send a text question or comment to the other participants. All comments and questions are public, and you can opt to view the discussion as the event progresses.
We anticipate that each event should take no more than 30-40 minutes.
What do I need to take part?
Essentially, you will need a computer with a sound card with speakers or headphones, so that you can recieve the audio/video. You will need to be connected to the internet via a decent modem (ie 56k or better), or a local area network.
If you go to the test page and can see the video, hear the audio, and see the sample interface, then you are in good shape to take part on the day.
Technically the application we are using is written using Macromedia Shockwave and the video is carried by Apple Quicktime - so you will need to have both of these plugged in to your browser.
What if I am having trouble getting stuff installed?
Never, never try to join a live presentation 5 minutes before it is due to start assuming that you wont need to test your setup. You need to have a successful experience with the test your workstation section to stand any chance of taking part in the live event.
Downloading the plug-ins
The RTAG project uses Macromedia Shockwave for the chat areas and Apple QuickTime for the audio and video - so you will need to have both of these plug-ins for your browser. Downloading plug-ins for the first (or second, or third) time is not always straightforward. Read the questions below before ‘Testing your Workstation’.
The plug-ins are free but you will need to give an email address and name in order to install. It may take 20 minutes or more to download each of the plug-ins over a 56k connection.
Installing the plug-ins
Once you have downloaded each plug-in, you should see the relevant icon appear on your computer’s desktop. Quit from your browser and then double-click on the icon and follow the installation directions carefully. It is best to download and install QuickTime first and then Shockwave. If the Quicktime install prompts you for a Quicktime Pro licence number just proceed without typing anything in - you dont need the Pro (pay) version to use this software for this event.
What’s your modem speed?
Ideally you need to have a 56k modem, local area network (LAN), or better to download and install the two plug-ins.
Alternatively, you may be able to get these plug-ins from one of the CDs that come with computer magazines or through sample service provider CDs that come free through the post. In either case, you may still need to run a small installation to update to the most recent version of the plug-ins being used. In the future (if this is successful) it is highly likely that we will distribute our own versions of this software on our own CDs, but at this experimental stage this was not an option.
What browser are you using?
If you have more than one browser on your computer (or more than one version of a browser) then you need to follow the installation directions more carefully. Make sure you tick the appropriate boxes for installing or you may, for example, find you have installed one plug-in into Netscape and the other into Internet Explorer.
I appear to be in, but it looks strange?
What screen size are you using?
The recommended screen size for the project is 1024x 768.
For Windows 95 or higher on a PC
You can change your screen size by:
- going to the right hand bottom of the screen and clicking on the screen icon to adjust, or
- right clicking on the desktop to display the pop up box and choosing ‘properties’. If you then click on the settings tab, you should see a section called ‘display area’ or ‘screen size’. Move the slider from your existing size to 1024x 768. Say OK to both messages and your screen should flicker and then change.
If there are no other screen sizes to adjust too, then click on the advanced properties tab and in this box click on the second tab called ‘monitors’. Click on ‘change’, then on the ‘show all devices’ button.
On the left hand side it should say ‘standard monitor types’ and on the right hand side it needs to say ‘plug and play’ monitor. Say OK, Apply and then OK again. (It may also ask you to restart your computer.)
Go back to the display properties screen and select 1024x 768.
For System 7.5.1 or higher on an Apple Macintosh
Go to the Apple menu and scroll down to Control Panels. Then choose ‘monitors’ (or 'monitors and sounds' on some systems) and you will see a screen with two sides pop up. On the right hand side under ‘resolutions’, scroll to 1024x 768. This presentation will look fine on an iMac, but current generation iBooks do not support the screen resolution we use.
If you are on a Macintosh, you are strongly recommended to use Internet Explorer Version 5+. (The presentation will look screwy on IE4.5 on a Mac).What if something goes wrong during the live event?
Despite extensive testing, webcasting is a relatively new technology, so it may be that you will have some interruption in your service. One possible problem is that the audio/video stream may stutter or stop. In this case you may find that stopping and starting the video may clear this problem. Another possibility is that you may lose a connection to one of the communicative features such as text chat. In this case you should be prompted to re-connect. Finally, if a serious problem arises, you may find that closing all windows and relaunching the browser may clear these problems.
If you encounter any problems with the testing of this material - you should email us immediately. (Peter.Scott@open.ac.uk) If you encouter trouble in the live event then we have supplied a help chat channel for this purpose (assuming of course that the problem is not related to getting chat to work :)
What can I try first if it breaks?
One quick fix that is handy when inside one of our shockwave apps is to try right-clicking over the application. (Control-Click on the Mac) . This will give you a contextual menu, from which you may try to RESTART the shockwave. Usually, it is worth trying to click on the right hand side of the screento try to do this form of restart. However, you may find it to be just as quick and easy to close the window (and thus the webcast app) and launch it again from the webpage link.
Are there any known bugs?
Are you kidding? When working with relatively new pieces of software there are always things that we know about that may take a while to fix properly for everyone.
Forced Updating of the Shockwave browser plug-in, is where the browser you are using has a copy of Macromedia Shockwave which it thinks is out of date. It may prompt you to go macromedia.com to try to fix this problem.
Interrupted AudioVisuals are where the sound and video feed may stutter and stop for short periods. This is most likely to be due to a variety of network related congestion problems. Live, networked video places a significant pressure on both your machine and the internet resources - which it should manage.
Poor Quality AudioVisuals aint so much a bug as a feature of networked video. The quality of the video and audio you receive is an interaction between the ability of the network to carry the data and the ability of your pc to play it back to you. In general, we aim to select a compromise stream quality that gets you enough data to understand what is going on (being particulary important to hear what the speaker is saying!), but not so much that it cannot be replayed by a reasonably specified pc.
What can I do now?
Go to the test page (select 'Test your Workstation' from the menu) and see if it works! If you are checking this close to the live event time, then you are going to find it challenging to get in!
