BNL EVO Documentation

Video Conferencing Service

Back to Video Conferencing

Introduction

EVO is a freely downloadable program that can also be used as a desktop system. Registration requires a unique email address. Hardware recommendations for EVO need to be followed. Generally speaking, a modern day computer can run EVO. A poor camera or improper headset or speaker/microphone combination can lead to a poor video conferencing experience both for the user and the other participants.

The EVO program is accessible from the EVO website at: http://evo.caltech.edu/evoGate

Registration

All users of the EVO conferencing system must register by clicking on the register button on the EVC website. (Demo: Registration Page). Shortly after clicking on the SUBMIT button, you will receive an email to your mailbox with a link to activate your account. If you don’t receive the email, check in your spam folder and/or contact EVO support.

Starting EVO

To launch EVO, click on the START button from the EVO homepage; this will bring up the main user interface.

EVO Communities

EVO uses communities as venues to which users can subscribe. By default, a new user is subscribed to the Universe community. Each community has its own set of meetings. To view additional communities click on the icon showing multiple people underneath "My EVO Communities" (when hovered over it will display "Other EVO communities"). Clicking on the "Other EVO communities" will bring up the "Subscribe to Communities" popup menu from which one can highlight a community and then add or delete it from one’s communities.

Booking Meetings

There are 2 types of meetings that one can book—ad hoc meetings and regular meetings. The difference between the two is that ad hoc meetings start right away and will end when parties have disconnected from it, while regular meetings are scheduled at sometime in the future.

To start an ad hoc meeting click on "Start an ad hoc meeting" on the Koala window under the Meetings tab; the Meetings dropdown will bring up the "Create meeting" popup from which one enters the meeting title; meeting description; meeting password (optional); and community.

To book a meeting click on "Book a meeting" on the Koala window under the Meetings tab; the Meetings dropdown will bring up the "Create meeting" popup from which one enters the community; title; description; password (optional); starting date/time; ending date/time; and recurrence information (optional), if one wants a recurring meeting.

Joining & Leaving Meetings

To join a meeting, simply click on the desired meeting from the list of meetings from EVO Koala. The EVO meeting interface automatically displays the video of anyone sending video. If there is a padlock symbol in the line of the meeting being entered, the meeting is password protected and one has to enter the password in order to join the meeting. By clicking on the information symbol button for a meeting, more information about the meeting is displayed - see Meeting Info for a sample of information displayed.

To leave a meeting, simply click on the words "leave this meeting" or the red icon next to it from EVO Koala.

Displaying Video

Vievo is the EVO application client. This meeting interface automatically displays the video if anyone is sending video. A separate window comes up when a meeting has been entered. The default appearance of the vievo client for a meeting called Testing is shown in the link. There is a picture of a camera with a dot in the middle of it. If the dot is grey (not red), it indicates that your camera is not activated. To activate your camera, click on the center dot of the picture of the camera; it will turn red, indicating that your camera is now sending data.

Clicking on the 2 right arrows next to the camera icon will display a display mode dropdown, a camera settings dropdown, video parameters dropdown, and bandwidth and frame rate sliders.

Configuring Audio & Video

From the Koala window select Videoconference Client from the Configuration dropdown, which will bring up the Videoconference Client Configuration popup window.

For desktop or laptop use of EVO, one should select EVO tools as the client to use in a meeting. I personally do not check any other boxes, just as a precaution, in case I enter a wrong meeting. One can always manually start audio and video after joining a meeting.

When the icon for audio has a line through it, one is not sending audio. Clicking on that icon will send audio. When sending audio, the meter to the right of the audio icon should be moving up and down, but stay in the green zone. If the audio icon is on and the meter is not moving, then you are not sending audio. The problem is usually that the wrong input was designated. To modify audio parameters, go to the EVO AV control audio page ; to modify video parameters, go to the EVO AV control video page.

Whiteboard

The whiteboard is shared by all participants in a conference. Whenever someone writes to the whiteboard, it is seen by all participants that have the whiteboard open. You can enter text, lines, various geometrical shapes of symbols and you can draw freehand. You can import graphics—pages, text, pictures, and a captured screen.

Sharing the Desktop

From the EVO current meeting tab in the Koala window, when you are in a meeting, click on the icon of a computer screen; it is to the left of the microphone icon for audio. The icon will have the line drawn through it removed and the "sharing the desktop" popup will appear. The size of the red box will determine the portion of the desktop to be shared. There are 4 boxes on the right side, which when clicked, will define the size of the red box that will be shared. Additionally, the red box can be dragged on the desktop to change the location of the red box. When one is finished sharing the desktop, click the red box marked X.

Phone Bridge

EVO provides a phone bridge for those wishing to connect to a video conference using audio only. By clicking on the information symbol button for a meeting, the Meeting Info popup is displayed. One need only dial a convenient phone bridge and enter the phone bridge ID and you will be connected to the meeting using audio only. A list of available phone bridges can be seen by going to the Phone bridge link from the EVO main page.

BNL has a phone bridge 631-344-6100. For a more detailed description of the EVO telephone bridge, see the document in the Caltech EVO documentation here.

Last Modified: February 18, 2010
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