1. Conference types
2. Video Call (One-on-One)
3. Creation of/Joining a Group Conference
4. Work in a Group Conference
5. Inviting a Group of Users to the Conference
6. A Conference Participant view Video Window
7. Status Bar
8. Features of Role-Based Video Conferencing

Conference types

TrueConf Client system supports the following types of conferences:

Video call:
» created using the client application;
» 2 participants;
» both participants can see and hear each other;

Group video conference – several users can participate:
Group video conferences are created on server side or by users using their client applications.

Types of group video conferences

Symmetric:
» up to 36 participants simultaneously;
» all participants see and hear each other;

Asymmetric:
» up to 36 simultaneous participants;
» the conference Owner can see and hear all the participants;
» all participants see and hear only the conference Owner;

Role based:
» up to 120 participants in the normal mode or up to 250 participants in the UDP Multicast mode simultaneously;
» all participants see and hear up to four broadcasting participants;
» any participant except the four broadcasting speakers can send audio messages to all users in the conference.

Video Call (One-on-One)

Placing a Call
To start a conference, input the e-mail address or the TrueConf ID of the person you want to call into the Call to: address bar at the top of application main screen and click on the Connect button :

You can either double-click on the entry in your Address Book to place call.

Receiving a Call
When somebody is trying to call you, the application produces a ringing sound and shows a message with the name of the caller and offers to accept the incoming call: Accept incoming call from… (User name)?
» Choose Yes, if you want to accept this call;
» Choose No, if you want to decline;
» Click on the Chat button to send the caller a text message without answering a call (see more in the Navigation section).

Application can accept incoming calls automatically. To choose this option select: Setup > Preferences… > Automatically accept incoming calls.

By double clicking of the left mouse button in the video area you can enter the Full Screen Mode.

Terminating a call
To terminate a call, click on the Disconnect button .

Creation of/Joining a Group Conference

Conference of any type can be started in two ways:
By Means of the System Server.
As a rule, at the start of a conference the system administrator determines its Name, Type, ID and the Host if the chosen conference type requires it. All participants, including the Host (if the chosen Type presupposes his/her presence), join the conference which has already been started by means of the client applications.
By Means of the Client Application.
The user who started the conference joins it by default and becomes its Host. Other participants join the conference using the client applications.

Starting a Group Conference From the Client Application
– click on the Group Conference > New buttons;
– in the Topic field, enter the conference name;
– select participants;

– click on the Start button. The conference starts.

The user who started the conference automatically becomes its Host. During the group conference session the Host is marked . If a moderator has been assigned in a conference, he or she will be indicated as a chessman in the conference participants list. During the conference the Host can invite other users by double-clicking their names in the Address Book.

Joining a group conference
To join a group conference enter its ID into the Call to: field at the top of the main window and click on the Connect button. Ask your system administrator for proper ID.

You can also join the ongoing group conference by requesting permission for that from its Host. To do that select the Address Book > View or click on the corresponding button on the Toolbar, and refer to a Host. His/her name is marked or

..By double clicking on his/her name you send him/her a request for joining the conference. The Host can accept or decline it. If he/she agrees to make you a participant of the session you automatically join the conference.

You can also be invited to take part in the ongoing group conference by its Host. In this case the Host of the conference sends you an invitation and you get the following message: Accept the invitation to a group conference from Host name?. If you agree choose Yes – and you automatically join the conference. If you don’t want to take part in it choose No, thus declining the Host’s invitation. You can also send a text message to the Host by clicking on the Chat button thereby rejecting the invitation.

Host returns to the video conference
If you want to return to the conference in which you performed a role of a Host, click on the button to the right of the address line of the main application window. In the opened window click on the Start button and you join the conference as a Host, if the conference is not finished yet.

Leaving a group conference
To leave the conference click on the Disconnect button .

Work in a Group Conference

List of Participants of the Ongoing Group Conference

When you join a group conference in the Address book dialog you see the Participants tab that presents the following attributes:
» Topic;
» Type;
» Owner.

In the Participants tab conference participants are listed in alphabetical order. Here you can:
» hover the cursor over participants name and see a prompting message with indication of his/her role;
» see a role indicator to the left from the speaking participant.

There are following Role indicators:

In the Symmetric conference – for the Host role and Moderator role

Moderator is assigned by the conference Host and has the same rights.;

In the Role-based conference – for the roles of the Speaker .

In the list of participants there also appears an indicator for the role of the Listener when the floor is given. The indicator looks like a speaker .

When a new participant joins a conference his/her name appears in the list. When a participant leaves a conference his/her name disappears from the list.

By right-clicking on a participant name in the list you summon a context menu containing the following options:
» Invite to the platform/ Take the podium – is available only in the Role-based conferences;
» Chat enables instant messaging with the chosen conference participant;
» Add to address book enables adding user contact information to the Address book;
» User information contains an avatar, TrueConf ID, nickname, first name and last name of the user, organization’s name and user’s phone numbers (if specified);
» Remove from conference enables to remove the user form a conference.
» Tone dial allows to send special tone signals to PBX during a phone call.
» Appoint as Moderator allows to assign any conference participant as a moderator.
» Dissmiss from Moderators allows to remove moderator rights.
» Turn off the camera/Mute the microphone allows to activate/deactivate participant’s camera/microphone. This option is available only for conference owner and moderators.

Video Area of the Application Main Window

Video area of the application main window in group conference consists of the participants/speakers video windows in the Symmetric/Role-based conferences respectively and a video window displaying the user (Self View).

When a new participant/speaker joins the conference his/her video image appears in a new video window, which opens to the right of or beneath in the sequence of the existing ones. The window embeds to the current sequence of video windows displaying.

When a participant/speaker leaves the conference or the Speaker role becomes vacant the corresponding video window closes.

You can choose between the following modes of the main window display:

» Normal Mode;
» Full Screen;
» Compact Mode;
» Terminal view;
» Stay on top;
» Self view.

To manage the size of the conference main window follow these steps:

– right click on the window area. Context menu appears;
– in the context menu choose the required mode.

In the Full Screen mode Microphone, Сamera and Chat buttons are located in the lower right corner of the screen.
Microphone and camera on/off
– enables to switch on/off the transmission of your audio signal using a single click.

– enables to exchange instant messages with other conference participants.

If you have new messages the Chat button blinks. By clicking on the Chat button you automatically bring the application main window from the Full Screen Mode to the Normal Mode. When the chat window opens you can start instant messaging in the usual way (see the paragraph Chat in the Navigation section).

Inviting a Group of Users to the Conference

You can invite all users who are members of one chosen group to the conference (You can find detailed information about groups creation in the Users Groups Option section).

To invite a group of users to a conference follow these steps:

» right click on the group name in the Address book;
» choose Conference Invite option;
» choose the conference type:

A Conference Participant view Video Window

Video windows show you video pictures of Speakers and your self-view window. Participants’ names are placed in the upper field of video windows.

Status of a conference participant.
Colored indicator in the upper left corner depicts status of a conference participant:
– participant is a Host of a group video conference.
– this user is currently a moderator of the group conference.
– participant is a Listener in a role-based video conference.
– participant is a Speaker at Podium in a role-based video conference.
– video is not transmitted. This indicator appears when:

» a participant turned off video transmission; in this case you see the message “Not broadcasting” in the center of a video window;
» a participant has no camera; in this case you see the message “The user has no camera” in the video window;
» there is no video streaming from a participant because of insufficient bandwidth; in this case you see the message “Insufficient bandwidth to receive video” in the video window.

– audio is not transmitted. This indicator appears when a user has no microphone or he/she turned off audio transmission.

In the bottom part of users’ video window there is a pop-up panel for audio and video control, which remains visible while holding the cursor in this area:

Video receiving off button
Clicking on this button turns off incoming video from a user. When you repeatedly click on this button it changes its status:
Video receiving is on.
Video receiving is off.

Audio receiving off button
Clicking on this button turns off incoming audio from a user. When you repeatedly click on this button it changes its status:
Audio receiving is on.
Audio receiving is off.

Chat
Clicking on this button in a conference participant video window you can start exchanging personal text messages with this participant.

Show video in a separate window.
By clicking on this button you can open a conference participant video image in a separate window. When you repeatedly click on this button it changes its status:
Show video in a separate window.
Show this video in the main application window.
To open a separate window with the participant video image by holding and dragging the required video image with the cursor outside the application main window. After that the corresponding user’s video window closes in the application main window, and the application main window video area is distributed evenly among the remaining participants’ video windows.
To undo changes click on the button or close the separate window. If a participant leaves the conference, his/her separate video window gets closed.

Managing the size of a conference participant’s separate video window.

You can manage the size of a conference participant’s separate video window using the context menu, summoned by the right-click on the window area. Context menu enables switching between the following modes:
» Small;
» Normal;
» Large;
» Full screen;
» Compact mode;
» Terminal view;
» Stay on top.

To exit the Full Screen mode use one of the context menu options, summoned by the right-click of the mouse or a double left-click.
With a left double-click on a conference participant in the main video window you can open the One large and all small mode where the large one is the window you click on.

In the bottom part of the Self View video window there is a pop-up panel for broadcasting management:

– request to take Podium.
– leave podium.
— audio message transmission to all conference participants.

Please note: Take Podium, Leave Podium, Push to Talk buttons in a symmetric and asymmetric video conferences are unavailable. These are used in a role-based video conference only (see the paragraph Features of Role-Based Video Conferencing)

Status Bar

List of Participants also includes Status Bar.

Statuses are collaborative tools that enable you to express emotions or attitude towards the question under discussion. When you choose one of the statuses the corresponding icon appears next to your name in the Participant List.

There are following statuses:

Raise Hand button means that the conference participant wants to ask or add something or attract the Owner’s attention.

Yes button means that the conference participant answers in the affirmative.

No button means that the conference participant answers in the negative.

Step Out button means that the conference participant is currently unavailable.

Clear Status buttons enables the conference participant to clear his/her status.

Clear All Statuses button enables to clear statuses of all conference participants.

Please, note: Clear All Statuses button is available only for the conference Owner.
To express their emotions conference participants can use Applaud and Laugh buttons.

When conference starts, all participants have zero statuses. Selected statuses remain active only while the current conference continues.

When a new participant joins the conference, he/she automatically receives the statuses of other participants. His/her status is also automatically sent to all other participants.

Features of Role-Based Video Conferencing

During a Role-based video conference (Virtual meeting) all participants perform certain roles and can be speakers (up to 3 simultaneous participants) or listeners (up to 117 participants).

Role-based conference participants can perform one of three roles:

– Host. This role is appointed to the conference initiator and cannot be handed over to another participant. The Host manages the list of conference participants, can hand over the role of a Speaker to another participant and free Podium.

– Moderator. Several conference participants (both those participants who are taking the podium and those who are not) can be assigned as moderators. Moderator has the same rights as the conference owner (can remove and add users into the conference and control their devices), but moderator’s video window is not active in a conference.

– Speaker (at Podium). This role is free from the conference outset and can be handed over to any participant by the Host during the conference. Speakers can demonstrate slideshows and their desktop; all conference participants see and hear Speakers.

– Listener. At the very beginning of the conference this role is appointed to all participants except the Host. A Listener can send a request to take Podium and share their opinion with everybody by pressing the Push to Talk button.

Features of Role-based video conferencing:
» During a role-based video conference all participants can see and hear only a Host and Speakers (and participants who use Push to Talk feature).
» Only a Host and Speakers can start demonstrating slideshow and desktop.
» Any conference participant can share opinion to invite one of the participants to Podium using Chat or Push to Talk feature. Still, the only person who can determine conclusively and invite a participant to Podium is a conference Host.
» The host can enable the option that automaticly allow all participants to take the Podium. To do this, the host needs to go to the “Preferences/Conference” page and tick the option “Automatically allow to go to video podium”.
» The host can leave the conference without interrupting it for the rest of the participants. At the same time, the participants will be able to go on podium only if it is allowed autamically (see the previous section).
» The host can leave the podium without leaving the conference. He will remain the host of the conference and will receive the requests for the podum (if it’s not automatic), as well as invite participants to the video podium.
» One of three Speaker roles is secured to a Host only. Leaving Podium, a Host can take Speaker role any time.
» If there are no free places at Podium, the last person who took Podium leaves it for the next Speaker. A Host can stop a Speaker’s speech to free Podium for another participant.

Invitation to take Podium
As a Host you can invite to Podium any conference participant. To do that right-click on the participant name in the participants list (Participants inlay in the Address book) to summon the context menu and choose the item Invite to the podium:

This participant receives an invitation to take Podium. If the invited participant agrees, he becomes a Speaker immediately and the rest conference participants see and hear him/her.

Free Podium
As a Host you can free Podium without removing a participant form a conference. To do that right-click on the participant name in the participants list (Participants inlay in the Address book) to summon the context menu and choose the item Free Podium:

Audio and video broadcasting of this participant stops and he/she leaves Podium and become a Listener.

Request to take Podium
As a Listener you can send a request to take Podium. To do that click on the Take Podium button

on the broadcast panel in the Self View window in on the conference control field.
» If a Host is at a conference, your request is submitted for consideration. If a Host approves the request, you automatically become a speaker and your audio and video is broadcasted to other conference participants.
» If a Host refuses your request, or he/she is not at conference at the moment, there are be no changes.

Leave Podium
As a Speaker you can leave Podium without leaving the conference. To do that you need to click on the Leave Podium button

on the broadcast panel in the Self View window in on the conference control field.

Audio and video broadcasting stops and you leave Podium and become a Listener.

Please note: If a Speaker leaves a conference before it is finished, he/she releases Speaker role, which can be handed over to another conference participant.

Push to Talk
As a Listener you can send an audio message (remark) to all conference participants. To do that click on the Push to Talk button or the Space bar.

When transmitting remark you see the microphone icon in the center of the Self View window , and the Remark button changes to the Hold to Talk button.

After you release Hold to Talk button or Space bar, audio message feature becomes available for three seconds. The time left till the end of transmission is displayed on the Hold to Talk button as countdown.

If you click on the Hold to Talk button or Space bar during this time, you get additional time to transmit your audio message.

Please note: to track the countdown on the Hold to Talk button when transmitting an audio message (remark) by holding the Space bar, set the cursor in the broadcasting field.

Please note: If another participant is already transmitting an audio message (during the transmission of an audio message there is a speaker icon beside the name of the Listener who is transmitting the remark , this feature becomes unavailable for you.

Assign as a moderator
Conference owner can assign conference participants as moderators. To do this, right click on the user’s name in the conference participants list and select Appoint as Moderator in the context menu, Moderator does not take the podium, but can control other conference participants, e.g. turn on/off their cameras/microphones or remove them from a conference. To revoke moderator rights, click Dissmiss from Moderators.