Friday, December 5, 2014

I have a couple of questions I'm scratching my head with having done a dry run for a HOA that I'll be producing next...

I have a couple of questions I'm scratching my head with having done a dry run for a HOA that I'll be producing next week, hopefully some of you smart people in here can help me out :)

The 2 presenters are new to HOAs so I want to make it as easy for them as possible. My set up involves running the HOA from their brand page but I will have 3 "guests":
1 - me as the blue box controller and comment wrangler
2 - the two presenters 
3 - a screenshare of the PPT which will be on a laptop in the same room as them but operated as a separate guest because we want to be able to switch between seeing the presenters and seeing the PPT

My questions are:

a. Can we all be joining the hangout from the page on the 3 different computers without causing serious grief?

b. if a is correct the its the first person to join the hangout that has the bluebox control that the public sees right?

c. what do I need to buy so that the presenters can both wear ear buds when I only have one hole to put a sound jack in?

I hope this makes some kind of sense but it is late on a Friday!

Cheers, Kath

15 comments:

  1. You should all be able to join from the same page without problems but really it would be better for only the host to be the one in the Hangout as the brand and the others to join as themselves......

    If you join as the page and host of the hangout multiple times everyone should see the start hangout button and have access to all controls (this is how it worked when I tested this out with multiple people joining as the same page) 

    Are you saying the presenters will all be in the same room using the same computer and webcam etc - not in different places logging in? - if so you will potentially need some kind of audio splitter that allows multiple earphones to be connected but if you ahve your microphone setup properly so that it is not able to pick up your speakers then you wont need earphones :)

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  2. Carol Dodsley thanks for the swift reply :) The presenters don't have their own accounts and yes they will both be sat in the same room breakfast telly style.

    When it comes to seeing the name on the filmstrip it makes more sense for them to be their brand but I also need to be their brand as the HOA needs to be on their brand page and I need to control the blue boxing.

    If we both log in as their brand and both have all controls would that still mean that my blue boxing would over ride theirs as long as I signed in first?

    Mind you, I suppose I could create an account for them to use just for the day, as long as I set up the HOA myself from the brand. You have me thinking now.

    I have a yeti mic and I'd have to pinch some speakers as I just use headphones on this computer but if I can tune out the mic from the speakers then that sounds better than faffing about buying splitters.

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  3. So are you saying that you will be in one place on your computer and your co-presenters will be in a different place on the sofa together or all three of you will be in the same room?  If you are all in the same room together you really do not need to all be on separate computers as you can setup your webcam to pic up all of you on the sofa together?

    If you are in different places so all need to login to talk to each other on the hangout then the best thing is to simply setup a gmail account for the co-presenters that will be together in one room - and then as long as they use Google chrome they wont need to have a G+ profile at all (that said - if they have a brand page then Im guessing someone somewhere should have a profile that is the page owner, as a page is created via a profile on G+ unless it is a local maps listing page?)

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  4. Carol Dodsley thats a good point, they could use the profile login! Thanks for that :)

    We are all going to be in the same building but I am planning on going into another room so I can use a separate computer to do the comment wrangling, blue boxing and read out the comments when it comes to the questions (hopefully there will be questions, lol). I don't think I can be in the same room as them and still do all that stuff.

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  5. a) Yes, 3 separate users is fine.  Do this all the time with Ronnie at SXSW
    b) Yes again.  First person to join IS THE HOST and has the pinning capability.  However, a work around would be to use the "present to everyone" which everyone can do this.
    c) If they are on separate computers, they should all have a separate jack

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  6. You could also be in the same room with them and simply have a separate computer logged in to the hangout for your blue-boxing and to see comments etc (simply turn the volume off on that extra computer to avoid feedback :) 

    The inportant thing is to make sure your webcam is set to be able to capture you all on the sofa and that the mic picks up everyone's voice well :)

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  7. Thanks Michael Daniels and Carol Dodsley I'm going to use the same page login for everyone but just make sure I login first as the host.

    How do you set it to 'present to everyone'? That sounds like the best solution.

    I have a yeti mic which the 2 presenters will be using together. There is one headphone jack in the yeti and one in the desktop. Could that solve the audio problem or does only one work?

    I feel I ought to be in a different room because of the potential to cause feedback issues with the mics but maybe if we just make sure to mute when we aren't talking then that might be fine. I want to be able to make the introduction and then read out the questions at the end as I bring them up on the screen.

    Thanks for all your help. The HOA is Thursday so I have some time to do some more testing :)

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  8. If you are all in the same room then you dont need to have any audio on as you will hear each other anyway ....... Your audience will hear you as you are speaking through the hangout and they are not talking back to you as they are watching and listening remotely, so you can simply turn off all of the speakers when you are presenting (dont mute yourselves simply turn the speakers off on both computers)

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  9. Have you ever heard a conference call or talked in a conference call? That is the sounds you will hear with one mic and no headsets. If that is good then go for it.
    If you want it to sound like a radio interview, then I would have a separate computer with separate headset or earbuds.

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  10. Carol Dodsley Michael Daniels that could be a d'huh moment! I guess if I set the yeti to pic up all sound in the office and find the 'present to all' option then we can all be in the same room. I'll have to find some speakers to plug into the computer but I guess I'm still wondering why the sound from the speakers won't go straight into the mic. Won't you get an echo?

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  11. If you are in the same room - you dont need any speakers as the only sound you need to hear is each other - your audience should hear you simply because they are watching the video stream of your live hangout so they get the sound you make through the microphone :)   You hear each other because you are in the same room listening as you would if you were having a conversation without any technology :)

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  12. Carol Dodsley I think I left my brain in Dublin. Thank you for your patience explaining something that I'm sure is really simple but for some reason I'm struggling to get my head round. I'm going to do a dry run again today and try to apply more common sense as well as all yours and Michael Daniels much appreciated advice.

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  13. My pleasure Kath Dawson sometimes when we are in the middle of something we look for the more challenging solutions and miss the simple things..... I do it all the time and then someone suggests the things that I think Doh!  what did I do with my brain today LOL :)

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  14. lol thanks Carol Dodsley that its it exactly! I'm just setting up the test now and will try one mic vs 2, its not a big office so I guess using the yeti and setting it to pick up sound all around will be fine but I also wonder if using 2 mics would give better sound or if thats an over complication too. Its an interesting learning curve thats for sure!

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  15. It really depends where you are all sitting if it is a sofa environment then one mic placed centrally should work great... the thing to remember is for people not to rustle paper or put things on a table near the mic as that will pic up the noise and sound like you have a low flying bomb going off  (mics pick up what we barely hear and reverberate them into a live hangout) :)

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