Optimising your Virtual Classroom

Virtual Classroom - Logitech Brio
Helen
Helen

How to optimise your Virtual Classroom session

There are several strategies that can be adopted to get better performance and experience out of your Virtual Classroom. By taking certain precautions, we can increase the number of participants in a room, as well as improving the quality of the session.

1. Use Google Chrome browser

At the moment, the browser that best supports our Virtual Classroom is Chrome. This browser is best suited for so-called webRTC (Web Real-Time Communication), which is an important basic element of our application.

During a training session, the resolution of the videos that each participant sends changes, adapting to the number of participants. The quality changes as others join, so the load on bandwidth and CPU is minimised. 

For example FireFox is not able to receive this information and adapt the resolution of the video it sends, so each connection made with this browser ends up overloading the whole call. Firefox is working to resolve this situation, but in the meantime, avoid using this browser to join the rooms.

Please do not use the old Microsoft Explorer browser anymore. This browser is outdated and does not include the required software to run our application.

2. Don't use a mobile phone

Our application is accessible by mobile phone and you will go in ‘Viewer Mode’. Due to the smaller screen, we had to limit a number of functions. 

For example, you can’t see your fellow students. There is not enough space on the screen to show, besides from the trainer and presentation screens, the webcam footage of the other students.

3. Check your audio input

Check that your audio is not generating echo. A single person generating echo will end up disturbing the whole classroom. Set the audio input on your device to an optimal level to send the signal without amplification.

4. Use headphones

This minimizes the possibility of echo being generated in the room

5. Mute the microphone

If you are not speaking, keep your microphone off. This reduces noise and increases the overall quality of the session. 

Please be aware that the trainer can also turn off your/all microphones.

6. Disable the camera

When your Wifi signal is limited or you have a bandwidth issue, it will help when you turn off your camera. In that way you can continue attending the session, but less data is sent, which will help the overall quality on your computer.

7. Change from Wifi to Ethernet cable

In some offices or homes, the wifi signals is limited due to various reasons. Or the computer is too far from the router. This could cause that some of the video streams are not properly transmitted to your computer and visible in the Virtual Classroom.

In that case, we advise people to use an Ethernet cable to connect to the internet router. This increases bandwidth dramatically.

This is especially important for Trainers, who are the managers of the Virtual Classroom and need to have the best experience in order to manage the session as good as possible.

Suggestions on further improvements, please let us know. We try improve the software and the User Experience continuously and any suggestions are very welcome.

Video files too big

Virtual Classroom - Logitech Brio
Helen
Helen

Video files too big

When students are waiting for a long time for your video file to start, this is usually due to the file size of your video file. From experience we know this is often the case.

Therefore, it is good practice to minimise your file size and to upload it in the right video resolution. Then your students do not have to wait so long for downloading.

Video convertor Handbake

We prefer to use the popular and free application Handbrake (link). 

With this application we reduce the file sizes considerably, whilst keeping the quality at a good level. 

Handbrake open source video transcoder

The settings that always work good for us are:

  • Select from Presets the option “Very Fast 576p25”
  • Tab option “Web Optimised”

Trainer microphone not working

Virtual Classroom - Logitech Brio

Trainer microphone not working

Your computer might have various audio input options, including an external microphone that you connected yourself. In most cases, the computer selects the right one itself. Sometimes a little help is needed.

Settings panel

For each training session, the trainer is asked to confirm the video and audio source. You can find this panel in the Virtual Classroom, please click the Settings button.

To select another Audio Source, click the pulldown menu and select one of the audio channels.

 

Virtual Classroom - select audio channel

Note:

We recommend the trainer to use a headset with microphone. This gives the best audio quality.

This also prevents ‘audio feedback’ (the annoying sound effect which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and audio output).

If this doesn’t solve your problem, please contact our Support Team:

Excessive noise

Virtual Classroom - Logitech Brio
Helen
Helen

Excessive noise

Even though we have taken some important precautions to automatically limit the amount of noise for the duration of the sessions, there are a number of actions that can be taken from the user side to limit any unwanted excessive noise:

  • Use earphones
    It is good practise to use the system with earphones. When no earphones are used, the audio of your speakers passes through to your microphone creating an echo and reverb effect, leading to an excessive noise situation.

  • Distance to the microphone
    Please remain close to the microphone. The bigger the distance, the bigger the interference is from surrounding noise.

  • Mute participants’ audio
    Many participants keeping their audio on is often the major reason for excessive noise for the duration of the session. The mixing of all these individual sounds leads to a poor session experience.
    Therefore, we advice participants to mute their audio whilst not speaking. Also we advice trainers, at the beginning of the session, to ask everybody to mute their audio.

If you have any question about this topic or you need any other type of support, please contact our Support Team.

Brio camera not working

Virtual Classroom - Logitech Brio
Helen
Helen

Logitech Brio camera not working

We have very good experience with the Logitech Brio and how the webcam works with a Windows machine. However, like with all computer stuff, in some cases something goes wrong.

We have identified the following reasons why the Logitech Brio is sometimes not working.

1. Brio camera not selected

Before the trainer enters the Classroom, he/she needs to select the video and audio channels for the application using the pulldown menu’s. Please select the Logitech Brio here.

If the Brio is not visible in the pulldown menu, please continue to #2

2. Drivers not up-to-date

When the Logitech Brio is connected to the computer via the USB port, the device will be listed in the Device Manager.

Please go to the Device Manager, the Brio is listed under ‘Cameras’ and select the Properties (by double-clicking).

Under the tab ‘Drivers’, please look at the following two things:

  1. Enable / Disable Device
    If the Brio is disabled, please enable it. 

  2. Update Driver
    Click on the button and the computer will check online if you have the latest Driver installed. If not, please update.

3. Internal webcam can't be overruled

Theoretically, it should always be possible to select an external webcam like the Logitech Brio (according to the official Windows 10 rules:-).

However, we have heard of laptop computers where this wasn’t possible or it didn’t work 100%.

In that case, please go to the Device Manager and disable the webcam’s internal webcam. This is very easy to do:

  1. Select the webcam under ‘Cameras’
  2. Go to Properties and then to the tab Drivers
  3. Disable the webcam
Important: please don’t forget to enable to webcam later again.

4. Close other video conference software

Video conferencing software like Zoom, Skype and Teams are widely used nowadays. 

Some of these applications, when still open, limit or block access to the webcam camera.

If you experience a webcam selection problem, please close these applications before you go to your Virtual Classroom session.

If you have any questions about this topic or feedback about your specific setup/problems, please share this with us via our Support Team.