Video Conference Troubleshooting Guide

For Video Conference help, call Technical Support at 1-800-696-4357 (HELP).

My conference isn't connected.

Start Time.  Conferences begin at the start time and sites will not be connected until that time. This is variable but typically exactly at either the hour or half hour.

Dial-out vs. Dial-in. The conference bridge dials out to most rooms and automatically connects them at the start time.  However, for security reasons, some rooms such as the University Presidents' Executive Conference Rooms are not set to auto answer.  Therefore, participants in these rooms must call into the bridge with these steps:

- Access the address book by pressing the green directory button.

- Scroll to the multipoint/bridge choice with the arrow buttons and press the center red select button.

- Place the call by pressing call-hang up.

We can't hear participants in another room.

Adjust the Polycom volume. Increase or decrease the volume you hear by pressing the orange volume button.

Un-mute. Ask the other room to un-mute their end by pressing the orange mute button on the remote or the mute button on the top of the microphone.  If the microphone light is red that room is muted and an icon of a microphone with a red circle and line through it are displayed on the lower left corner of the monitor.

Speak up. Ask the participants to move closer to the microphone or speak louder.

Check the TV volume.  On rare occasions the TV volumes are mis-adjusted.  For optimum performance, the volume should be kept in the center of the range and the Polycom volume used to set desired level.  Adjust the volume to the center by pressing the volume up and down button on the front of the TV until the on-screen indicators show that it is at the midpoint.  Also, you may want to check that the TV is not muted.  The word mute should appear on the TV if it is muted.

I can't see the other room or don't see them properly.

The system doesn't switch to the Speaker's Room.   The bridge uses voice activated switching to display the view of the room where the speaker is loudest.  This only works if the speaker speaks clearly and continuously into the microphone. 

- If a different room is always seen instead, ask participant in that room to mute their mic.

- If a room is viewed, but there are no participants in the room, then there may be some "stray" noise causing that room to capture the view.  If that location is no longer needed, call Tech Support (1-800-696-4357) and ask them to take the location out of the conference.

The room looks washed out.  Ask participants to press the red arrow buttons to move the camera. The camera's digital "iris" gets stuck and any movement of the camera fixes that.

I see a blue screen.  Ask the room with the blue screen to change the camera source.  Select the blue camera button and the number 1 to reset the camera selection to the primary camera.  A blue screen indicates that an alternate camera source (such as a VCR or Doc Camera) is selected that is not available or not turned on.

I see the room, but not the people.    Ask participantsto press the red arrow buttons to move the camera.

The camera jumps around the room.  Press the blue auto button to turn off automatic camera tracking.  

I see the other end in the screen in which I normally see myself, and I see a menu of icons on the screen where I normally see others.

This menu is the home page that you see when you are not in a conference, or you can reach by pressing the red home button.

To get to normal view. Select the blue near button.  This sends a signal to the camera which brings it back to normal view.

 

One of the monitors displays a blue screen.

A blue screen normally is a display from a camera source that is not available or not turned on.  Usually the wrong camera source is selected.

If the blue screen is on the monitor where you would normally see yourself.  Select the blue camera button and the number 1 to reset the camera selection to the primary camera.

If the blue screen is on the monitor where you would normally see another room.  Ask the participants in the other room to select the blue camera button and the number 1 to reset their camera selection to the primary camera.

One of the monitors displays a black screen.

A black screen normally means that the monitor in your room is turned off.  Many of the rooms were installed so that only one button turns on the Polycom and both displays.  However, sometimes a monitor may be turned off separately.  An on/off button is found on the front of each monitor. Depending on the monitor type, this might be on the top, lower left, or lower right.

I can't displaying computer content using Visual Concert. 

The Visual Concert is available in ITS-scheduled campus rooms, outreach center rooms and executive rooms.  This feature allows simultaneous output of computer content while still seeing distant end sites.

Connect the computer.  Attach the 15 pin VGA cable on the table to the laptop VGA port.  The audio cable jack can be connected for sound.  A data cable is also available for Internet access.

Press the purple graphics button.

Adjust your Laptop.  If the computer display does not show up on the monitor (typically the monitor on the right), then your laptop may need to be adjusted to display from both the laptop screen and the external VGA port.  Press the function key simultaneously with one of the F1-12 keys. (e.g many Dells use fn/F8 while IBM thinkpads use fn/F7).

Change the Plasma display input source. For rooms with Plasma displays, the "input source" can be changed to "PC" for better resolution (in that room only).

- The display that shows graphics is the one that is not beneath the camera.

- Press the Input or PC button on the Panasonic Plasma Display remote or press the Input button on the lower left front of the Plasma Display.

-  For optimum viewing of computer content, each participant with a visual concert should change the plasma display settings at their location.

I can't get the document camera to work.

Turn the document camera on.  A side light or a back light will illuminate when the document camera is on.  The switch for some document cameras is in the back.  The camera has a zoom button on the front panel.

Select the document camera from the remote.  Document cameras are available in campus and center rooms but not in most executive rooms.  Press the blue camera button and press the number 2.  The document camera view will replace the view of the people in the room using the document camera.

My room has a ceiling mounted document camera.  Very few rooms are equipped with a document camera mounted in the ceiling above the center position of the table.  This camera is always available when camera 2 is selected. To zoom this camera, use the blue zoom button on the Polycom remote.

The auto-voice-tracking function doesn't work.

Polycom has a feature that will move the camera to the specific person in the room that is speaking.  This feature, which can be accessed by the blue auto button only, works in rooms with very good acoustics.  The camera generally takes some time to find the person speaking and may not find that person unless the individual is talking much louder than other noise in the room.  We recommend not using this function.

To get to manual camera movement.  The blue auto button is a three-way toggle:  auto-tracking on, auto-tracking to presets, and auto-tracking off.

Try auto-tracking to presets.  Auto-voice-tracking works better if you select presets based on where the people are actually sitting. This takes a little more time to set up, but gives the camera a set number of positions to which to point.  First you should set the presets.  Do this by positioning the camera on each person then pressing the blue preset button and a number key 1-0.  Once the presets are set, you can move the camera by simple pressing that number.  To try auto-tracking to these presets, toggle through to this choice on the blue auto button.

The Picture-in-Picture (PIP) isn't working.

Picture-in-picture is used only when the visual concert is used to display computer content on one of the monitors.  In that case, under normal operations, the PIP displays only when the remote is picked up (activated by buttons on the bottom of the remote).  The blue PIP button is a three-way toggle: PIP always on, PIP always off, and PIP on only when the remote is lifted.