Speechi Conference
From Speechi WiKi
Contents |
Speechi Conference
Speechi Conference is basically 8 buttons:
- Configuration, Grid,Generate Flash Slides, Record, Stop, Whiteboard, Publish and Web browser.
Configuration
Click on « Configuration » 
to set-up presentation parameters.
| Commande | Description |  |
| Title | Your presentation title as, it will appear on the Web | |
| Speaker | To enter Speaker's name | |
| Speaker's email | To enter Speaker's email | |
| Choose your photo | To enter Speaker's Photo - or any other Photo. This image will appear on the Web presentation |
Your photo should be in Jpeg, standard, non intercaled format.
For optimal quality, your photo should be about 200 pixels and 100 pixels for the logo.
| Commande | Description |  |
| Import slides titles | If this option is "on" (default), your slide titles will be visible on the web and will automatically create an online summary for your presentation. | |
| Import slides comments | If this option is "on" (default), slide comments will be visible on the Web. | |
| Hyperliens | Speechi keeps all "visible" hyperlinks which are present in your presentation (default). Hyperlinks that are invisible (same font and style as text which would not contain hyperlinks) can also be kept in the Flash front-end (slower process). Note: Only Hyperlinks that point to the outside of the presentation (http://...) are preserved in any case. |
|
| Image Quality | We recommend "High Quality", the default setting, for this option. |
|
| Recording quality | 4 Recording qualities are available:
|
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| Presentation Volume | Select the default volume for presentations within Speechi. This setting can help to fix issues with noise in the sound of some presentations.
For example, it is used if you would like to add external Flash resources which have already been recorded. When importing content, it is important to make sure that the volume of the content and the volume of your Speechi presentation are identical. If not, the clip could playback at very low volume compared to your Speechi presentation, which would be unpleasant for the listener. The user can of course always raise or lower the volume of everything within Speechi with Speechi’s volume level setting in the front-end. |
|
| Maximize Browser Window | Automatically places browser in full-screen mode when Speechi presentation is loaded. | |
| Loop Play | After the last slide, Speechi restarts the presentation from the beginning, allowing you to play your presentation on loop. | |
| Change Speechi backup folder | View Where to find my presentation? and How is my presentation folder organized? |
Record
Once you are ready to start your class or your conference, click on 
to start recording.
The microphone calibration tool appears: you can check and tune your microphone behavior.
When the sound level is fine, click OK in the calibration window.
At this moment, PowerPoint switches automatically to the viewer mode.
The wheel appears with tuneable opacity at the top of you PowerPoint slide viewer.
Everything you say is recorded by Speechi, as well as all the slides that you show. You can go forward, backward, or wherever you want in your presentation and Speechi will keep track and record.
If you would like to interrupt your presentation momentarily (e.g. for a lunch break), you can use the "Pause" command on the wheel.
When you are completely finished recording your presentation, just click on the "Stop" button 
That’s it ! Your presentation is ready for the Web !
Leaving PowerPoint in Conference mode
The PowerPoint button (in Conference mode) allows you to leave your PowerPoint presentation.
- Refer to the paragraph The wheel outside of PowerPoint in The Speechi wheel for more information on this mode.
View your Speechi presentation
Where to find your presentation?
Your presentation can be found in the backup folder, as set in the Settings tab. A sub-directory, "NameofYourPresentation" is created within the project directory. You can open the "index.htm" file in "My Documents/speechi/NameofYourPresentation" to view the presentation in a web browser on your computer.
In Windows XP, the backup directory is "My Documents/speechi" by default. If you would rather store your Speechi presentations in another place, you can change the project directory and select a new one by going to "Settings" and clicking on the "Change the backup directory" option.
How is my presentation folder organized?
The folder "YourPresentationName" is divided into directories depending on publication mode:
- /Web : Files to be published to the web.
- /Web and /StreamingServer : files to be published to an open source Red5 streaming server.
- /SCORM : files to be published to a SCORM e-learning platform
- /Epistudio : files to be published to the Epistudio e-learning platform
- /CD : files to be published to a CD
- /Zip : a zipped copy of your presentation.
A /podcast folder also exists and contains your podcast and an XML feed file:
- <YourPresentationName>.mp3 (for each podcasted presentation)
- <YourPodcastname>.xml (the feed)
The other folders contain resources required for publishing your presentation (/drawings, /js, /quiz, /resources, /slides, /sounds, /XML). They should not be placed online as is.
Manual Online Publication
To manually publish your presentation, if you don’t want to use the Publication Assistant, you can copy all of the contents contained in the "My Documents/speechi/NameofYourPresentation" to your server, using any program to complete the FTP transfer or copy.
Publishing your presentation with the publication wizard
The new Speechi 4.0 Publication Wizard lets you publish and put your presentations online very easily. In a few clicks, the wizard guides you through all of the available options (Web, Streaming Server, Podcast, Zip, CD…).
A variety of output formats are available for publication; the new Publication Wizard makes them easier to use.
) is available on your Speechi toolbar.
| Publication | Explanation |
| Traditional Web Server | All Speechis can be published to any web server, whether or not they contain video. This technique, known as pseudo-streaming, is one of the strengths of our technology. |
| Streaming Server (video) | "Streaming" technology is especially useful, but not necessary, for Speechis that contain video. We use the Open Source Red5 technology for streaming. |
| E-learning Platform | We support SCORM v 1.3 and a variety of other E-learning platforms (Epistema, Moodle, Claroline, MOS…) |
| Podcast | Speechi creates a podcast of your presentation (sound only) |
| Zip File | |
| CD | When you select this format, an executable “player.exe” is created by Speechi in addition to the regular Speechi files. This executable must be placed on your CD and resolves security settings that normally prevent Flash presentations from playing from a CD or a local hard disk. |
Reminder 1 : The servers used in "one click" publication are those that you have already configured. See "FTP" and "Video Server" tabs.
Reminder 2: "FTP" and "Video Server" default to our servers. You are welcome to use our servers to test your publications, but we do not backup these presentations and they could disappear from the server at any time without notice.
Post-sync features.
With the synchronization features, you may edit your Speechi presentations slide by slide, whether they have been recorded live (Speechi Conférence) or prepared before (Speechi Studio). This functionality is integrated into the Grid tool and into the recording tool (within Speechi Studio). With the new recording tool, 3 options are presented when you edit a presentation you have already created:
- You can completely re-record the entire slide, replacing the existing sound for that slide.
- You can resynchronize the slide with the existing recording. This allows you to compensate for any gaps or timing errors.
- You can simply regenerate a slide, leaving the audio completely untouched. This might be used if you’ve added something to a slide and need to update the slide display but not the narration.
Note: The Grid has also been enhanced to make Speechi easier to use :
- The first column allows the user to hide or show a slide. Hidden slides are not included in published presentations.
- The "Annotations" column lets you not play the annotations on every slide (they are accessible slide by slide).
- The "Sound" allows the user to import audio of whatever format (MP3 or Wav) to synchronize a PowerPoint presentation with pre-existing audio (music, prerecorded speech)
"Generate Flash slides" command
Explanation
The generation of Flash from PowerPoint takes from 1 to 5 seconds per slide.
I is possible to do this at any time (before or after the conference) using the "Generate Flash Slides” button 
Note : Flash slides can also be generated by selecting “Yes” in the “Do you want to generate Flash Slides?” dialog box that appears at the end of each presentation.
When should "Generate Flash Slides" be used?
Before the conference
In this case, your Speechi will be ready in seconds after your presentation.
After the conference
- If you do not have the time to pre-generate your Flash presentation, “Generate Flash Slides” avoids wasting your time at the end of your presentation by generating the Flash slides in a hurried moment.
- This button also woks as an update feature.
After modifying your PowerPoint, selecting the function automatically intergates all changes to your Flash file without any manual operation.
How should "Generate Flash slides" be used?
Before the conference
Just click the "Generate Flash slides" button after opening your presentation.
This will generate the Flash file from the PowerPoint presentation.
When you have finished your presentation in Conference mode, a dialog window appears.
If you already have generated the Flash slides as described above, you do not need to generate them a second time and should therefore select “No”.
After the conference
At the end of your presentation, a dialog box appears:
Select "No" if you want to generate the Flash slides later.
If you decided to generate Flash slides later (for instance several hours after the conference), you will have to open the PowerPoint file corresponding to your presentation) and click on the "Generate Flash Slides" button.
Podcast
A podcast allows you to create a list of audio files to which the users or students may subscribe.
This list is automatically updated, and provides access via iTunes or via a RSS reader.
To publish a Speechi podcast, you must create a Speechi Studio or Speechi Conference presentation with an audio track.
2 ways to access th Podcast menu :
- Podcast tab from within the "Settings" menu;
- "Podcast" option (
), from within the Speechi Publication Wizard.
When you access the Podcast tab via “Settings” menu, the window below appears:
Click on "Publish" to continue.
The list of feeds listed here is for informational purposes only. For educational usage, a feed typically corresponds to a module. For example, “Maths 101”.
You then go to the next window :
If you would like to create a new Podcast stream, just type its name into the box « Stream Name ».
If you would like to add to an existing stream, just type it in “Stream Name” or select it in “Existing Streams”. Your presentation will automatically be added to the end of the list, and all students will be notified of the update.
The file will then automatically download to their iPod or appear in their RSS reader.
The following screen will then appear (if you are creating a new stream), after clicking on “Next”:
You can tag or categorize your podcast with a variety of different categories.
Summary : This will be shown to users when they are subscribing. Resume is for informational purpose only.
Categories : You may choose up to 3 categories for your podcast, with an associated sub-category for each. These categories are only useful if your publish your podcast to the iTunes music store.
Copyright : If necessary, it is the copyright associated with your podcast.
Click next to publish your podcast.
The following window appears, showing your feed link. You can communicate your feed to users. You can also put this link on your blog or submit it to iTunes Music Store.
Possible error messages :
- If this error appears, ensure that you have included sound in your presentation, and that the sound is located in the appropriate directory.
- If the following error occurs, verify your FTP settings and Internet connection.
