Speechi main features

From Speechi WiKi

This chapter describes the main advanced features of Speechi that are common to both Speechi Conference and Speechi Studio.

Configuration Tabs

Click on the “Configuration” button to access all tabs. Those tabs manage all your presentation settings.

Local Settings and Global Settings

Speechi allows managing global Speechi settings (settings that will apply to all future presentations) and local settings (those that only concern active presentation).

This way, you can for instance:

Modify the default author of presentations. This setting applies afterwards to all new presentations (global setting)
Modify the title of a presentation “in local”
Modify the theme or skin in a global or local fashion, according to your needs …

Configuration Tab settings are global, but you can apply them on the active presentation at the moment when you create it simply by checking the "Apply those settings to active presentation" checkbox, located at the bottom of the tabs.

Access to local settings is done from the grid, by clicking on the new “Local Configuration” button, located on the top left.

This button opens tabs that are similar to global configuration tabs. They allow you to adjust publishing settings and themes for the active presentation.

If you are working on the local settings of the grid, Speechi offers you the possibility to set them as global and apply them to all future presentations.

Presentation Tabs and Settings

See corresponding paragraph in the chapter Speechi Conference.

FTP Tab

Inside this tab, you will enter different information regarding the FTP server on which you want your Speechi presentation to be uploaded. This is the server that will be used by the Publication Wizard to post your presentation online.

Settings of your FTP server (address, port number, login, password, active/passive FTP) are provided by your hosting provider.

If you want your presentation to be loaded into a directory on your FTP server, simply fill in the box "Remote FTP Directory".

The first time you install Speechi, FTP settings point to your demonstration server. You can save your first presentation there but please note that this server is cleaned regularly – your presentations are likely to be deleted at any moment – and it is also not confidential – your data are exposed to the public.

Matching FTP Address with Http Address

FTP directory coordinates that you set in the tab are accessible from a Web browser; with an address of the type http:// … This http address represents the "base address".

If the http address "matches" the FTP address of the server, then you simply need to check the box "Build Server URL automatically". This is the simplest case, but not the most frequent.

Otherwise, you need to manually enter the base address of the http server, so that the base address "points" exactly to the remote FTP directory that you have defined above. If you have not yet defined a remote FTP directory, the http base address must point exactly to your FTP server.

It is absolutely necessary to match these 2 addresses so that Speechi can later download your data from the defined server and automatically "reconstruct" the http addresses where your presentations are saved and so that you can simply verify your publications.

It’s the Publication Wizard that takes care of this task and informs you at the end of the process about the http address of your Speechi presentation. If your Speechi does open when clicking the link shown, then your settings are correct.

Wheel Tab

See the paragraphe correspondant dans le chapitre The Speechi wheel.

Whiteboard Tab

This tab allows you to select the interaction mode with your Interactive Whiteboard.

eBeam is disconnected : no interactive whiteboard.
Separate Whiteboard mode: eBeam Whiteboard ou eBeam Complete
roject mode: Interactive whiteboard eBeam Projection

Quiz Tab

The quiz tab allows setting the default settings and messages that are displayed when creating a new quiz.

Scorm Tab

Voir le corresponding paragraph dans le chapitre Speechi Studio.

Video Server Tab

The video server is a Speechi option. This option is particularly useful when your presentation contains a global video. (See why).

This server must supports the Red5 OpenSource Technology

Within this tab, you will enter different information regarding the FTP server on which your media elements should be uploaded, and then played in streaming. This is the server that will be used by the Publication Wizard in order to post your presentations online.

The settings of the FTP Server (Address, port number, login, password, active/passive FTP) are provided by your hosting provider.

If you want your presentations to be uploaded to a directory on your FTP server, simply fill the box "Remote FTP Directory".

Match the FTP Address and the RTMP Address

In streaming mode, the video is played using the RTMP protocol.

The coordinates of the FTP directory that you set in the tab must be accessible from a web browser, using an address of the type rtmp://... This address represents the "base address" of your video.

If the rtmp address "matches" the FTP address on the server, then you just need to check the box "Build Address Automatically". This is the simplest case, but it is not the most frequent.

Otherwise, you need to manually enter the base address of the http server, so that the base address "points" exactly to the remote FTP directory that you have defined above. If you have not yet defined a remove FTP directory, the http base address must point exactly to your FTP server.

Red5 servers being designed to be shared between multiple users, a sharing scheme was conceived in order to ensure independence of spaces between users. This is the role of the setting "Loading Directory" that completes the base RTMP address previously indicated.

In the above case, the loading directory is equal to the user login, which is "default". Videos are loaded at the FTP root of the user "default". The rtmp address of these videos will be rtmp://213.251.167.91/oflademo/default/NomDuFichierVideo.

If another user whose login is "utilisateur2" was configured so that the /oflaDemo contains 2 subfolders: /default and /user2, and so that the FTP of this "user2" point to the /user2, then the above settings will remain unchanged.

You simply need to replace "default" with "user2" in the "Login" line, and to enter the corresponding password.

This scheme allows managing an infinite number of users, each having his/her own access to a private FTP space.

Screen Capture Tab

When you leave PowerPoint using Speechi 4, in Conference mode, Speechi starts to capture what happens on your screen.

Speechi offers you the choice to capture either a quarter of the screen, all of the screen, or a predefined “custom” zone.

Why a quarter of a screen? Because, when you are outside PowerPoint, it seemed to us that it’s best to have a quarter of the screen “active” in which you can drag all the images, text, documents…etc. that you want to show… they will be captured by Speechi and inserted into the final presentation in the form of a Video Slide.

Hence, you remain free in not showing all what happens on your screen (i.e., “reminder” or confidential data). Moreover, the quarter of a screen capture has the benefit of getting less heavy and more fluid videos.

You can also choose other options (all of the screen or predefined custom zone) but we advise you to start with the proposed “default” settings.

Other capture options are also offered : Speechi allows you to capture –or not- the mouse. In case you want to capture it, we offer you to highlight it (in case you want to show the usage of a program, for example).

Podcast Tab

See the corresponding paragraph in the chapter Speechi Conference.

Resources Grid

See the corresponding paragraph in the chapter Speechi Studio.

Customizable Themes (or skins)

Speechi presentations are intended to be viewed in a browser. The viewing environment (interface style) is called "the theme" also known as "the skin".

Speechi allows customization of:

All colors
All window sizes
All graphic elements that appear (logo, photo of the speaker). See here
All positions of resources’ windows

3 themes are available in Speechi:

The "modern" theme, fully customizable, that we advise you to use by default.
The "transparent" theme, also fully customizable, that we advise you to use if you intend to include your presentation in a web page, blog…etc.
The "classic" theme. Originally, the first being developed, it is maintained for compatibility reasons, but we don’t advise you to use it since it is not customizable.

Customize Theme Colors

You can completely customize the "modern" theme and the "transparent" theme. The tab “themes” of the Configuration tool allows you to change colors and proportions of all elements in the skin. You can then adapt it to your graphical identity.

By clicking on the “Edit this theme” button, you have access to all the settings of the interface colors.

You can also give a name to your new theme, which allows you afterwards to retrieve all of your settings.

Here is what you can obtain if you miss on taste (thus, be careful: freedom has also its dangers!)

Customize the Proportions of Own Theme

You can modify the proportions “by default” of the left column (which usually contains the video) and modify the size of the video and the PowerPoint slides that will appear on the screen.

As you are editing the theme, you only need to pick the handles on the corners of the windows in order to obtain the desired proportions. These proportions are memorized when you save your settings.

These handles let the student, when watching a Speechi presentation, to completely change the size of the windows “Live & Direct”. Hence, if the viewer wants to enlarge the window of the video on the left or reduce the size of the PowerPoint, he can do it interactively.

Floating Windows

You also have the possibility to add, thanks to the grid, resources that could be comments, files, Flash animation or videos. These resources appear in the browser inside floating windows. These windows can be moved anywhere by the viewer, at the time of viewing, so as not to hide important elements of the presentation.

The Transparent Theme

Designed to be embedded into a web page or in a blog article, the “transparent” theme is single-block: no left column. In case where the video exists in a Speechi presentation, it will appear “above” the PowerPoint instead of appearing on the left column.

Access this presentation on the Speechi blog.

This theme doesn’t have explicit customization settings as all the settings are inherited from the active modern theme. Interface colors come from colors of the modern theme; video proportions are the proportions that you made during the setting of the modern theme.

The "HTML Code" button available on the theme allows you to generate HTML code necessary to embed, with the desired dimension, your Speechi presentation in any web page or blog.

Copy Themes from a PC to Another

After making one’s own skin, it is possible to install it for any other user who works with Speechi.

For this, you just need to copy the file containing the theme settings from one machine to another.

This file can be found under the backup folde (by default, under Windows XP, it is in MyDocuments/speechi/ModernColorScheme/NameOfYourTheme.xml)

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