Video Chat Parents Evenings - Anyone Else?

[fiza]

Did anyone experience any issues with the system last night?

 

Having staff report issues between 4pm and 6pm with connection/sound issues and I am trying to work out which if the issues were our end or school cloud.

Interesting you should say that as we experienced connection/sound issues last night but we thought it was us as this was our first Parents' Evening with School Cloud.

[MYK-IT]

We too, had our first live virtual parents evening last night using @SchoolCloudSystems and on the whole it worked very well.

 

We had invested in USB Headsets, and during our 'test' event a couple of weeks ago, we soon realised that the USB Headsets were identified as 'communication devices' and therefore not the main 'default' audio device for playback and recording.

 

Using the device settings within @SchoolCloudSystems, combined with our 'how to' guides, we advised staff on how to change the audio/video settings such that the USB Headset was the 'default' device to use for microphone and speaker. We noted at the time that this worked, and as long as they didn't navigate away (or go to different sections of) @SchoolCloudSystems or they didn't click on the link referring to 'having issues' (which I think just reloads the web page?) the settings remained. But if they did, they would have to go to device settings again and select the USB Headset as 'default' for microphone and speaker.

 

However, the feedback from last night's session was that majority of staff had no issues, especially if they had back-to-back meetings. But a small percentage of staff did experience audio issues, which was associated to the fact the 'default' microphone & speaker within @SchoolCloudSystems had reverted back to the Windows default audio devices (e.g. on board). Upon further investigation this happened to staff who had periods of time between one meeting and another. I don't know exactly for how long, but does appear that the system refreshes / resets to Windows default audio devices after a period of inactivity.

 

The workaround at the time was to advise staff to change the audio 'default' settings within @SchoolCloudSystems Moving forwards, I may have to enable Audio Settings within Control Panel so that staff can access and make the USB Headsets the default device for (all) playback and recording - unless @SchoolCloudSystems can advise / implement a fix?

 

Thanks,

Edited December 4, 2020 by MYK-IT

[mdrabble]

Thanks for the replies everyone - looks like issues were our end......

[SchoolCloudSystems]

...the 'default' microphone & speaker within @SoundCloudSystems had reverted back to the Windows default audio devices (e.g. on board). Upon further investigation this happened to staff who had periods of time between one meeting and another. I don't know exactly for how long, but does appear that the system refreshes / resets to Windows default audio devices after a period of inactivity.

 

Only if a user refreshes the page or navigates away and comes back will the devices reset to their default.

Thanks for the feedback - we'll see if we can persist the chosen devices even after users refresh or navigate away.

[fiza]

Thanks for the replies everyone - looks like issues were our end......

 

What did you do to resolved this issues please?

[SchoolCloudSystems]

We've become aware of a bug in iOS 14.2 which causes stuttering audio at the start of video calls when using the Safari browser. This is the likely cause of any reported audio issues at the start of calls. We've been able to replicate this issue internally using an iOS 14.2 device.

Apple is tracking this here and it looks to be resolved in the most recent iOS 14.3 Beta 3 release.