The Tech - Connecting In To A Channel Talent Event
The IT connection to Channel Talent sessions is made through Bluejeans. We would look to run a brief test with a school/college from the room intended to be used. This would be to check that the connection/audio/video is sufficient for students to interact during the session and fully benefit from the event.
A school can check the connection to Bluejeans prior to this test by using this link to a test room that allows you to talk to a parrot (!) and so should indicate that you are connecting okay:
There are 2 options with Bluejeans, connecting using the Browser option and connecting using the app. The app will give you more control over what you are seeing as you can manage the size of the slides and video windows to suit but both work well.
In terms of hardware, ideally schools/colleges would have:
- a pc with an external usb webcam that has an inbuilt microphone or;
- a webcam built in to a laptop and an external usb microphone (often Language departments have these) or;
- with a small group, a laptop with a decent built in webcam/mic will often suffice (we can test this)
Depending on the group size, the image would normally be projected with speakers available in the room. This may vary based on student numbers and the room that is used. If it is planned to run this with larger numbers from a hall or lecture theatre, the key would be to test the microphone to ensure that students can be heard.
All of the above assumes that dedicated videoconferencing kit is unavailable, like Polycom or Tandberg equipment. If however you have this, this is compatible too and generally works very well.