Blog posts tagged with 'gotomeeting'

Wanting to eat our own dog food and wash it down with a big tumbler of kool-aid, my team recently held a meeting of nationally dispersed attendees and used the GoToMeeting VoIP features. I'm not kidding when I say I haven't heard that much reverb, distortion and echo since the last time I listened to "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." As our first attempt, we spent quite a bit of time complaining to each other about the sound quality and asking each other to place our devices on mute. By the way, did you know that the default setting in the GoToMeeting preferences is to always save chat logs? The following is an extract of the recorded GoToMeeting chat that occurred. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

B (to All - Entire Audience): the voice quality is terrible
K (to All - Entire Audience): you have a lot of reverb and I can't understand what you're saying
R (to All - Entire Audience): can someone mute their mic
R (to All - Entire Audience): massive echo
V (to All - Entire Audience): Click on the green mic icon and you can mute it
B (to All - Entire Audience): cant understand a word this other speaker is saying

I don't have specific stats yet as to how many people were on "regular" phones vs. using computer mics, but judging on the icons in the attendee list it was a nice enough mix of what one would probably reasonably encounter in this scenario at other companies.

Now, I'm used to using our stuff before it's released and dealing with the intricacies of things that don't quite work yet, but in this case it's not the application - it's the settings. In this case it's just a matter of understanding that one-size does not always fit all. Turns out if we had done a little pre-meeting training and all made some quick and easy settings adjustments to our individual GoToMeeting installations, we could have had a much more satisfactory experience.

When in doubt, read the friendly manual

If you've experienced similar issues or haven't tried this feature yet, there's a good article in the GoToMeeting online help to mitigate this -

GoToMeeting VoIP Audio Best Practices

First, what device are you planning to use? Check out the chart in the link above for recommendations. A USB headset connected to your computer will offer the best quality experience, while using your laptop's built-in microphone and speakers will give you a poor experience, especially if your mic is picking up what's coming out of your speakers - echo city.

And here's an additional excerpt that may help:
VoIP Audio Setup - PC

1. Right-click the GTM icon in the PC system tray and select Preferences.
2. Select Audio.
   Microphone Setup - It is recommended that you test your microphone. To test, select your microphone device from the drop-down menu and speak into your microphone; if it is connected correctly, the sound meter will light up green. If the green meter does not light up, select another device listed in the drop-down menu and repeat this test.
   Speakers Setup - It is recommended that you test your speakers. To test, select your speaker device from the drop-down menu and click Play Sound; if connected correctly, you will see the sound meter light up green and hear a soundtrack through your speaker device. If you do not hear sound after clicking Play Sound, select another device listed in the drop-down menu and repeat this test.
   Advanced - GoToMeeting automatically adjusts audio levels. We recommend you keep this checked. If you uncheck this selection, you must manually configure your audio settings through Windows Sounds and Audio Devices. If your attendees can't understand you because your voice is distorted, try unchecking "Microphone boost."
3. Click OK.
   
   

I strongly recommend that you read the rest of this article, consider using a USB headset and adjust your microphone and speakers settings before joining your next GoToMeeting VoIP call for a much better experience.

If all else fails, the meeting organizer can mute/unmute all participants by selecting *5

Have a happy meeting!

GoToAssist Express Beta was just updated to a new version, the current build is now 8.0, and there are some new features addded and bug fixes included in this release.

New features that were just added to the product are: 

Notes - You can now take notes during a session and have them saved for reporting purposes.

Reverse Screen Sharing - An expert can now share their screen with their customer.

Performance Improvements - We added a lot of performance improvements which should be noticeable right away.

Performace Settings - We added the ability to change your performance settings for optimal screen refresh rates.

Bug Fixes - As always, we fixed a lot of bugs. As beta testers, your feedback on these has been extremely valuable!

More features are coming soon and will posted on the blog, so keep checking back!

Continue at Source: GoToAssist Express Beta Blog

Here I am minding of my own business listening to some online radio while getting some work done, and BAM!

Leo Laporte starts "talking to me" about GoToMeeting.

    
 
 
Listen here to Leo's GoToMeeting Radio Comercial

Sing-up to GoToMeeting Free for 30-days!

Cheers,
Gus

You are invited to join us for a training Webinar on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. Come and learn how to use GoToAssist Express and see how it can benefit your business.

Attend this one-hour training session and find out how to:

• Quickly launch remote-support sessions with both PC and Mac users.
• Use key GoToAssist Express features such as Chat and File Transfer.
• Provide unattended remote support (work when your customers are away from their computers).

Title: GoToAssist Express New User Training

Date: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Time: 10 AM PDT (1 PM EDT)

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/816176572

Here is great summary and videos on how to integrate with GoToAssist/GoToMeeting/GoToMyPC SDKs from Terry Holland (Sr. Manager of Integration Services, Citrix Online division).

GoToAssist Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToAssist. Topics include how to automate the launch of a GoToAssist session for end users, how to streamline support agents' tasks and how to integrate and locally save session data. After the general overview (20 min), there is a section on how to approach integration with a CRM system (10 min) and a final section on the out-of-box Database Integration (10 min). Total viewing time is 40 min.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/334585120

GoToAssist Integration Services Website:
http://www.gotoassist.com/intServices.html

GoToMeeting Corporate Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToMeeting Corporate. Topics include an overview of integration options, the Organizer API and the Administrator/Reporting API. The presentation also includes some examples. Total viewing time is 20 mins.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/605056742

GoToMeeting Corporate Integration Services Website:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/pre/corp/integration.tmpl

GoToMyPC Corporate Integration Presentation Available for Viewing:
The following recorded presentation describes all the techniques for integrating GoToMyPC Corporate. Topics include an overview of integration options, the out-of-box Provisioning Tool, the Administrator API and the Reporting API. Total viewing time is 20 mins.
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/295522528

GoToMyPC Corporate Integration Services Website:
https://www.gotomypc.com/corp/integration.html

Please leave us feedback on our Citrix online SDKs.
Thanks

I bet you think I'm going to talk about GoToMeeting or our old friend, Conferencing Manager. I could, but I won't. I'll leave that to others more experienced in that tech talk.

No, I'm talking about good old-fashioned people. People, people who need people,... OK, I digress (probably due to my need for lunch right now.). I think sometimes in our focus on getting our projects or software out the door, we forget how beneficial our networks can be. Yes, LinkedIn and other sites are great (Hey, I'm on LinkedIn myself), but face-to-face often wins out.

For example, I attended an industry conference in Q3 2006. When I transferred to Web Services in April 2007, I reached out to other attendees I had spoken to at that conference for help with one of my projects. Although the people I contacted hadn't heard from me in almost six months and didn't have the knowledge to help me, they took the time to ask their coworkers to help. Eventually I spoke to a peer I'd never met before who had a wealth of knowledge to share. She offered to present her team's approach to the issue and so I was able to share their perspectives and processes with my team (using GoToMeeting , of course). By the way, I have to say that team was from Microsoft , - so you won't catch me badmouthing them, even without our other "strategic partnerships".

Today I got the chance to do something similar. A past Citrite contacted me about a project she is working on. Since the technical details were outside my range of experience, I asked a member of the Web Services team if he could help. Lo and behold, we met today (again with GoToMeeting) - my coworker, myself, the past Citrite, and her manager. We greeted, we chatted, we outlined, we discussed, and when we were done, they thanked us very much for our help and offered to return the favor if needed. Now, our meeting today may not lead to earthshattering changes in technologies or wow anyone (although I have great hopes for their gift that's "in the mail"), but the time saved in a one-hour meeting vs. trying to figure it out on your own over weeks (or even months) can never be denied. And yes, I feel better. And I know my ex-Citrite friend feels a whole lot better.

So, in our world of technology, blogs and wikis nonwithstanding, we need to remember that networking and collaboration sometimes mean something different. And I hope all Citrites, past, present, and future are examples of that.