The iLincBuzz on the recent upgrade: recordings and audio

A few people have complained about the recent iLinc upgrade, because they didn't know where their recordings "went" after they were saved, or they had trouble with controlling or optimizing their microphone. So, I thought I would first address the microphone issue.

In the new release, the audio wizard pop-up window is too small to show the buttons "next" and "cancel". Thus, if good users used the wizard before commencing their session, they would have adjusted their speakers, but perhaps not the mic. If the computer has a headset plugged in, things will probably work, as this is the default setting. However, if you have built-in devices, speakers and array mic, those things likely won't work right. Simply grab the right edge of the window and expand it about 25% more, and the buttons you need will appear.

As regards the built-in devices, like mics and webcams, these use blue tooth drivers that programs like DriverCure will update. This may create a problem, and you should really cleanly reboot the system and test out the hardware before launching an iLinc session. Those of you using Vista have experienced such incompatibilities with the latest versions of Skype beyond 4.0. To fix this, reinstall Skype with a version less than 4.0. Also, make sure you are not running multiple applications that try to use your built in devices when trying to use iLinc.

Here is more on the upgrade from iLincBuzz, iLinc's twitter feed, and what has been updated with regard to recordings. All works, provided your IT staff have configured your permissions properly. You should be able to access your recordings via a link to the iLinc server, download it locally, and edit it with the iLinc editor. You can also play it back and rerecord it with Camtasia or similar.

Pedagogical reminder: Do not make your students watch 60-90 minute iLinc recordings. Make them 20 minutes in length, or edit your recording by cutting it into shorter segments.

iLinc’s Newest Release Makes You the Hero of Your Online Meetings

We all know that one of the biggest keys to every company’s success is the ability to put their best face forward in every external encounter—whether it’s with prospects, shareholders, current customers or people coming across your name on a blog or social networking site. And while technology such as web conferencing can do a lot to help you promote your company in a positive light, a badly-executed board meeting, sales demo or marketing webinar can set you back (not to mention get you a flood of negative posts on Twitter!).

At iLinc, we are dedicated to providing our customers with web conferencing tools that allow them to create high-quality online sessions so that they can make a stellar impression on their boss, a hot new lead or a current customer seeking technical support. Our newest release, available in the fall of 2009, adds to our existing set of useful and engaging features . Current hosted customers will automatically get access to:

• Enterprise-class recording and editing tools. Set your recorder to run automatically, edit recordings online to free up your hard drive and then download them in Flash or SCORM-compliant formats.
• Social networks integration. Share your web conferencing savings with your network. Post links to your newest webinars and training sessions on Facebook and Twitter. It really is as easy as a click of the mouse.
• Intuitive and user-friendly home page. We’ve taken ease-of-use to the next level with clear buttons and links for the actions that users most often want to take when they first log in to their iLinc site.

Java misassociations for Mac users

Thank you to Genelle Belmas for contributing this information. There is an issue with a misassociation of Java file types with some Mac users, involving the JNLP file. iLinc iLinc is aware of this (so do not call their helpdesk). Here is their workaround:
1. Locate the JNLP file that saves to the workstation – find that file wherever it’s saved. Default is on the desktop.
2. Select the file and press the Command and I keys to get the Information on the file.
3. Expand the “Open With” section.
4. Select “Other.”
5. Navigate to the Macintosh root hard drive, to the System folder, and inside System, to the Library folder, and then inside the Library folder to the Course Services folder, and inside that folder is a program called “Java Web Start.”
6. Select the Java Web Start program and check the “Always Open With” option.
7. Click the Add button when the Java Web Start program is selected.
8. Click the Change All button (this will change your settings so that all programs that reference JNLP files will open with Java Web Start).
9. Close the window.

Making iLinc content available in Bb

The following is in part extracted verbatim from http://www.parsecinfo.nl/support/recordtip.htm and is not intended to plagiarize. It is good advice, and there are additional tips there, although they pertain mainly to the stand-alone version of iLinc, and not a Bb integration.

Recording and archiving iLinc sessions can be extremely valuable, as this process extends the impact of your sessions through their availability long after the session actually takes place. Whether it’s an important presentation, training classes, or a conference you want to share with others who could not participate live, recording maximizes your investment in Web conferencing.

If you are using iLinc as a Blackboard integration, you may be wondering how to make available iLinc content, such as powerboard or recording files. You have several options for posting your completed iLinc recording. After ending a recording session, you will be prompted to save the recording to your local computer. After saving the file you’ll be prompted to upload the recording to your iLinc Web site. If you choose to upload the file to your meeting or class, the material item becomes available as content in that meeting or class room. When distributing the recording with this method, the iLinc Player will automatically load when a viewer clicks on the link. The recording will then begin playing.

You can also send the recording file itself or post this on your own Internet or Intranet Web sites, including as a course document in Blackboard. Remember that the recording is in a proprietary format. If the recording is sent or posted this way, the player does not automatically load if viewers have never attended a live iLinc session. So, viewers will need to download the iLinc Player from the iLinc website (free). After downloading the iLinc Player, viewers can simply click on the file to begin playing.

If you wish to further edit the recording before posting, there are several ways to do this, which will be discussed in a separate section of this blog.

iLinc and speech recognition applications

I recently experimented with one of the better speech recognition software applications, Dragon Naturally Speaking/Preferred v10 (from Nuance). This allows one to dictate and have words captured as text, as well as control MS Office actions through commands. I decided to try this in combination with iLinc. The two applications work together beautifully, without any conflict of audio. One can present and speak, record the video and audio, and have the words captured. However, the words captured must be in the chatbox, which is within the active application window during the presentation. Further, to create grammatically correct text, one also must say the punctuation marks, which may be annoying to others listening to the presentation. Without the punctuation, the chats can still be saved and later editted for clarity, despite being a string of words in the video recording.


While Dragon will also work to capture the words as text within its "Dragon pad" or MS Word, one must toggle between these applications and iLinc in order for anything to be captured. The moment one selects anything in iLinc and makes that application window active, this deactivates the Dragon pad or Word window. Nevertheless, the ability to capture your words in the chatbox, while speaking and presenting, is a great step forward in steamlining the process of creating accessible materials.


The Dragon software costs about $100 on sites such as buy.com.

Effective web conferencing

Faculty are often searching for helpful suggestions about designing and deploying an effective synchronous online meeting or class using web conferencing applications. There is a useful webinar available from the Adobe website, entitled "Web Conferencing Tips for Training and Education". The audience is polled to determine how and why people use webinars, and then the speakers present examples of effective training and educational webinars. Planning, design and pedagogy are addressed. You must register on the Adobe website in order to view the recording. It is worth a look, as about one third of the way in, the speakers themselves experience an amusing techno glitch, in which the slides magically and rapidly change on their own. The take home lesson here is to go with the flow, like the speakers.

I would encourage others to comment here and share their own lessons learned, best practices and experiences using synchronous online sessions for training and education.

iLinc performance issues

We are trying to implement online curricula using synchronous communications, with the ultimate goal of creating a virtual networked community of faculty, staff, and students on our campus. iLinc has been extremely robust, performing far better than any other similar product on the market today, in facilitating virtual classrooms as well as training sessions and research experiments on scientific instruments. If connected users are all on PCs, the performance is excellent.

However, there have been two recurring issues. One concerns iLinc users who use Macs. Generally, the audio quality of VoIP has been less than optimal, and it has taken a couple of practice sessions to make the audio intelligible, because Macs transmit at a different bit rate. USB headsets work best. A second issue has arisen when Mac and PC users intermingle. There are problems with PC users at half duplex, having to reset the audio wizard in order to restore being able to hear the remote participant. Finally, the ilinc client has sometimes failed to launch on Macs, giving an error message about a missing resource file.

When the audio has crapped out, I have resorted to using my cell phone (a Blackberry Smartphone) in speaker phone mode, either directly broadcasting or holding the phone to the mic on my computer.

I would welcome commentary from people who have used iLinc successfully on the Mac OS, as well as those in general who have come up with creative solutions to VoIP problems. Users can view my tipsheets as they evolve at http://fdc.fullerton.edu/technology.