FAQ - OnSync - Most recent

What are the system requirements for OnSync servers?

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:12:20 GMT

Communication server

Hardware requirements:

Intel� Pentium� 4, 3.2 GHz (Dual Xeon� or higher recommended)
2 GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended)
100MB of available disk space for installation, 80GB+ recommended for Content Storage
CD-ROM Drive (optional)
Gigabit Network Adapter
RAID Drive recommended

Supported OS:

Microsoft� Windows Server� 2003 SP1 (All 32-bit editions), or
Linux� Red Hat� 4 (32-bit only)

Software requirements:

Flash Media Interactive Server

Web server

Hardware requirements:

Celeron, 2GHz
512 MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
100MB of available disk space for installation, 10GB+ recommended for Content Storage
CD-ROM Drive (optional)
Gigabit Network Adapter
RAID Drive (optional)

Supported OS:

Windows 2003 Server, or
Windows 2000 Server, or
Windows NT 4.0 Server (SP6 or later), or
Linux, or
Mac OSX

Software requirements:

Apache webserver (Apache 2 recommended)
PHP 4.3 or newer (PHP 5.x recommended)
MySQL 3.23 or newer

For Linux installations please read "Preparing your Linux servers for OnSync" (pdf, 41 kb)

CreditPacks explained

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:52:27 GMT

Explanation of CreditPacks and the following terminology:

Variable	Definitions
Time Limit (minutes)	Total quantum of credit available in the pack, in terms of number of user minutes. A typical 1 broadcaster + 9 viewer (aka 1b+9v) conference lasting 1 hour would consume 600 minutes.
Data Limit (GB)	Total quantum of credit available in the pack, in terms of number of total data traffic throughput on the server. In order to prevent abuse of the services which are offered and thereby prevent a negative effect on service performance for all users, Digital Samba has implemented certain Fair-Use Policy limits for all users @ http://www.digitalsamba.com/products/fair_use.php A similar limit is imposed on all packs purchased by partners. The limits are based on calculations on the transfer rates used by the top 5% of users which are responsible for more than half of the total data transfer. The following calculations serve as a guideline only and may vary depending on several variables such as video sizes selected and type of video signal being broadcast. A typical 1 broadcaster +9 viewers (aka 1b+9v) conference lasting 1 hour at a widescreen / small video setting would consume around 400 to 450 MB of data traffic. Generally speaking, approximately 23 to 25 streams of 1 hour each consume around 1 GB of bandwidth. In order words, each stream consumes around 40 to 45 MB of data traffic per hour. This may vary on the video sizes selected in the application. Multi-way videoconferencing can use more bandwidth where the consumption is calculated at (bitrate * broadcasters²) + (broadcasters * bitrate * viewers).
Validity Limit (days)	Total quantum of credit available in the pack, in terms of number of days the pack remains active and valid. A pack expires as soon as the validity period, in terms of days, elapses. The validity period starts with the Contract Start Date on the order form.
Bandwidth Cap (Mbps)	Maximum concurrent server side bandwidth available. Expressed in Mbps = 1024 Kbps = 1,000,000 bits per second. Instead of a restrictive "number of concurrent users" limit, Digital Samba imposes a "maximum concurrent bandwidth" limit on the server side, allowing partners to work with numerous combinations. A typical 10-participant conference with 10 streams - 1 broadcaster in widescreen-small mode and 9 viewers requires 768Kbps to 1 Mbps concurrent bandwidth For eg, Pack A with a limit of 10Mbps will allow � ... one concurrent 1 broadcaster +99 viewers (aka 1b+99v) conferences OR ... two concurrent 1 broadcaster + 48 viewers (1b+48v) conferences OR � ten concurrent 1broadcaster + 9 viewer (aka 1b+9v) conferences. Naturally, Pack C will allow 10 times as much. This is based on the assumption that there�s only 1 concurrent broadcaster only in small to medium sized video. If there is more than 1 concurrent broadcaster, the bandwidth consumption increases dramatically because every single viewer needs to consume a separate multiple broadcasting stream. The formula for calculating total number of streams = (b X v) + (b X b). For example, a 1b+14v conference = (14 X 1) + (1 X 1) = 15 streams. But a 2b+13v conference = (13 X 2) + (2 X 2) = 30 streams Broadcasting rights can be passed around in a conference and participants can take turns to be broadcasters one by one. OnSync also supports multiple concurrent broadcasters.
Storage Cap (GB)	Total server disk space available for storing conference files and recordings. This is a total quantum spread over all customers. Storage cap refers to the maximum disk space available to the partner pack. All presentations, files, etc. uploaded during a conference are permanently stored in that conference unless those files or that conference itself is explicitly deleted by the account holder. All recordings of conferences also consume a certain amount disk space based on several variables including but not limited to the video size selected, type of video broadcasted, amount of screen share activity.
Divisibility (Customers)	Maximum number of unique customers, a partner is licensed to sign up in the pack. For example, Pack A allows a partner to sign up 10 different customers and up to 100 users. There is no limitation as to how these 10 customers use the total number of users contracted � Partner could decide to sign up 10 customers with a conference room capacity of 10 users each, or could decide to sign up 1 customer with a capcity of 82 users and 9 customers with a capacity of 2 users. Any denomination will work as long as the limit of paying customers is not exceeded.
Users Contracted	Maximum number of users a partner can assign amongst his customers. This is a total quantum spread over all customers. Conference rooms when sold are associated with a user limit, defining the capacity of the conference room similar to a real word conference room. A Partner can choose how he splits these users amongst his customers but the total sold must never exceed this limit. Using Pack A as an example, if Partner has sold 5 accounts to clients with 20 users each Partner cannot sign up another client because the contracted users limit of 100 has been reached, even though the Divisibility (customers) limit would technically still allow signing up of further customers.
Cost (Euros)	Net amount receivable by Digital Samba from partner in advance for buying the pack exclusive of applicable taxes/charges. Pack expires as soon as any one of the following 3 limits is reached: Time, Data or Validity. Pack is bound by the following usage caps: Bandwidth, Storage, Divisibility and Users Contracted.

Does OnSync support Push To Talk? What is Push To Talk? How do I start talking in OnSync?

Mon, 26 May 2008 12:04:40 GMT

OnSync supports Push To Talk (PTT) technology. Push To Talk is a great way to keep the audio channels free from noise when you are not speaking. It also greatly reduces issues with echoes when users are not using headsets.

Using Push-To-Talk is simple:

Click the Start Broadcast button in the Audio / Video module. Depending on your user level you may have to wait for a moderator to allow access before you can start speaking.
You will see three buttons appear in the bottom of the Audio / Video module: a "Talk" button, a button with a lock on it and a "Stop" on it.
Click and hold the Talk button to transmit your audio to the other participants in the room. You can also click and hold the CTRL key on your keyboard (CMD key if you are on a Mac).
As soon as you finish speaking release the button and no more audio is transmitted.

You can also switch into a hands-free mode by clicking the button with the lock on it next to the talk button. This has the same effect as keeping the talk button pressed. Make sure you are using a headset if you are using the hands-free mode to avoid echoes.

Click the stop button to stop broadcasting audio or video entirely.

Can I stream high quality video? Can I use Flash Media Encoder (FME) to broadcast to OnSync? Can I stream live using h.264 and On2 VP6?

Mon, 26 May 2008 11:33:04 GMT

Yes you can stream any type of quality your bandwidth will allow. OnSync is fully configurable on an admin level to be adjusted to your particular requirements and/or restrictions.

You can even change your broadcast mode while in a live session, reducing video quality or turning it off altogether if your audience has problems receiving the bandwidth you are trying to send.

Using the Flash Media Encoder, you can push in external video sources at high quality - very useful for webcasting. Flash Media Encoder supports live On2 VP6 and h.264 encoding which renders a better quality / bitrate ratio than the Sorenson Spark codec.

The OnSync hosted services currently only support the On2 VP6 codec for live streaming and recordings. Expect an update soon to allow h.264 live streaming and recording.

I hear echo in my audio and video conferences. The audio quality is very bad. What can I do to improve audio quality?

Mon, 26 May 2008 11:26:13 GMT

To fully appreciate the high quality of OnSync's audio conferencing functionality you should use a good headset. And you need to make sure your counterpart is using a good headset too.

When you hear echoes, what is happening is that your voice is feeding back through on of the other conferencing participants speakers and back into their microphone. You are then effectively being broadcast back to yourself what you just said. If neither of you wear a headset the effect can be that the sound gets fed back and forth resulting in a very bad audio experience.

One remedy to this situation is to use OnSync's Push To Talk technology. If you are not using a headset make sure you click and hold the button to speak, then let go when you are done. This will avoid echos and feedback of other people's voices. You can also press and hold the CTRL key on your keyboard (CMD if you are on a Mac) to activate your microphone.

If you use conferencing frequently we highly recommend investing into a good headset or a good echo cancelling desktop microphone/speaker system if you prefer hands free conferencing. OnSync supports just about all USB and jack audio devices available. Contact us if you are unsure about a particular piece of equipment you would like to use!

Also, make sure you spend some time to configure your microphone level using both your computers audio set-up as well as via the main menu (Settings > Microphone). You can lose a lot of sound quality if your microphone's gain is turned up to high causing your voice to distort.

If you hear echo even though all users are wearing headsets take turns to mute one user after another. If the echo disappears when one user is muted you know that that is the person causing the problems.

Ask this person to use Push To Talk or to click the lock button if it is green to turn off the hands-free mode.

You can then try to make sure that the headset is the selected sound input device, maybe the user unintentionally has another device selected. If that also fails then the user may have a problem with his headset and/or soundcard. Replace either of these devices to resolve the issue.

If you follow these steps you will have a pristine sound experience unequalled by any other conferencing solution.