Adding a 'talk' (push to talk) button in BigBlueButton 0.8-beta-3
Fred Dixon
All major development for BigBlueButton 0.8 is completed, We're now
focused on bug fixing, profiling, and getting through all the
remaining issues in this release. Our goal is to make BigBlueButton
0.8 as solid as we possible can.
As will past releases, once the major work is done, we try to
implement one or two features that are minor, but nevertheless of
benefit to all users.
The current design of BigBlueButton's audio gives the moderator
complete control. This is good as they can mute/unmute anyone at any
time.
However, it puts the burden of managing the audio squarely on their
shoulders. When muted, students (non-moderators) can not unmute
themselves without getting the attention (raise hand or chat) of the
moderator to unmute them. If the moderator does not see the request,
the students can't participate in the discussion.
Attached is a summary of how a proposed push to talk button would work
in BigBlueButton 0.8-beta-3. This doesn't affect the scalability of
BigBlueButton as from the BigBlueButton server's perspective, everyone
has the ability to talk at any time. The addition of a push to talk
button is an effort to improve the usability of BigBlueButton for
teachers and students.
Feedback welcome!
Regards,... Fred
--
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#BigBlueButton_Committer
Kirill Bukin
Splendid! And if I got everything correctly (i think i did) here is my suggestion - moderator need additional option to lock all participants in order if he wants to take all control on whole group
27.10.2011 18:55 пользователь "Fred Dixon" <ffd...@gmail.com> написал:
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Alec Taylor
Also will be helpful for modularity
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/RoadMap1dot0#Modularity
2011/10/28 Kirill Bukin <comp...@gmail.com>:
HostBBB.com
push to talk on current betas..
I like the talk button better in the listeners window, instead of
toolbar, you want the button as low on the screen and you can get it.
would be neat if a key mapped "Like Spacebar held down repeating", as
long as they are not focused in chat so holding the bar allows them to
speak instead of mouse pointing.
Also how is this mode setup, i can think of three ways
1) set at the server level, so all meetings on that
server are enabled for this mode only,
2) designed so any moderator can switch between modes
mid meeting.
3) api call during the create to determine the type
of meeting, Fullduplex or Pushtalk
Lastly, if you had a class of 20 and three people want to be the
primary speakers, can the TALK buttons be locked so they and the other
2 presenters have open mics that are mixing together to other
listeners and still allow sometone to push to talk to ask question.
regards,
Stephen
hostbbb.com
> 510KViewDownload
Fred Dixon
> Fred, this is great feature, i have played around the the existing
> push to talk on current betas..
>
Hi Stephen,
There was no existing push to talk feature in the betas. :-)
I know you are referring to some experimental code we did a while back
in the early development of BigBlueButton 0.8 (I can't remember what
it was called) around push to talk. We haven't talked about the code
because it's not complete, and the focus of this release is Record and
Playback.
The push to talk capabilities coming in 0.8-beta-3 will be part of the
core and we definitely want to make sure it's usable.
> I like the talk button better in the listeners window, instead of
> toolbar, you want the button as low on the screen and you can get it.
> would be neat if a key mapped "Like Spacebar held down repeating", as
> long as they are not focused in chat so holding the bar allows them to
> speak instead of mouse pointing.
>
Space bar is doing duty of advancing to the next slide. So probably
not a good idea to overload it too much.
> Also how is this mode setup, i can think of three ways
> 1) set at the server level, so all meetings on that
> server are enabled for this mode only,
This is how it will work in 0.8-beta-3.
> 2) designed so any moderator can switch between modes
> mid meeting.
We figure everyone will want to do push to talk, but the moderator
will still have control to turn off the capability for users.
> 3) api call during the create to determine the type
> of meeting, Fullduplex or Pushtalk
To be clear, everything is still fullduplex. As previously stated:
> This doesn't affect the scalability of
> BigBlueButton as from the BigBlueButton server's perspective, everyone
> has the ability to talk at any time.
> Lastly, if you had a class of 20 and three people want to be the
> primary speakers, can the TALK buttons be locked so they and the other
> 2 presenters have open mics that are mixing together to other
> listeners and still allow sometone to push to talk to ask question.
Yes, if you unlock the three people, they will have push to talk
buttons (along with any other moderators as a moderator always has
their push to talk button visible).
Thanks for the feedback Stephen.
Regards,... Fred
--
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#BigBlueButton_Committer
>
>
sbubb
I am new to BigBlueButton and have been testing 0.8-beta2 and would
just like to say weldone on the improvement from 0.71a. I find a very
much improved audio Quality and almost no delay.
I thinking adding a push-to-talk button would Definitely improve the
use of BBB, especially with large number of users in a conference.
Regards
Steve
Fred Dixon
Thanks for your feedback. We want to emphasize that when you say
'large number', many people will have their own interpretation of what
that means, and expectation of what BigBlueButton can do.
As emphasized earlier in this thread, the push to talk button is not
for scaling BigBlueButton. This is a usability enhancement, not an
underlying architecture change for scalability.
We want BigBlueButton to work really well for small to medium sized
groups of 25 users or less. BigBlueButton is *not* a webinar
application that will support 100+ simultaneous users -- that's a
different design then what we're trying to achieve at the moment.
Don't get us wrong, we (the core developers) would love BigBlueButton
to scale, but we have to focus on building a solid foundation first.
And that foundation includes working on the usability, stability, and
requirements of small to medium sized groups.
For more information see
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#How_many_simultaneous_users_can_BigBlueButton_support
Regards,... Fred
--
http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#BigBlueButton_Committer
Fred Dixon
The 'push to talk' button is now active on our demo server.
http://demo.bigbluebutton.org/
You'll see the button now changes from 'Mute' to 'Talk' when you
become muted/unmuted.
Keep in mind that everyone joins as moderator, so the button is always
visible. If you want to see what happens when a viewer joins and the
moderator locks their audio (the button disappears), then use this API
demo
http://demo.bigbluebutton.org/demo/demo3.jsp
to join as two users, one as moderator and another as viewer, using
different web browsers. The 'push to talk' button should disappear
for the user when their audio is locked by the moderator.
Feedback welcome.
sbubb
Thanks for your reply! You are correct 'Large number' could be
anything. For my use I would be reffering to about 30 people as a
large group, and small group is 8 people.
I do see you point that the push to talk button will improve
usability, rather than changing architiecture for scalability.
However my thinking is that as usability improves it would be possible
to larger groups (25+) than currently, without making interaction
within the group difficult, (ok 'difficult' might be to strong word)
like having to mute everyone and users must click on raise hand to
talk - Just my thoughts - as you improve something more people what to
use it. :-)
Regards
Steve
On Oct 28, 1:14 pm, Fred Dixon <ffdi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Steve,
>
> Thanks for your feedback. We want to emphasize that when you say
> 'large number', many people will have their own interpretation of what
> that means, and expectation of what BigBlueButton can do.
>
> As emphasized earlier in this thread, the push to talk button is not
> for scaling BigBlueButton. This is a usability enhancement, not an
> underlying architecture change for scalability.
>
> We want BigBlueButton to work really well for small to medium sized
> groups of 25 users or less. BigBlueButton is *not* a webinar
> application that will support 100+ simultaneous users -- that's a
> different design then what we're trying to achieve at the moment.
>
> Don't get us wrong, we (the core developers) would love BigBlueButton
> to scale, but we have to focus on building a solid foundation first.
> And that foundation includes working on the usability, stability, and
> requirements of small to medium sized groups.
>
> For more information see
>
> Regards,... Fred
> --http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/FAQ#BigBlueButton_Committer