Live Meeting 2007: Presenter's companion

You can set up the audio options in Live Meeting based on your company's deployment method. If you are using the Live Meeting service to access Live Meeting, you can set up audio by using the computer audio option and the traditional audio conferencing option simultaneously.

Note    If you are using Office Communications Server 2007 to schedule a Live Meeting, it is recommended that you skip this topic and move to the next topic in the lesson to learn how to set up the audio options.

Computer audio

The 2007 version of Office Live Meeting can deliver two-way audio through your computer. This does not require any telephone connection and is cost-effective. If you have set up the computer audio option, you and the attendees need only speakers and microphones for the meeting audio.

To schedule computer audio for conferencing, do the following:

1. In Outlook, click Schedule a Live Meeting. This opens a new Live Meeting invitation.

Note    To schedule a Live Meeting through Outlook, you must have the Outlook add-in installed on your computer. To learn more, refer to the course "Get to know Live Meeting 2007."

2. To set the audio options, in the Live Meeting invitation, click Options. In the Meeting Options dialog box, click Audio, select the Include computer audio conferencing option, and then click OK.

To join the Live Meeting audio, refer to the Audio Information section of the e-mail invitation. If Computer Audio is indicated, the users will automatically connect to the computer audio when they join Live Meeting.

To participate in a Live Meeting, you need either a microphone and speakers or a headset with earphones and built-in microphone. Also, you need to change the audio settings from Mute to Unmute. To do this, click the microphone icon in the upper-right corner of the Live Meeting interface.

Traditional telephone audio conferencing

In addition to computer audio, Live Meeting supports traditional telephone audio. If you already have a telephone conferencing account, you can configure your Live Meeting audio options to include the phone number and passcode information in your Outlook invitation. In addition, you can modify the audio options to enable the Live Meeting service to call the attendees after they have joined the meeting.

To use telephone conferencing in your Live Meeting, do the following:

1. In Outlook, click Schedule a Live Meeting. This opens a new Live Meeting invitation.
2. To set the audio options, click Options on the Ribbon. In the Meeting Options dialog box, click Audio, and then select Include telephone conferencing.
3. To configure the audio setting, select the conferencing provider name.

Note    If you aren't sure of the conferencing provider name or don't see the name in the list, select Other.

4. To allow Live Meeting to call the meeting attendees, select the Allow meeting participants to use Join Conference to have Live Meeting call their phone instead of dialing in option.

Note    To enable this feature, you must select one of the conferencing providers listed.

5. Specify the toll or toll-free number to connect to the Live Meeting audio.
6. Specify the country/region and the city/area code for the toll and toll-free numbers.
7. Enter the participant and leader codes assigned to your phone conferencing account.
8. Enter any additional dialing keys or audio information required for the attendees and the presenters.

Note    Live Meeting may require additional dialing keys to automatically dial your conference call provider and to join a phone conference. By using these keys, you can input the character string needed, so that the Live Meeting service can skip audio prompts and join the call.

9. To apply the audio settings, click OK. This sets the audio option to use telephone conferencing. If you wish to make the specified conferencing information as default setting for future meetings, click Set as Default.

Note    If the Live Meeting administrator has already entered details such as audio provider, toll and toll-free dialing numbers, and additional dialing keys, you may need to enter only the participant and leader codes.

Now, to join the Live Meeting audio, refer to the Audio Information section of the Outlook invitation. If telephone conferencing is listed, click Join Audio in the Live Meeting interface. Alternatively, you can join a telephone conference manually by calling the conference call phone number provided in your e-mail invitation and entering the participant code.

You can use both the computer audio and traditional audio conferencing options for the new hire orientation Live Meeting. These options allow attendees to choose an audio that suits them best and make it easier for attendees around the world to join the audio portion of the meeting, regardless of their long-distance or technical capabilities.

Note    If you have set up both the computer and telephone conferencing audio options for your meeting, the attendees will be connected to the computer audio by default. If the attendees want to dial in or use the Join Audio option to have Live Meeting call them, they need to select View Call-in Details from the Options menu in the Voice & Video pane. For this, you need to join computer audio and telephone conferencing from the same Voice & Video pane.