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Customizing the user interface

On this page:

The MCU provides you with options for customizing the voice prompts, the viewing of thumbnail previews, the text of the welcome messages and for controlling the auto-refreshing of user interface pages.


Note: the user interface (that is the text you see on the web interface of the MCU) can be localized by TANDBERG or by your reseller. This type of customization is the localization of the text on the web interface and these online help pages. That is, the text has been translated into your local language. In the case where you have a localized unit, the Use localization package check box will be selected. For more information refer to Customization: more information.


Some localalization packages are available on the TANDBERG FTP site.

The MCU allows you to type using any character set when entering text into the web interface. For example, when naming endpoints or users, you can use any character set you require.

Configuring user interface settings

Controlling the auto-refreshing of status pages on the MCU

Some pages on the MCU auto-refresh to ensure that the information displayed is current. Auto-refreshing pages keep web sessions alive indefinitely meaning that an administrator login will never timeout. This may be considered to be a security weakness, and if necesary you can disable all auto-refreshing.

To control the auto-refreshing of status pages on the MCU:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. Choose the time interval for page auto-refreshes or, to stop pages from auto-refreshing, choose No auto-refresh.

    The status pages affected by this control are as follows:

    • Status > General
    • Status > Health
    • Status > Conferences
    • Conferences > Conference name > Participants
    • Conferences > Conference name > Statistics
    • Conferences > Conference name > Participant > Statistics
    • Conferences > Conference name > Participants > Content channel

  3. Click Apply changes.

Controlling the display of thumbnail preview images

To control the display of thumbnail preview images on the MCU:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. Choose whether you want to Show video thumbnail images or not. This controls whether or not you will see a preview of what an endpoint sees in the conference and participants pages that can show a preview of the conference. Note that thumbnail images will not be shown for conferences where encryption is required.
  3. Click Apply changes.

Controlling the confirmation of participant disconnections

The default settings for the MCU allow you to disconnect, without confirmation, individual participants from a conference on the Conference list > Conference > Participants page. On the Settings > User interface page, you can configure the MCU to display an "Are you sure?" confirmation box when attempting to disconnect an individual participant. Note that all-participant disconnections always require confirmation.

To control the confirmation of individual-participant disconnections:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. If you want attempted individual-participant disconnections to require confirmation, enable the Confirm individual participant disconnections option and click Apply changes.

Controlling the audio and visual muting of conference participants

Using the default settings of the MCU, a conference's Conference list > Conference > Participants page displays controls that allow the muting of a participant's audio and/or video contribution. The Settings > User interface page allows you to control the presence or absence of these controls.

To control the presence or absence of audio and visual muting controls:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. For Participant list controls, select the control(s) that you want to appear on the Participant list page.

Controlling the availability of public pages

You can allow users access to the streaming and conference list pages without having to authenticate with the MCU. By default, these pages are accessible to users who have not logged in. However, you can disable access as follows:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. In the Public pages section, enable Streaming and/or Conference list as you require.
  3. Click Apply changes.

Configuring welcome messages for the Login and Home pages

You can configure a message banner to appear on the Login page of the MCU. For example, some organizations might require some legal text on the login page of the MCU. You can also configure a message banner to appear on the Home page. You can configure a separate title (maximum: 100 characters) and text (maximum: 1500 characters) for each banner. To configure the message banners:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. In the Welcome messages section, enter the text you require for the titles and the text of the messages.

Customizing voice prompts on the MCU

By default the MCU includes English voice prompts spoken by an American woman.

These prompts are used by the MCU to provide callers with information, for example: "Connecting you to your destination".

You may wish to replace these prompts with your own in order to change the wording, language or accent used. Alternative prompts may be uploaded individually using the web interface. Alternatively, a collection of voice prompts may be uploaded in one go by means of a resource package (see Uploading a customization package).

Some TANDBERG customization packages are available on the TANDBERG FTP site.

The customization of voice prompts is controlled via the web interface. Go to Settings > User interface. Refer to the sections below for details of the options available and for a description of the information displayed:

Using default US English voice prompts

The default set of voice prompts is provided in US English and is the standard set of voice prompts supplied with the MCU. These are spoken by a female voice in Americanized English.

If your unit is using customized voice prompts and you want to return to using the default set of voice prompts:
  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. In the Select customization section, clear Use customized voice prompts.
  3. If your unit was provided to you as a localized unit, clear Use localization package.
  4. Click Apply changes.

The default voice prompts will be applied immediately, although it may take a few seconds before everyone connected to the MCU is able to hear the new prompts.

Uploading a customization package

It is possible to upload a collection of alternative voice prompts to the MCU with a single upload operation, using a customization package. Such a package may have been supplied to you by TANDBERG or one of its representatives, or you may have created the package yourself (see Downloading a customization package).

To upload a package:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. In the Upload customization package section, click Browse and locate the .package file on your computer.
  3. Click Upload package.

The upload may take several seconds, depending on the size of the package file and the speed of your network connection. When the upload is complete, a status screen will be shown, displaying some or all of the individual voice prompt customizations included in the package if the upload was a success, or an error message if the upload failed for some reason.

To apply the uploaded customization package:


Note: If you were already using uploaded alternative voice prompts on the MCU, then these will be immediately replaced by those in the customization package. If a particular customized file is not included in the package, then any existing customization is unchanged. This allows customization sets to be built up using several different packages if required.


Viewing the available voice prompts

You may review the voice prompt customizations available in the table headed Voice prompts. The Voice prompts list displays all voice prompt customizations, providing details for those which have alternatives uploaded. Because these lists can be quite long, by default they are hidden. Instead, the number of customizations (files) available is shown. If any have been modified (meaning an alternative customization has been uploaded, either individually, or as part of a package), then this is indicated by an asterisk after the table name.

To expand any list to show all customizations, click show file details; you may subsequently hide it again by clicking hide file details.

In the expanded state, the table shows, for each customization, a description of the file, the standard MCU filename for the customization, and the length and date modified (uploaded) of alternative customizations present. Extra information is provided by the following symbols:

Uploading and downloading customized voice prompts

Refer to the sections below for details of further functionality provided by the Installed voice prompts list:

Uploading individual voice prompts

You may upload individual voice prompts. To do this:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. In the Installed voice prompts section, click show files details and locate the voice prompt file you require.
  3. For that voice prompt, click upload. You may do this regardless of whether an alternative customization has already been uploaded.
  4. You will be presented with a new screen, allowing you to locate and upload the customization of your choice. Click Browse button to locate the voice prompt file on your computer. Voice prompt files must be in the following format:
    • Microsoft WAVE (.WAV) format
    • 16kHz (16000Hz) sample rate
    • Mono
    • Uncompressed
    • Maximum 10 seconds long
  5. If you upload a file that is not in this format, the upload may fail or the voice prompt may sound distorted when heard by users. Use an audio editing package of your choice to make any conversions required. See Making the best possible recordings for how to obtain the best possible voice prompts for your MCU customization.

    Note that in addition to the 10 second length limit per prompt, there is a total length limit of four minutes for the full set of prompts. That is, if all samples were played back-to-back, it should take no more than 240 seconds.

  6. When you have located the file you wish to upload, click Upload customization. If the upload is successful, a page displaying the size of the file uploaded will be displayed; otherwise an error will be shown. If the upload fails, check your audio file matches the specification above before contacting your support representative.

Downloading individual voice prompts

You may wish to review a customization that has been previously uploaded to the MCU. To do this,

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. In the Installed voice prompts section, locate the voice prompt file you require.
  3. For that voice prompt, right-click download and choose Save Target As (or your web browser's equivalent operation). The file will be downloaded to your computer for reference.
Only alternative customizations can be downloaded in this way; the default voice prompts may not be downloaded. In addition, only customizations uploaded as individual files may be downloaded; those uploaded as part of a package may not be downloaded.

Downloading a customization package

Once you are satisfied with your customizations, you may wish to apply the entire set to another MCU. Rather than individually uploading the alternative voice prompts to each one, you may create a customization package.

To create a customization package containing all of the alternative voice prompts previously uploaded:

  1. Go to Settings > User interface.
  2. Click Download package at the bottom of the Installed voice prompts list. The customization package will be downloaded to your computer.

A package may only contain resources uploaded as separate files; those uploaded as part of another package may not be included. The package download option may be unavailable if no voice prompts qualify for inclusion.

Deleting customized voice prompts

If you are dissatisfied with a voice prompt that you have uploaded to the MCU, you may delete it in the following manner:

  1. Locate the voice prompt of interest in the list.
  2. Click the check box to the left of the voice prompt.
  3. Click Delete selected to remove the voice prompt.

Only alternative voice prompts may be deleted in this way; the default voice prompts cannot be deleted. If you delete an alternative customization, it will immediately revert to the default prompt, even if you have selected Use customized voice prompts at the top of the page.

You may wish to delete all customizations. To do this, press Delete all. Remember that you may revert to the default set of voice prompts without needing to delete any alternative customizations (see Using default voice prompts).

Voice prompt specification

Below is a complete list of the voice prompts that may be customized. The default wording is shown for each prompt. You do not have to use exactly the same wordings if they are not appropriate for your needs, and are provided only as a guide.

.
Filename Default wording
voice_prompt_conference_already_exists

I'm sorry, there is already a conference with that number

voice_prompt_conference_over

Your conference is now over. Goodbye

voice_prompt_connect_now

I'll connect you to your conference now

voice_prompt_enter_conference_id

Please enter the conference code now

voice_prompt_enter_conference_id_or_create

Please enter the conference number followed by the pound key, or press star to create a new conference

voice_prompt_enter_conference_pin

Please enter the security PIN for this conference now

voice_prompt_enter_new_conference_id

Please enter the conference number for the conference you are creating, followed by the pound key

voice_prompt_enter_new_conference_pin

Please enter the PIN for the conference you are creating, followed by the pound key; if you don't want a PIN, just press the pound key

voice_prompt_enter_new_conference_pin_short

Please enter the PIN for the conference you are creating, followed by the pound key

voice_prompt_enter_pin

Please enter the security PIN

voice_prompt_fecc_usage

To join a conference you may use the far end camera controls on your remote

voice_prompt_first_participant

You are the first participant to join the conference

voice_prompt_pin_incorrect

Sorry, I did not recognize that security PIN, please try again

voice_prompt_starting_now

Thank you, your conference is starting now

voice_prompt_two_minutes

Your conference is scheduled to end in two minutes

voice_prompt_unknown_conference

Sorry, I did not recognize that conference code, please try again

voice_prompt_waiting_for_chairperson

Waiting for conference chairperson

voice_prompt_welcome

Hello, welcome to the conferencing system

Making the best possible recordings

There are many factors to consider when recording alternative voice prompts in order to get the best results. Below is a summary of the points to bear in mind.

Recording format

It is best to make each recording with the ideal settings and hence avoid any sample-rate or resolution changes. As discussed, the ideal format is Microsoft Wave (.WAV) format, uncompressed, mono, at 16 kHz and 16-bit resolution.

If you are unable to make mono recordings, the MCU can convert stereo recordings.

Background noise

It is important to minimize background noise (hiss) as much as possible. This includes ambient noises such as road noise and slamming doors etc. but also try to keep fan noise and similar to a minimum.

When played back by the MCU, samples with background noise are very apparent.

Consistency

If possible, record all voice prompts in one session. This will ensure that all voice and background conditions remain constant and the recorded voice will sound similar from prompt to prompt.

Volume

Record prompts using a relatively constant loudness of voice. Although it may take some trial and error, the best recordings will result from speaking loud enough that the voice is recorded loudly compared to any residual background noise, but not so loudly that it sounds distorted when played back.

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