StarBoard Conferencing

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With the StarBoard Conferencing feature, you can create a shared whiteboard - this is where several StarBoards are networked together and can share a presentation session. The maximum is 4 users (1 presenter and 3 audience members).
Each StarBoard has the potential to host a shared whiteboard session, or to attach to a shared whiteboard session.

To open the Conferencing feature, use the options in the Conference menu.

Note: Please read the Terminology and Important Note sections before reading the other sections. Please follow the links and read the section(s) below that are relevant to you if you log on as a certain type of user. Also, the information in the As a conference user (applies to all users) section should be read by all conference users.

Terminology

Important Note

Technical Considerations

As the Host
Hosting a shared whiteboard session
The Conference Console widget
Copying pages between the Whiteboard and the Shared Whiteboard topics
Synchronizing all users
Removing a user from the conference

As the Presenter
Copying pages between the Whiteboard and the Shared Whiteboard topics
Granting Presenter status to another user
Getting your Presenter status back
Synchronizing all users

As a conference user (Audience)
Copying pages between the Shared Whiteboard and the Whiteboard topics
Joining a shared whiteboard session as a member of the audience
The Conference Console widget
Requesting Presenter status
Synchronizing to the latest conference data

As a conference user (applies to all users)
Connection status display
Shared Whiteboard topic
Disconnecting from a shared whiteboard session
Saving a shared whiteboard session for future use

Terminology

The Conferencing feature has the following terminology:

The Shared Whiteboard topic is the topic on which the users share the data over the network. This topic is shown as "Shared Whiteboard" in the Topic List and the Topic menu.
All the other topics are local and changes to the local topics will not affect any other users.

The Conference host is the computer on which both the Conference server and client program are running. A conference must be hosted on one computer before other users can connect to the shared whiteboard.

A Conference client is a computer on which only the Conference client program is running.

The Host is the user on the host computer. This person is hosting the session, and therefore has 'super user' privileges.
By default, the Host is also the Presenter when a Shared Whiteboard session starts. The Host can make any other user a Presenter, and can give them the appropriate privileges.
The Host is represented by the following icon:

See As the Host for details of how to host a conference.

The Presenter is the user who has the privileges to add/move/delete pages and add/modify/delete components in the Shared Whiteboard topic.
There is always only one Presenter in a Shared Whiteboard session.
A Presenter can transfer the Presenter's privilege to another user during the session.
The Presenter is represented by the following icon:

See As the Presenter for details of the Presenter's tasks and information on how to interact with the conference as a Presenter.

The Audience is the user (or users) watching the presentation. The Audience cannot make any changes to the Shared Whiteboard topic.
An ordinary member of the audience is represented by the following icon:

See As a conference user (Audience) for details on how to interact with the conference as an Audience user.

The Group refers to all users connected to the Conference (the Audience, Host and Presenter).
See As a conference user (applies to all users) for information that applies to all conference users.

Important Note

Before you attempt to host a conference session, you must check that your computer has the following minimum specification:

Dual Core Intel processor;
At least 2 GHz processor speed;
At least 2 GB of RAM;
At least 2 GB of free hard disk space.

See Technical Considerations below for additional technical information.

Please turn off all screensavers and power saving features on the computer you wish to use as the Host. This is because such features may cause a disconnection to occur during a period of inactivity.

Note that animations, videos, PowerPoint and Flash presentations are not supported across this conferencing feature (this also applies to the Flash items provided in the Gallery). What this means is that a presenter may view these media types correctly on their own computer, but the conference clients will not see them correctly. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not use these types of media in your presentation when conferencing.

Technical Considerations

Port settings and firewalls

If you wish to use the StarBoard Conferencing feature on a computer that is running a firewall, you may need to change the allowed port settings in your firewall product.
If in doubt, please ask your system administrator to make the appropriate changes.

Note: The default port number in StarBoard Software 9.3 is set to 18737 - this is different from StarBoard Software 8.x or older versions. If you need to change this port number, please see the instructions in As the Host.