Preparing for Conferences

General video settings

In the Settings → Video → Streams section, you can configure the following settings:

1. Default bitrate - the number of bits transmitted per unit of time, which determines the quality of the audio and video stream. The higher the bitrate, the better the quality of the audio and video stream.
2. Video traffic shaping – Monitoring the transmitted data volume for analysis and optimization of the network channel in use.
3. Adaptive bitrate - Adaptive video quality management depending on the bandwidth.
4. Forward error correction - automatic recovery of lost packets. This is beneficial for SIP calls in situations where there are regular losses in the network not related to data channel congestion along the route. It allows the recovery of up to 10% of lost packets (technology TrueConf FEC), and up to 5% without retransmissions or temporary image quality degradation.

5. Quality of encoding for the main (video) and additional (presentation) streams: depending on the selected profile, a balance is achieved between frame rate and image resolution. Profile description:

   • Primary channel profile:
     • Default The profile is automatically selected by the system based on current network conditions and the type of video data.
     • Balanced - A balanced profile that aims to maintain comfortable resolution and frame rate for as long as possible while ensuring high visual quality.
     • High quality – optimized for maximum resolution by reducing the frame rate.
     • Movement - Designed for video with high motion, it requires a high bitrate to maintain high resolution.
     • Speaker – optimized for high-quality transmission with minimal frame movement, used in specialized scenarios.
   • Secondary channel profile (H.239/BFCP) :
     • Default - the profile is selected automatically by the system.
     • Balanced – supports comfortable quality with moderate frame rate and resolution.
     • Content – maximum resolution with reduced frame rate.
     • Video - optimized for dynamic video streams with high bitrate and resolution.
     • Documents – optimized for streaming static images for extended periods with maximum resolution at minimal bitrate.
6. Secondary channel bandwidth - percentage of channel width allocated to an additional stream (for content sharing), the bitrate value separated from the main video stream for presentation sharing. In this case, the total bandwidth is divided between the main video stream and the presentation stream.

Video Layout Settings

To configure the video layout settings, go to section Settings → Video → Layout, where you can:

• In section Self-view, configure whether you want to see the image from your own camera during the call:

  • Hide - The video is hidden from the layout but temporarily appears when camera control starts;
  • Show - video is always displayed in the video layout;
  • Never show - the video is completely hidden from the video layout and does not appear during camera control.

• Enable the display of the microphone volume level indicator in participants' video windows.

• Choose the video scaling mode on the screen:

  • Auto – automatic scaling of windows of different sizes;
  • Scale to fit video - scales the displayed video layout while maintaining the aspect ratio to ensure the entire image fits on the screen;
  • Crop to fill window - displays the video layout in a way that fills the screen.

• Enable the overlay layout mode, where one video window is expanded to full screen, and the slots of other participants are placed on top of it. Below, configure Overlay coefficient.

For the video layout schemes generated on TrueConf Group, refer to section "Managing Layouts" in the user documentation.

Call settings

In the Settings → Calls → Call settings section, you can set the general parameters for handling video calls:

1. Allow the use of SIP and H.323 protocols.

2. Order of protocols used when making a call.

3. Permission for remote control of the camera connected to TrueConf Group.

4. Sharing slides with a button or upon connecting to the source.

In the Settings → Calls → Call settings menu, you can set specific parameters for receiving incoming calls:

1. Parameters for receiving the first incoming point-to-point call:

   • Accept automatically - automatic call acceptance;
   • Ask for user's confirmation - the user decides whether to accept or decline the call;
   • Do not disturb - automatic call rejection.
2. Merge incoming Call to Current Call – Accept automatically, Ask for user's confirmation or Do not disturb.

   Item Merge incoming Call to Current Call is available only when the integrated MCU is functioning.

3. Mute the microphone and disable the camera during incoming calls.

4. Accept calls only from contacts in the address book.

5. Spam protection – automatically rejects spam calls via SIP and H.323 protocols. This setting can be useful when operating in an open network with a public white IP address, as standard SIP and H.323 ports may often receive "calls" from various scanning programs that search for vulnerabilities in IP telephony.

6. Blocking incoming SIP calls (a stricter restriction than spam protection).

7. Block all incoming calls if a recording or broadcast is in progress on the terminal.

Enabling the MCU Feature

By default, TrueConf Group operates in point-to-point mode, where video communication is established in full-duplex mode, allowing both participants to see and hear each other simultaneously. If another user tries to call during an ongoing call, they will not be able to connect and will see a message indicating that the device is busy.

In some configurations, the built-in MCU option is available (not available for the TrueConf Group Silent version). This feature allows you to switch a video call to a group conference mode when working with TrueConf Group. In this mode, users calling the terminal are automatically added to the ongoing conference (within the connection limit allowed by the license).

Take the following steps to enable this feature:

1. Go to section Settings → Calls → MCU.

2. Enable the Use MCU setting.

3. If you do not want a new video window to be automatically created in the layout for presentations or screen sharing broadcasted by participants in a separate window, enable the Disable incoming content setting.

   Disabling presentation reception prevents remote participants from starting content sharing using the BFCP and H.239 protocols.

4. If necessary, enable the display of the volume indicator on each video window.

5. Specify Mixing mode video streams:

   • Video lecture - connected participants can only see the moderator, represented by the terminal, but everyone can hear each other;
   • All on screen All participants in the conference can see and hear each other.
   • Voice activity detection – all participants receive a video layout similar to the "everyone on screen" mode, but the active speaker will be displayed in the priority video window.

Selecting Codecs

Refer to the "Supported Protocols and Codecs" section for a list of all codecs supported by the terminal.

Go to the Settings → Video → Codecs section and keep only those video codecs enabled that are supported by all devices participating in the conference.

Do the same with the audio codecs in section Settings → Audio.

Streaming Setup

To make sure that your conference can be viewed by larger audiences, you don’t need to add them as attendees. It is possible to configure streaming to third-party services via RTMP or SAP and to the local network via NDI:

1. Go to section Settings → Recording and streaming TrueConf Group.

2. To configure RTMP streaming, go to the RTMP streaming menu and set the necessary parameters: host server, RTMP application, stream name/key, username, and password. Additionally, you can set up a delay, and automate the start and stop of RTMP streaming.

3. To configure streaming via the SAP protocol, go to the SAP streaming menu. You can specify the streaming address and port, and enable automatic start and stop of the broadcast.

4. To broadcast an event via the NDI protocol, go to the NDI streaming menu and specify the stream name.

The NDI stream operates in NDI High Bandwidth mode, at a resolution of Full HD with a frame rate of 30 frames per second, and requires a network channel with a bandwidth of 1 Gbps.

For any of the streaming methods you can enable automatic start and ending of broadcasting (when the meeting starts and ends).

Recording

In the Settings → Recording and streaming → Current state section, you can find information about available memory for saving recordings, including the number of hours available for recording.

To configure recording, go to the Settings → Recording and streaming → Recording to disk section. If you enable Overwrite, new recording files will overwrite the oldest ones when space runs out. The recording process will be continuous, and you won't need to worry about how much disk space is left.

Enabling the parameter Auto start triggers the automatic start of video call recording when the call begins. Similarly, the parameter Auto stop is responsible for automatically ending the recording process when the call concludes.

When the Space saving feature is activated, the video bitrate in the saved recording decreases by approximately 40%. Consequently, the final file size is reduced at the expense of video quality.

In the Settings → Recording and streaming → Layouts menu, you can specify:

1. The layout to be recorded: video windows of all participants according to the selected video layout, only incoming video streams, only outgoing video, or a dynamic layout activated by voice.

2. Recording presentation: disabled, along with other video windows in a separate window, or fullscreen instead of all video windows.

3. Video resolution in the recording.

More information on working with video recordings can be found in the relevant section.

Uploading Presentations

In section Media files, you can upload presentations before the event starts. Click Upload files and select the necessary files (supported formats) from your device.

PTZ Camera Preset Assignment

In the terminal, you can create views, which structurally serve as a "container" for the camera and preset. It supports creating views for multiple cameras and switching between them with a single click. When a view is selected, the PTZ camera adjusts its position according to the configured preset. The PTZ camera preset number is selected automatically and generally does not match the view number.

To create a view:

1. Go to the Conference tab and select screen My camera.

2. In section Presets, click Select.

3. Click Create new preset.

4. Select the camera position and enter Name.

   If necessary, specify a key in item Quick selection for quickly switching presets using the control panel.

5. Click Create.

Support for creating up to 16 presets per PTZ camera is available.