Just had a quick experiment with skype and some of my students who happened to be online at the same time. Very interesting.
It seems that you can only conference call with a total of 5 users. Is there a way of getting a higher number? I know that the developers here use it from time to time and I would have thought 5 as a max would have been too restrictive for them or as an educational tool.
TIA
Hi Darren!
Skype can't go higher at the Moment but try out www.vskype.com and you can include your powerpoints etc. in the conferene.
KR
Jens
That's intereseting. I have seen this mentioned before here but it looks like you can have 200 users so I will give that an try although I can't see myself on a webcam at home with students 
I am very keen to run a large scale test with many people on vSkype to see how many we can run at once.
Let's make this tomorrow at 10pm my time (GMT+8) which should be 10am New York time and 2pm London time. Message me via Skype if you want to join in.
Let's make this tomorrow at 10pm my time (GMT+8) which should be 10am New York time and 2pm London time. Message me via Skype if you want to join in.
Oh -(*@)**)!*)(!)(*- vSkype isn't available for the Mac. That'll be that then.
Just for the record it is: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/
I'll be stuck at work at that time (doing a moodle master class as it happens!) so I just did a little experiment with some of my students.
Interesting.
The webcam stuff wasn't great. Jerky and may as well have been a still gif avatar. The quality of the voice transmission substantially improved when the webcam was switched of. This was me hosting it on a 1 megabit connection and the other 2 were on 512 (only one was using a webcam).
I am going to try and get seix webcams on tomorrow to see what happens
I'd be interesting in the results of Martin's experiment.
Interesting.
The webcam stuff wasn't great. Jerky and may as well have been a still gif avatar. The quality of the voice transmission substantially improved when the webcam was switched of. This was me hosting it on a 1 megabit connection and the other 2 were on 512 (only one was using a webcam).
I am going to try and get seix webcams on tomorrow to see what happens
I'd be interesting in the results of Martin's experiment.
Yeah, it actually worked pretty well!
There were some opening glitches when I tried to add everyone at once, but then I went back to one person and added new people one or two at a time and we got up to 9 or 10 people at once (maximum of 8 broadcasting video, I think). We could have gone higher I think if more people had been ready to join.
Great test, thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to this stuff moving out of beta.
It would be nice if vSkype could support a full contact list being passed to it via a file, so that we could create some way of easily starting a video conference from within Moodle.
There were some opening glitches when I tried to add everyone at once, but then I went back to one person and added new people one or two at a time and we got up to 9 or 10 people at once (maximum of 8 broadcasting video, I think). We could have gone higher I think if more people had been ready to join.
Great test, thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to this stuff moving out of beta.
It would be nice if vSkype could support a full contact list being passed to it via a file, so that we could create some way of easily starting a video conference from within Moodle.
Hello All!
Couple of questions.
- Whose computer acted as the "server" for this discussion. It is my understanding that with vSkype one of the computer actually acts like a server for the other connections.
- Is this correct?
- If It is correct, did the person with the "server" computer have any unforeseen or special problems?
- Was the group able to use the whiteboard without any problems? [PowerPoint / Drawing?]
Thanks in advance for any and all responses.
WP1
Does VSkype have a whiteboard? 
I know it can do window/application sharing but I didn't see a whiteboard. I am playing again tonight so will look at it then.
I would be interested in the up/down internet speed of whoever was the server.
I know it can do window/application sharing but I didn't see a whiteboard. I am playing again tonight so will look at it then.
I would be interested in the up/down internet speed of whoever was the server.
Martin was the server. You couldn't get into the chat unless he invited you. He was running the screen capture function showing his browser.
Actually, I believe we were running peer-to-peer, but I can't be sure as there is not much documentation about how it works. I know it runs over the normal Skype "channel" (but it doesn't use Skype audio). Most of my bandwidth seemed to be going to one site so perhaps vskype.com was serving us all. Something to look more into sometime.
vSkype doesn't have a whiteboard, but you can share your screen or any window. This feature worked very well.
vSkype doesn't have a whiteboard, but you can share your screen or any window. This feature worked very well.
Hello
If you are looking for a whiteboard with audio and more...
TalkAndWrite is a Skype's whiteboard look www.talkandwite.com
Marcelo
Hi guys!
It was nice to see you 'live' in the conference.
You who are interested in the technical issues arround vSkype can seek answers in: http://forums.vskype.com/
I have a couple of screenshots for you too:
The rest of the screen shots can be enjoyed here in the attached Zip file.
Import from Moodle 
through this function do you mean MD ?
its all gobbledegook to me, but the clever guys here would perhaps know how to construct a .vif file to import , from looking at an export . (here is a part of one export )
through this function do you mean MD ? its all gobbledegook to me, but the clever guys here would perhaps know how to construct a .vif file to import , from looking at an export . (here is a part of one export )
BEGIN:VCARD
N:nannyjoyce
X-SKYPE-USERNAME:nannyjoyce
BDAY:19401021
X-SKYPE-COUNTRY:au
PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;ENCODING=BASE64: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
.
UA5HnHibwpqnhLW7rS9ThaG7gcqflbDjJAZSRypxkHuMGvZdR/wCSF+B/+xj1D/0CxrmPjV/yFPDf/YDtv/QpKzjOSd77/oaRpLXU/9k=
ADR:;;;;;;
X-SKYPE-PROFILE:1
REV:01050707T185259Z
END:VCARD
I suddenly got disconnected, no one could ever hear me, and when I tried to get back in again I had one hell of a time. Martin kept sending me invites but when they opened up in Firefox, the link seemed to be non-working. In the end I cut and pasted the invite link into IE and was able to get back in then, only to find everyone ending the call...
The sound was pretty good as was the video. But it gives me the creeps a bit to see 9 people squirming about on my screen. I prefer no video.
The sound was pretty good as was the video. But it gives me the creeps a bit to see 9 people squirming about on my screen. I prefer no video.
I think your microphone may not have been working ...
Actually, the problem seems to be something in my computer itself. I just tried the mic on our other computer and it works there. I've used the mic on this computer before to chat through Skype without problems, so I'm not sure what is going on. I'll have my husband look into it when he gets home from work as he is good at solving these sorts of problems.
Well I think that was pretty smooth and not to buggy. The sound was ok as well as the video even with 8 participant (see below). The webcam quality is I think very important. I had a "creative webcam live Pro" (640x480 VGA CMOS sensor) and Louis I think a "Logitech QuickCam® Pro 4000" (640x480 VGA CCD sensor). What were your models ?
Is there any tool to record the conference for later viewing?
I use a DV camera (panasonic GS22) as a webcam and discovered after the gather in the vskype forums that DV-camera's aren't supported (yet), only USB camera's. So that's why you were all saved from seeing me
I used an old TrendNet TV-PC301 USB model
 | Re: Skype conference calls .... |
Screen Shot of the videoconference |
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Martin Dougiamas - Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 11:25 PM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by W Page - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 12:32 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Darren Smith - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 12:46 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by N Hansen - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 12:46 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Martin Dougiamas - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 01:21 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Jens Gammelgaard - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 05:03 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Jens Gammelgaard - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 05:08 AM
Re: Skype export contact lists V Skype by Joyce Smith - Friday, 8 July 2005, 03:23 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by N Hansen - Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 11:27 PM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Martin Dougiamas - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 01:19 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by N Hansen - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 05:11 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Jean-Marc Loisil - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 01:23 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Michael Penney - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 02:24 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by koen roggemans - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 03:58 AM
Re: Skype conference calls .... by Mark Burnet - Thursday, 7 July 2005, 11:42 PM
What about free software alternative to Skype - GizmoProject?
Hmm, last I heard it was 4, so maybe they are upping it?
IIRC, this was a limit put in by Skype to keep from crashing users machines, as it chooses one machine in the conference to serve as the master server.
IIRC, this was a limit put in by Skype to keep from crashing users machines, as it chooses one machine in the conference to serve as the master server.
Yeah, on the website it says 5.
So when Martin had that big skype meeting with developers were there only four involved at any one time?
So when Martin had that big skype meeting with developers were there only four involved at any one time?
No. Although we do use Skype day-to-day, we used Elluminate for that meeting.
Actually, Michael, what's being illustrated here is the use of a plug in for Skype that used to be called "VSkype" and is now called "Festoon." EBay legal department probably sent them a letter.
Skype itself still only allows 5 participants in a conference call. Festoon, however, purports to allow up to 200.
Hi ALL
TalkAndWrite is a freeware whiteboard powered by Skype
where ...talking with your buddy, you can write, draw, type, point out, erase on a shared document. Your buddy will see two mouse pointers and all changes you do in real time.
TalkAndWrite is a whiteboard simple, safe and fast.
I know i`m going offtopic guys
but i feel obligated to share with you
that there's a totally free conference call service offered by GlocalMeet
...it's true that there's no video calls but it's awesome to get FREE conference calls
I use GoMeetNow web conferencing service. It allows maximum of 100 attendees to join your meeting.