Setting Up hangouts on air for BAC board of Directors

Hangouts on Air  provides  a platform for video conferences with up to 9 remote sites. It also provides the ability to create webcasts over Google+. The webcasts can last up to 8 hours, may be restricted to a limited  circle of viewers, and are recorded for later retrieval from YouTube. All of the participants in a Hangouts on Air session  require accounts for three web based Google applications:

1. Gmail
2. Google+
3. Youtube

While Hangouts on Air works with at least 4 browsers:

• Google Chrome 10+ 
• IE 8+ 
• Firefox 3+
• Safari 4+

 the best results during browser testing occurred with Google Chrome.

The bandwidth requirements for a video presentation required a minimum of 300 Kbps for both uplink and downlink speeds. An Audio only connection requires 35Kbps for both uplink and downlink connections. In some cases (cellular connections) it may be necessary to restrict the uplink and downlink bandwidth to help manage data usage. There are two ways to manage bandwidth requirements:

• Select the Adjust Bandwidth Usage Icon at the top center of the Hangout on Air Screen. There are 4 possible settings -

1. AutoHd - uses available BW or is defined by preset screen size 
2. Low - 500Kbps up & down
3. Very Low - 150Kbps up & 500Kbps
4. Audio Only - 35Kbps up &down

• Utilize an external program like Wirecast to establish a new default or preset screen size and associated bandwidth requirement screen size BW and  data utilization is as follows:

I created a set of four tutorial video's to help with the basic understanding of hangouts on air setup and participation:

1. Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnnEr2lsRRo (19min 48 sec)
2. Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mRPZH515gw (9 min 51 sec)
3.  Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPR_x5jRNf8 (11 min 29 sec)
4. Part 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSgUnNDDVdI (12 min 47 sec)