There Are Two Pods in Adobe Connect for Sharing Files: the File Sharing Pod and the Share Pod

Business, Arts & Information Technology

Using Adobe Connect

Communication & Share Pods

The core of Adobe Connect is the easy to use communication tools/ pods. These include Attendee List, Camera, Voice, Text Chat and Share Pods. As a Host or Presenter, you can use the Share Pod to share your screen, and even let other Hosts and Presenters take control of your applications. You must have the Adobe Connect Plug-In installed (see Requirements under Getting Started) to gain full access to the Share Pod.

Attendee List Pod

The Attendee List pod, enables you can quickly see who is logged in to a meeting and monitor everyone's name, role, and status.


Camera and Voice Pod

Hosts and Presenters can broadcast live audio and video using the Camera and Voice pod. All attendees can hear and see the broadcast audio and video. Each time you enter a meeting room, make sure your headset and camera are properly configured, as outlined in Setting Up Audio and Video under Getting Started.

To start broadcasting your audio and video, click the "Start My Camera and Voice" button in the lower left corner of the Camera and Voice pod, the following message may appear:

Click ‘Allow’ to enable access to your microphone


Click the hands free ‘Lock icon’, and talk into microphone. After it is enabled, the Hands-Free button lets you speak at any time during the meeting. A little microphone icon will appear in front of your name in the Camera and Voice pod, and when you speak, a green line indicates your audio broadcast level. You will continue to broadcast audio until you click the Talk button again to release the hands-free feature -- the little microphone icon beside your name will disappear.

Using the microphone

It's a good idea to turn your microphone off if you are not speaking. With the multiple speaker mode enabled, each participant adds a little background noise to the session which can cause distracting background interference.
The microphone lock mode is useful if you need to use your mouse to demonstrate and is essential if you are desktop sharing as the focus is moved to away from the meeting room to the shared application.
For further information go to: Best practices for Voice Over IP (VoIP) audio

Broadcasting Video
Unless you have a specific reason it's best not to utilise the video camera as it consumes significant band width and may degrade the overall experience of the session.

Having a number of people broadcasting audio and video at the same time can cause the system to run slowly and result in poor quality of both audio and video. To start or pause broadcasting your video, click the "Camera" button in the Camera and Voice pod.


Camera Start/Pause Button

To stop broadcasting your video and voice, click the “Stop my camera and voice" button in the lower left corner of the Camera and Voice pod. Your name, image, and media control buttons will disappear from all attendees' Camera and Voice pods.


Stop My Camera and Voice Button

Camera and Voice Pod Options
Audio and video options are accessible from the "Option" button in the lower-right corner of the Camera and Voice pod.


Option Button

Selecting "Camera Off" from this menu will stop video broadcasts for everyone in the meeting. To turn all video broadcasts back on, select one of the other options from the menu, such as "Fast Images." Selecting lower-quality video options from this menu may improve the sound quality and performance of the meeting. These settings affect everyone in the meeting.

Using "Camera Off" to stop broadcasting video for everyone in the meeting does not affect the audio broadcasts. Even if the microphone is in the video camera, audio broadcasts are still audible.


Audio Captioning for the Hearing Impaired
For information about audio captioning for the hearing impaired, see Setting Up Audio and Video under Getting Started. (Stephen/Vicki to check)

Taking a still photo

An option could be to start the session using the camera and then pause it for the duration of the session. To pause the camera click on the camera icon, this will take a snap shot from the camera and use this as a still picture. The camera can be restarted by clicking the icon again.

Chat Pod

  • The chat pod enables text chat for a session to enable participants to:
  • Ask questions or post questions for answering later.
  • Text chat with others in the room
  • Chat privately with someone else in the room
  • Interact if they do not have camera or voice access

To use the chat pod, enter some text and hit return to participate in chat.

Click on the drop down arrow list and choose a name from the list. This enables private text chat direct to the person. The default option is ‘Everyone’ enabling text to be sent to whole group.

File Sharing Pod

The File Sharing pod allows Hosts and Participants to upload files to a meeting and have attendees download a copy of the file to their computer. All file types can be uploaded to this pod. The actual file is never displayed in the meeting, only a link to download it.

To upload a file ready for sharing:

  • Open a new File Share Pod
  • Select “upload file” from the lower left hand corner of the pod
  • Select the location that the file will be uploaded from
  • Select the file
  • Select “save to my computer” from the lower left hand side of the pod.

All meeting participants can now download this file to their computer by:

  • Clicking on the uploaded file to highlight it
  • Clicking on the “save to my computer tab”
  • Select “click to download” sometimes this screen will be found on your windows task bar.

Share Pod
A Host or Presenter can use the Share Pod to upload content from your computer to share with others in the meeting room. You must have the Adobe Connect Plug-In installed (see Requirements under Getting Started) to gain full access to the Share Pod.

The Share pod can display various kinds of media, including presentations and images e.g.

  • Microsoft PowerPoint presentations (.PPT)
  • Images (.JPG, .GIF, and .PNG)
  • Flash files (.SWF)
  • Flash Video files (.FLV)
  • Audio (.MP3)

All other file types must be converted to Flash prior to uploading. The FlashPlayer utility will allow you to convert files to Flash (see Requirements under Getting Started).

Note: A share pod cannot display Word, Excel, Access etc files.

To load content from your computer into the Share pod:

  • Click the Documents button in the middle of a blank Share pod.
  • Click “Select from My Computer” on the drop-down menu. A Browser Content window appears.
  • Navigate to and select the local file to display.
  • Click the “Open” button.


The selected file is uploaded and displayed on the screen:

Synchronizing Your Presentation
By default, Adobe Connect synchronizes display of PowerPoint presentations so that attendees see the frame that the presenter sees. A Host or Presenter can turn off synchronization so that viewers can move through presentations at their own pace.

With synchronization on, the presenter has control over the presentation. The arrow buttons in the bottom bar of the Share pod allow the presenter to move to the previous or next frame.

Previous and Next Buttons (Sync On)

Additionally, with synchronization on, the presenter can bring up the presentation sidebar. The sidebar shows the outline and notes of a presentation, as well as providing a search function. To bring up the presentation sidebar, click on the "Show/Hide Sidebar" icon in the bottom bar of the Share pod.


Show/Hide Presentation Sidebar (Sync On)

Presentation with Sidebar

Turning Off Synchronization
To turn off synchronization, click the Sync button (which is on by default) in the bottom bar of the Share pod. Note that the Sync button appears only when you have multiframe content loaded in the Share pod.


Sync Button

With synchronization off, controls for presentation playback appear at the right of the Share pod. The presenter and all attendees can use these controls to move through presentations at their own pace.


Presentation Playback Controls (Sync Off)

Click the Sync button again to turn on synchronization so that attendees see the same frame that the presenter sees.

Whiteboard: Annotating and Drawing
A whiteboard allows you to create text, lines, circles, squares, and other free-hand drawings in real time during a meeting. All Presenters and Hosts can use a created whiteboard, and multiple whiteboards can be used per meeting. Whiteboard content remains between meeting sessions.

There are two methods for using a whiteboard:

  • You can use a stand-alone whiteboard to create new content.
  • You can use a whiteboard overlay to add annotations and drawings to your existing shared file(s).

To create a new stand-alone whiteboard in a blank Share pod:

  • Click the "Whiteboards" button in the middle of a blank Share pod.
  • Select "New Whiteboard" in the pop-up menu. A blank whiteboard appears in the pod.
  • Click the whiteboard tools icon (see image below) to bring up the whiteboard tools.
  • Select a text or drawing tool
  • Click in the whiteboard area to start writing or drawing.


Using Adobe Connect – Communication & share pods 8

4 Oct. 07

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