Muting Participants
Depending on the type of conference and number of participants, it may be advisable to automatically mute participants during portions of your TelePray conferences. Participants can mute and un-mute themselves by pressing *6, but if you expect more than a dozen participants, you may wish to mute non-hosts when preaching, praying, or lecturing. This reduces background noise and eliminates the possibility of unintentional disruptions introduced by your guests.
The best way to manage this is by using the Conference Mode setting. This requires at least one Conference Host, who can change between modes using the Live Conference Manager or Host Keypad Commands.
| Conference Mode | Description | Keypad Command |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation | All participants are un-muted. | *42 |
| Presentation | Non-hosts are muted and cannot un-mute themselves. | *41 |
| Question & Answer | Non-hosts start muted and can un-mute themselves by pressing *6. | *43 |
| Hosts Only | Non-hosts are placed on hold – hosts speak privately. | *44 |
You may wish to start the conference in Conversation Mode, to allow introductory greetings by your guests, then press *41 (Presentation) or *43 (Q&A) when you start your presentation. (Presentation Mode doesn't allow guests to interrupt your presentation.) When you are finished with your presentation and wish to allow others to speak, you can press *42 to un-mute everybody or press *43 to allow individuals to un-mute themselves to speak. (They will hear an announcement to press *6 to un-mute their line.) If you prefer more controlled participation, see Managing a Question & Answer Session, which uses the “Raise Your Hand” feature.
Group Singing or Praying. Unfortunately, conference calling is not suitable for group singing or praying. This is because the process of receiving, mixing, and transmitting audio among conference participants introduces “latency”, which is the delay between when you speak and the other party hears you. This is not noticeable on person-to-person phone calls, because latency is 50% less (there are two “legs” in a conference system – from the caller to the platform, then from the platform to other callers) and because you don't hearself through the phone. The latency for conference calls is about one second, meaning that others will hear what you say one second after you say it. If everybody in the conference is talking at once, you won't be able to synchronize together.
The better options is to lead the prayer or song (or use the Audio Player to broadcast a song into the conference) while the conference is in Presentation Mode, inviting the group to join in privately at their location.