The computer at the desk

The desk app is a small Windows program that takes the sound from your desk and sends it to SpanVoice. This page says what the computer running it needs, and when you do not need a computer at the desk at all.

The desk app

• Windows, 64-bit. The app is published for Windows only. A current, up-to-date Windows is all it asks for.
• No extra software to install. The download is the whole program. It does not ask you to install anything else first.
• No administrator rights needed. It installs into a folder of its own, C:\SpanVoice by default, so any Windows account on a shared desk computer can run it and update it without an administrator password. If you choose a folder under Program Files instead, the installer tells you that updates there will need an administrator.
• Any recording input Windows can see. A microphone, a line input, a USB audio interface or a capture card with audio. The app lists the computer’s recording devices and remembers the one you choose. It does not offer “what you hear” or the computer’s own playback as a source.
• A modest screen is fine. The window is one narrow column and shrinks itself to fit a small laptop screen.

See Installing the desk app.

Keep it awake

The computer has to stay awake and signed in for the whole event. The app does not stop Windows from sleeping, so turn off sleep and screen lock in Windows before the first event. A laptop lid closing, or a screen saver that locks the session, can end an event without warning.

Keep the app window open while streaming. Closing it stops the event. Minimising it is fine.

Internet from the desk

The computer needs an ordinary internet connection, wired if you have one. There are no network settings to make in the app. See Internet and connections.

When you do not need a computer at the desk

A computer at the desk is not a must. Any phone, tablet or laptop with a current browser can send the room’s sound from its own microphone through the browser streaming page, with nothing installed. The person doing it signs in and is listed as a streamer for the venue. See Streaming from a browser.

The one point in favour of the computer is the sound it hears. A feed taken from the desk through a computer carries the microphone and not the room, and the recognition is better for it. A tablet on a table in the room hears the room: the audience, the air conditioning and the speaker from a distance. For a small, quiet room with the speaker close by, that is enough. For a hall, take the feed from the desk.

Other computers in the room

The room’s display and your streaming software need no special computer. Any device that can open a web page in a browser and show it full-screen will run the projector page, and any streaming software that accepts a browser source will show the caption overlay. See Captions on the room screen and Captions over your video stream.

Note: The audience needs nothing beyond a phone with a browser. They open a link and choose a language.