Internet and connections

Three connections matter on the day: the one at the desk, the ones in the audience’s pockets, and the one feeding any screen in the room. This page says what each needs and what happens when one of them drops.

At the desk

A wired connection if you have one. Wi-Fi is fine when it is steady.

SpanVoice does not need much bandwidth. What hurts it is not a slow connection but a congested one. Check nothing else is using the connection heavily during the event, and prefer a wired connection for the computer running the desk app.

There are no network settings in the desk app and nothing to open or allow on the venue’s network beyond ordinary web access.

When the desk connection drops

The desk app notices and reconnects on its own. Its status shows “Reconnecting” and the line under the main button counts the attempts; when it succeeds it says “Back on air.” It keeps trying until it succeeds or you press Stop streaming, so give it a few seconds before changing anything.

If the connection is back quickly, the same event carries on and the people reading keep the text already on their screens. After a longer gap a fresh event starts and their screens clear.

If it keeps dropping, move to a wired connection for the rest of the event and look at the Wi-Fi afterwards. See Nothing is being heard.

The audience’s phones

Each person’s phone uses the venue’s Wi-Fi or its own mobile data. One phone on a bad connection behaves exactly like a phone with nothing on it, while the phones around it are fine.

If a phone loses its connection, the reading page shows “No connection” with the line “Check your internet. This page reconnects by itself.” It does, and the text comes back when it has. If one person sees nothing and others are fine, ask them to turn Wi-Fi off and use mobile data, or the other way round. See Nothing is showing on a phone.

A venue with a large audience and guest Wi-Fi should expect many phones to join it. The page itself is light, but a congested network makes the words arrive late for everyone on it.

The room screen and the overlay

The projector page and the caption overlay each need their own connection, on whatever computer is driving them. When that connection is down, the projector shows a small red dot in the bottom corner and the overlay shows “reconnecting…”. Both reconnect on their own.

A device feeding a headphone system

If you send one language into a wireless headphone transmitter from a spare phone or tablet, that device is feeding everybody holding a receiver. Give it the better connection if you have a choice between two. See Feeding your headphone system.

When the words are behind

A few seconds is normal. Text appears as a sentence finishes rather than word by word, so there is always a short wait while someone is still talking. Much more than that, for everybody at once, usually means the connection at the venue. See The words are a long way behind.