Test before the day

Run one short event with nobody in the room. Ten minutes finds the unplugged cable, the sleeping computer and the display on the wrong input while there is still time to fix them. Do it after the first setup and again after anything changes at the desk.

Before you press start

1. Turn off sleep and screen lock on the desk computer, and plug it in.
2. Open the desk app. Check the venue name in the title bar is the venue you mean.
3. Under Input, keep Live device selected and choose your input. Press Refresh if something you plugged in after opening the app is missing.
4. Have someone talk into the microphone and watch the level meter. If it moves, sound is arriving. If it stays still, see Nothing is being heard before going further.
5. Check the chosen tile under Spoken in the room is the language that will be spoken.

Nobody to speak? Use a recording

Switch Input to Test file, press Choose a recording… and pick a WAV or MP3 of someone speaking, or drop the file onto the window. Press Start streaming and the recording plays as if it were the room. Tick Hear it on this PC if you want to hear it too. See Input and the test file.

The rehearsal

1. Press Start streaming. The status should go to “Connecting” and then “Live”, and the line under the button should read “ — listening for “.
2. Open the audience link on your own phone. Use Links & QR in the app, or the QR code on your venue page. Scan it rather than typing it; that is how the audience will do it.
3. Pick a language far from the one being spoken, Arabic or Chinese say, and watch the text arrive. Pick another. Each change clears the page and starts fresh in the new language.
4. If the venue has spoken translation on, press Hear the translation with earphones in and listen for a sentence.
5. If you use a room screen, open the projector page on it and press F for fullscreen. Check the text is readable from the back of the room and the logo is where you expect it.
6. If you stream video, check the caption overlay is in your streaming software’s scene and the band appears when text arrives.
7. Press Pause audio in the app. Your phone should show “Paused”. Press it again to resume.
8. If someone will moderate, have them sign in to the moderator page on their own device and change the spoken language once. The tile in the app should follow.
9. If you feed a headphone system, put on a receiver and listen.
10. Press Stop streaming. Your phone should show “Off air”.

Afterwards

Sign in to the portal. The event appears under Recent sessions on the Overview, with how long it ran, and under the venue’s Transcripts tab with what was heard and how it was translated. Read a few lines. If a name came out wrong, add it under Glossary → Names to listen for so it is right on the day. See Glossary — names and wording.

Note: A rehearsal is charged like any other event, per hour for each language that was open, from Start to Stop. Ten minutes in two languages is a small amount at the rate on your Billing page, and it is spent from your free credit if you still have some.

What this does not test

The audience’s connection. A room full of phones on guest Wi-Fi behaves differently from one phone in an empty hall. If the venue’s Wi-Fi is doubtful, ask the first few arrivals on the day to use mobile data. See Internet and connections.