Touch10

Overview

The most common control system that Utah State University’s Logan campus is using currently is the Cisco Touch10. It is a white touch panel that will be located on or near the instructor’s desk as well as at the facilitator’s desk in that room. These systems are simple to use, but will take some time to learn the location and operation of all the different buttons, tabs, and icons. This page comes directly from the Facilitator Manual given to New Facilitators at the end of their training. We hope that this page will come as a refresher for most and a review for some, and if there are any questions that have not been answered by this page about the Touch10 system, please let us know!

Video

Here is a short clip explaining the functionalities of the Touch10 Touch Panel:

Introduction

The Touch10 touch panel will have an interface that looks like the picture below if the room is not connected to a call. This gives you access to all of the room controls and features outside of a call, but more than likely, facilitators need to be familiar with using the system while in a call with another site. So, for the purposes of this page, we will focus mainly on the system when it is in a call with another site.

When connected up to a call, the interface will change. Notice the screen has switched from white to black, the icons are in slightly different locations, and a few additional icons have been added to control the cameras and microphones. We will now give a brief overview of basic controls, where to find them, and how to use the Touch10 system.

Camera Controls

To control the cameras in this room, find the camcorder icon on the second row of icons of the main page of the Touch10.

After clicking this icon, a window will appear with different controls and icons. This is the camera control window. This window allows you to select which view the classroom cameras will capture and (if enabled in the room) have additional options for speaker and presenter track. It is suggested to use Manual when controlling the system to provide the best experience for the students and professor.


When selecting Manual, there will be options to switch between instructor and student cameras and adjust the camera angle.

To have all camera control options we use in classes, simple toggle 'Advanced' to bring you to the page below.  Here, you will be able to switch between instructor and student cameras, enable speaker and presenter track (if enabled in that room), use and create camera presets, and adjust the camera angle as needed.

1. Switch between Student and Instructor Cameras. Click the camera you would like to use.
2. Speaker Track and Presenter Track. To enable, simply select the preset labeled 'Speaker' or 'Presenter'
3. Camera Controls. Use the circle with the arrows located in the middle of the window. These control which direction the camera will moved. The plus and minus buttons to the right of the circle control the zoom function.
4. Presets. This setting allows the camera to focus on a preset area quickly. Simply select the label of the preset you would like to use or create a new one by selecting 'Add New' in the bottom right. (To do a preset, set the camera to the desired location first, then add the preset)

The self-view allows one to choose when the room camera's view is displayed within the room itself and where it is located. Once selecting the camera option on the main screen, simply select 'Self-view' instead of 'Camera controls.'

1. Selfview. A smaller window will appear on the TV screens when adjusting the camera. If you would like this selfview to stay showing after exiting the camera controls window, click the checkbox labeled 'Always Show.'
2. Selfview Location. On the right-hand side of the window, find the little rectangle with a picture of a squiggle (a person) on the screen windows. By pressing, holding, and dragging the little rectangle to another rectangle, you can move the selfview to different locations on the screen.

Layouts

To change the site layouts on the different televisions and projectors in the room, click on the 'Video Layouts' button in the Zoom Control window. There are multiple ways to have the sites show up on the screens. Please ask the professor you are facilitating for what layout they would prefer to have, since they will need to see the students the most. When selecting the 'Video Layout,' you will hear dial tones as the layout changes.

There are four options available through the video layout button. Continue to press the button until the layout desired is displayed.

1. Grid. Shows all the sites as equally sized rectangles
2. Stage. Shows whoever is speaking as the larger rectangle coving most of the screen with little previews of other sites along the bottom edge of the screen.
3. Prominent. Shows whoever is speaking as a larger rectangle in the upper left-hand corner, while other sites line the outer edge of the speaker.
4. Focus. Shows just whoever is speaking.

These icons and their layouts will change if you are sharing something in the call (refer to “Screen Share”). As always, please ask your professor how they would prefer to have their class set up and what layout they would prefer using.

Screen Share

If the professor is planning on using the instructor computer, their own personal computer, or the document camera, you will need to start screen sharing. This is done by clicking the Share button, located on the top row, second from the left of the main screen of the Touch10. After you click the Share button, a new screen will appear.

This screen is where you will manage your Screen Sharing devices and select which ones you want to share. All the devices that are ready to be shared in a call will be listed here. NOTE: some devices won’t be visible unless they are turned on or plugged in, so if you can’t see the device you are looking for, make sure it is powered on and plugged in. When you click on the “Share in Call” icon, it will immediately start sharing that source through the call and on the different televisions and projectors throughout the room. Once you begin sharing a source, the icon of the source you have chosen will change to an orange-red “Stop sharing” button. Click this button to stop screen sharing that source.

In most of the rooms with Touch10 touch panels, there are usually 4 sources you can share: PC, AirMedia [and Laptop (HDMI)], and Document Camera.

• PC. Refers to the instructor computer that is on the instructor’s desk. Click this source to begin sharing the PC within the call.
• AirMedia. A device that allows students and professors to connect up a device wirelessly to the room and share its contents there. You can access this by clicking the laptop’s Share in call button. If there is nothing connected (meaning nothing plugged into the HDMI cable), it should pull up the AirMedia Screen. If a laptop is plugged into the HDMI, AirMedia will refer to the HDMI hard connection that is located on the instructor’s desk. Once plugged into a device, simply press the Airmedia button to start sharing its screen in the call.
• Document Camera. Refers to the document camera located in the ceiling. It is controlled in another tab on the Touch10 under “Room Controls”, which will be discussed later on in this section. NOTE: Some rooms have a document camera located on the instructor’s desk which is connected to the computer. To share this document camera, open the document camera’s software application on the computer and share the PC.

Screen sharing is very useful and most professors will use it during their class. You are free to return to the Touch10’s main screen once the sharing is complete. To stop sharing your screen, simply click the share icon again and click the stop share button.

You will also notice that some of the options on the main screen are missing when you are sharing your screen in a call. By simply pressing the “More” button, these options will appear again in a mini window. To exit that window, simply press outside the windowed area to return to the main screen.

Monitors

Along with the controls of the Touch10 touch panel, you also have different settings you can manage as well. Depending on whether or not you are sharing your screen in the call will determine where to find these next buttons. A preview of these buttons is show here below:

Either along the bottom of the icons on screen or under the “More” button, you will find the Room Controls and Monitors. NOTE: Rooms may differ from one another, meaning that some buttons may appear in one room, but they won’t appear in another. Take time to learn the layout of the Touch10 in the room you are facilitating in so you are comfortable with where to find each of these buttons and what settings/controls they modify. We will be using DE 012’s Touch10 as an example.

The first of these buttons is the Monitors button. This button helps control the location (meaning which screen) the sites and the content are showing. You have two tabs that will appear labeled “Monitors” and “Main Video”. Under the Monitors tab, you will have the option to Swap Monitors by clicking the button labeled so. The monitors are set up in a way that it will show the video of the different sites on one monitor while showing the content on the other. By clicking the swap monitors button, this will swap sites and the content screens, meaning the monitor that was once showing the content will now show the sites and vice versa.

By switching over to the Main Video tab, you will notice different options appear. You will mainly see the different options that you can send out as your main source. The main source is what the students will see prominently throughout the class call. If the main source is on camera, it will show the instructor/student camera (whichever one is currently selected) to all the sites as if it were the video source for the classroom. For 85% of the time, you will most likely have the main source on the camera. However, there are times when the professor will want to share a YouTube video or another type of video media source, when you will want to change the main source.

Sometimes, when sharing a video over the call, it can become blurry and very choppy. To combat these issues, instead of sharing content with the other sites, you can send out the instructor’s PC or personal laptop as the main source. This increases the quality of the shared video and makes the choppy video clear and smooth. Some rooms offer options for Sharpness and Motion content. If you are sharing things like a PowerPoint presentation or a website, selecting sharpness will make the quality of stationary content sharper and clearer. On the other hand, if you are sharing video and motion content, clicking motion will help increase the quality of the video for the distant sites.

Mircophones

The fourth of these buttons is the “Microphones” button. There are only a few options available on this button. This is the place that you will be able to control the student microphones. In most of our Connect classrooms, there are student microphones attached to the ceiling of the classroom. These microphones are controlled by muting and unmuting them. When the “Student Mic Mute” button is gray, that means that the microphones are currently muted. No sound will be picked up on the student microphones while this button is gray. After clicking the button, it will change to black, signifying that the microphones are now unmuted and the students will be able to talk and interact in the call.

As a Facilitator, it is your job to be able to control and manage these microphones. To reduce as much background noise as possible, it is recommended to keep the student microphones on mute until they have comments or questions to ask. Along with camera controls, the microphone controls will be one of your larger tasks to manage as a facilitator for your classes.

Room Controls

Finally, the last button in our trio is the Room controls button. You will notice 3-6 different tabs located along the top of the new window. For our purposes, we will only be going over three tabs that are commonplace in all of our Connect rooms that utilize the Touch10 touch panels. The First of these tabs is labeled “Displays”. This is where you can find the power switches of the different television monitors and projectors that are in the classroom. By flipping the switch to blue, you are turning on the selected power source. (i.e. flipping the projector power switch will turn on the projector, etc.) The projector is known for taking a bit of time to warm up and get ready when it is first turned on. If the professor you are facilitating for wants to turn off the presentation in the front of the classroom for some reason, you can mute the projector instead of turning it off. By muting the projector, you don’t turn off the projector itself. You merely make it send out a black screen instead. Clicking the mute button turns this on and clicking unmute turns it back off.

The next tab is labeled DocCam. When you share the document camera in the call, this is where you will find the control panel that controls the document camera. As labeled, you can zoom in and out with the plus and minus buttons, show a laser target (which is basically a laser pointer to show where the center of the document camera is focusing), and use/store presets.

The next tab is labeled Camera Focus. This controls whether or not your camera will auto-focus or if it will manually focus while the camera is selected. To control this, simply select which mode you would like to use. 

Next is the Shades/Screen tab. This tab simply focuses on the screens and the shades in the room. If your room has a projector screen, you will find the controls to raise or lower the screen here.  

Finally, There is a Reset tab. Here, you can find the Video Resolution reset button and other reset buttons. There may be times when you need to reset certain aspects of the room. This tab is where you can find some of the more accessible reset buttons. Please only use these if you have been told to by someone in the office to do so. 

Volume and the All Mute

The volume controls are located not on the screen of the Touch10. They are located in the bottom right hand corner of the actual touch panel itself. There is a volume up button and a volume down button. When you press on these buttons, a small indicator will appear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen showing the volume levels. You can freely adjust the volume according to the classroom’s/professor’s needs.

Finally, the last button on the Touch10 is in the All Mute button. It is the large circular button with a microphone icon with a line through it. This button controls all of the microphone’s ability to be broadcast through your call. If the button is red, that means that the All Mute is muted. This means that no microphone, instructor or student, as well as all shared content’s sound, will not be broadcast in the call (In simpler terms, no sound will leave the room). If the button is green, that means that the instructor microphone is no longer muted and the student microphones can now be heard when the student microphones are unmuted. NOTE: The All Mute button and the student mic mute button are two different buttons. To make sure that the student microphones are being picked up, make sure that the All Mute button is green and that the student microphones have been unmuted through the microphone button on the Touch10 interface.

Zoom Controls

A feature has been added to the Touch 10 Panel that allows you to connect rooms directly to Zoom calls. The Zoom button allows you to enter in the meeting's information and have some control over some of the functions of a Zoom call from within the room. To do so, click the Join Zoom button found on the Homescreen of the Touch 10 when it is not in a call. 

After clicking the Join Zoom button, you will be asked to enter in the Meeting ID. Using the given Keypad, enter in the Meeting ID for the Zoom call you are trying to connect to, and click Next.

After entering the Meeting ID, you will be asked to enter in the Meeting's Passcode. Just like the Meeting ID, enter in the passcode and click Next.

Finally, if you are planning on hosting the meeting, enter in the Host Key and press Dial. For most calls, the Host Key is not needed, but we will let you know if it is needed for your meeting. If you are not the host of the meeting, simply press the dial button without entering anything.

After that, you should be connected to the Zoom Call. This is what the home screen will look like after joining the Zoom call. Here, you will notice that the controls are exactly the same as before. You have the Camera Controls, the Room Controls, Microphones, Monitors, etc.

Now, to use some of the Zoom controls, click on the Zoom button.

Here are some of the Zoom controls that you have available to you while in this type of call. You can toggle the Show Chat button, which shows the chats on the back TV monitor for a couple of seconds after being sent. Show Non-video Participants button is a very useful function. Normally, when a student has their camera turned off, the system filters them out and will only show those who have their cameras turned on. This button, however, will make it so that if a student is present, but has their camera turned off, it will show a window with a picture of a camera with a slash through it. This allows professors to see how many students they have in their classes much easier.

Please note: You cannot control Zoom breakout rooms from the Touch 10 panel.  If you need to manage breakout rooms, you'll need to join the meeting as a co-host on the facilitator computer. Please contact the office on Purechat if you need co-host privileges.  

There is also the Host Controls tab. 

Here, you can enter the host key if needed and you did not enter it in earlier when dialing into the call. Host Controls allows the ability to mute all participants and start/stop recording. Simply press on each of the buttons to activate their intended task. Note that these functions will not work unless you are the host of the meeting. If needed, you may need to use the key pad located on the home page

As a facilitator, you will have a lot of responsibility to learn how to operate and control these Touch10 touch panels. We have done our best to review the different controls and how the interface works. Please take time to practice and learn how each of your classrooms work independently. If you have any questions, or find more information that you believe should be added to this page, please contact the full-time office staff.