I just read on the Marklin Italian forum 3Rotaie (3Rails) that they are planning a virtual meeting of the members.

That sounds like a really good idea.

This time the topic is "Rocrail".

Apparently it is easy to set up and there is a website that is behind it:

Virtual Meeting

I am just wondering if this is something we could organize.

We could actually speak to one another and also see what we look like. (OK, in my case it may not be all that great )


If there is enough interest, we could set up a virtual meeting at a time when most of us would be... awake.

What do you think?

RSVP

Good initiative!
Now go and JUST DO IT! ;-)

ok, here we go, who would like to come to Perth, Western Australia, its just a stone throw away from the end of the world.


John

It's cheaper to fly to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane than it is to Auckland........that's nuts!

I support it

Count me in also . Many years ago I gave thought to using Yahoo groups as a carrier where live video could be used for a group of like minded people . Not enough people interested at the time , maybe scared to show their faces or their layout to other members but when you consider what other various groups are willing to do in cam these days I think it would take off ok in this group . Just need to buy a new cam with better vision than the older ones from years ago .

Cheers Tom in Oz .

I agree. We could also do it on a regular basis if it works and one or two people could give virtual layout tours for people to see.

the same here from Perth, to go to Singapore, Bangkok or HongKong.

Well, tomorrow, Friday July 15, 2016, I will join the Virtual Meeting that 3Rotaie is sponsoring and I will report on my experience trying it.

I have gone on the TeamViewer website and retrieved a manual that should guide us all in this new experience:

TeamViewer Manual

Perhaps we should all read it (those interested in participating, that is) so we can all be up to speed.

I will need two volunteers to try our own mock meeting so as to see if I can pull it together.

Let me know if anyone is willing to be a guinea pig.

Thanks.

Silvano

P.S. Has anyone already used this software to host or join meetings? If so, please tell us about your experience.

Sold!, Thank you, Pmare4.

We need one more now.

Hi, Shamu:

Are you and others in OZ ( ) able to watch Internet videos, as in You Tube?

If so, I think you should be OK. If not, then I can see your concern.

Having said that, we can try it and see what happens.

As I said, tomorrow I will try to join the 3Rotaie meeting with my PC and/or tablet and I shall report on my success or failure .

Will be happy to be in te trial too

I've used Teamviewer a few times but it has been a few years since the last time. I don't recall any issues or difficulties with it. I felt it was very easy to use, but I use other similar tools like Webex and GoToMeeting on a regular basis (because these are what my current employer supports) and the interface is very similar.

Cheers
Roland

Oh dear! That's midnight here!

On the other hand, 10:00 in the morning here is 8:00 in the afternoon in Toronto. It looks like it's 8:00 where Francisco lives as well.

The only trouble is that you're actually a day behind, so it would be a Friday where you live and a Saturday where I live.

If these times are correct, then maybe we could have the trial meeting tomorrow? (so it will be a Saturday night for you and a Sunday morning for me)

Regards,

Peter

Not so fast: I need time to understand how to set up the meeting as an organizer.

Give me a couple of weeks to digest it all.

As for the time, now that I see the time difference, we can play with the time lag better.

We shall have a meeting, I promise.

Well, it's 6:38 pm in Toronto and have not heard from our friends.

As a result, let us see if anyone else is willing to be a guinea pig.

I will still try the 11:30 pm meeting today Toronto time - Saturday - while allowing anyone who dares try join in, including of course Pmare and Francisco.

To join a meeting this is what you do:

Please join the meeting, by clicking on this link:
11:30 pm Saturday meeting - Toronto date and time

Then put in the meeting ID: m69-222-497

(If needed, the address of TeamViewer is: www.teamviewer.com )

Thanks.

Silvano

it is now 22:00 hrs. We had a succesful pre meeting with Silvano.
We wil be there at 23:30, hope more of you can join us!!!!

Well, the test meeting has just finished. Harold from Oakville attended as well as Pmare (Peter) from Australia and briefly Francisco as well from Chile. Altogether we were four.

Since Peter is 14, we had a gentleman, his father, approve of Peter being online with us.

There was a major problem with my audio and that spoiled the meeting.

Peter and Harold could hear each other well but not me. Peter could hear me a bit but Harold not at all.

We could all see each other fine (but Harold's light came on and off darkening the view of his face fron time to time, especially at the beginning).

What can I say, we are still some way from making this a viable tool for communication among the members of the Forum.

Harold suggested that perhaps the local members here in Canada can try to resolve the technical issues before we give up on this software. I agree.

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Silvano

P.S. In the meeting with the Italian forum, we also had problems with the audio of one of the three members. I suspect the software may not be all that good, at least as far as the free licence is concerned.

I'm curious, why Skype was not put forward as a platform to host the meeting? It's robust, been around a long time and easy to setup and test.?

I don't really know if these numbers mean anything, REALLY. However, to answer your question, I just did a speed test twice and both came back with over 20 Mbps download and over 1 Mbps upload. It was around 8:30 am on Sunday in Toronto, so I don't know if the Internet was faster as a result of less traffic (since many people are still sleeping, I think).

To me, a better way to ascertain whether my system is the culprit is to see what problems I have when I want to see YouTube videos or do anything that requires speed: none whatsoever on almost 100% of the sites.

I do believe that the problem does not reside in my equipment, but in the software of the company. Also, when I attended the 3Rail virtual meeting on Friday, at noon, my time, I had no problems, but someone else did. The meeting was held in Italy, obviously.

Cookee is right, maybe we should consider Skype as well. HOWEVER, as far as I know, you cannot use Skype to show your desktop to the others and give a visual explanation of what you are discussing. That is what Lucio (the presenter) did on Friday, and looking at his desktop was very useful. I was able to ask q's by making reference to the Rocrail picture Lucio had on his desktop - that I was able to see - and he replied by pointing to and/or circling the track in question to explain the point he was making. I was able to see all that as well.

Tom: By all means, do organize a meeting yourself and I will be glad to attend as a guest if I can stay up that late/early. Anyone can get a free non-business licence.

When I set up a meeting, the time zone shown is that in my neck of the woods, Toronto, Canada, which I then converted to your local time when I announced the meeting. As a result, as I am writing, it is by now just about 9:00 am on Sunday and where you are it's just about 11:00 pm also on Sunday; am I right? You may want to do a test meeting only for those of you who live in the Australian time zone and then tell us how it turns out.

As for me, I did find the experience interesting, but trying to learn how to set up the account and all the rest was very time-consuming - not at all intuitive and frustrating. I am still FAR from confident that I have mastered even the basics of the program. The manual was useless for my needs. Frankly, I am hoping to find a more friendly software that allows us to share the presenter's desktop.

Have a good day/night everybody.

Silvano

I have used it a few time, participating in "webinars" training courses on the job.
I needed to use a phone-line participate in the talk, while I could hear everybody else through the streaming.
I dont find it practical for "our" use, but it may just be the way the host had implemented the system.
Something like skype would probably suit us better¿?