In Zoom Events, how to test ?

[cedricn]

Hi,

In Zoom Events, how to test if all is working fine, before the event starts ?

Do we need to create a test session and if yes, can we test this session before the date that the event starts ?

Thank you for your help.

Best Regards,

Cedric

[GaryB · Accepted solution]

Hi Cedric,

You can test your Zoom events Webinars and Meetings in the Zoom event platform by using your scheduled events. The host or alternative host can start backstage or in practice mode at any time to test. Attendees won't be able to see this rehearsal until the host presses "Start webinar" This is the best way to check all of your webinar and meeting settings are correct for each session.

Please let me know if you have any further questions

Please mark this as solved if this answers your questions

Gary ZE

[DeniseLahat]

You are also invited to join my FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/zoomeventpros where we have demo events to test things out. Feel free to join. https://bit.ly/ZE_Conference6

[halgol60]

I am also looking for a way to do some testing, but as a user only.   I am experiencing annoying pauses during livestreams and want to troubleshoot the problem.  The only way I can think of is by doing testing during an ACTUAL livestream (not a pre-recorded one).

As far as I can tell, there is NO problem with my network.  All other functions and programs work correctly, with no long pauses or hesitations.   (I did have a problem with watching Youtube videos on my TV for a while, but not when watching them on my desktop.  So the problem was related to an update to Samsung's software, not my network.)

Also, I note that some days, even with a full class, some of my courses do not experience these pauses/hesitations at all, but most days I have it at least once or twice, and sometimes as frequently as one every 2 or 3 minutes.   It is aggravating to miss out on leader's and students comments and questions.

Is such a facility available?   Again, I need to be able to test for at least 10 or 15 minutes to see if and when the problem occurs, while I am running various diagnostic tools and maybe making some tweaks to my network.   And I would think that any results I do find would be useful feedback for Zoom and your entire community--a lot of people experience this problem!

[EDIT]  I realize I can probably do some traffic shaping, but that would be a project...

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @halgol60.

I don't do a lot of streaming, but I do a good bit of network monitoring during a wide variety of Zoom situations.  A couple of comments to consider, though I don't have any "quick fixes" for you:

• There's a huge variability that nobody has control over. It can be great one day and bad the next, simply because kids happen to be home watching YouTube or downloading new software/game installations.
• One of the worst situations is when there are several attendees from one company/site. People don't understand that 5 people joining the same meeting/webinar are causing 5x the bandwidth up and down.  The next meeting is a mix of people with everyone spread out... and there's no issues.
• Wired is (almost) always better than WiFi. I had a client that always experienced issues when her son home and she was Zooming from her table in the living room.  "There's no ethernet cable in the living room".  I had her order a flat-cable 50' from Amazon, and on days that she was hosting webinars, she stretched the cable from the living room to her router -- never another problem.  She doesn't seem to have to do it when attending, but when hosting and screen sharing, it helps tremendously.
• Screen sharing is always done at native resolution.  If any screen sharer has a 4K monitor, there will be way more bandwidth for everyone involved!
• You can always turn off camera video for other attendees as needed.

Hope some of that helps.  Sounds like you're network-knowledgeable, but sometimes some of the subtleties aren't obvious.

[halgol60]

I agree with everything you are saying.   When it comes to something as complicated as real-time audio and video streaming (and keeping them in sync), it is bound to be a challenge; there are so many variables involved.

At this time, all I am seeking is a continuously playing zoom live-stream that is a representative example of a typical classroom session with, say, 15 students or so (that's about the max I have seen with my own zoom classes).   If I could get access to such a facility, I could at least get some idea where specific bottlenecks and problems exist within my own network.   

I totally understand that I will never be able to change the exchange of Internet packets beyond the edge of my home realm.

[halgol60]

After some thought on this, I wonder if the following would work:   Zoom sets up a zoom meeting that runs continuously so that anyone who wants to test connectivity, latency, etc, could connect at any time.   As far as content, zoom could stream their online help videos (so this would double its purpose to spread helpful information to the user community as well as being a diagnostic platform).

Having a steady stream of content could simulate, fairly closely, the sort of live streaming normally performed by the zoom platform.   I am not sure if there would be problems I haven't thought of yet; this is just a simple suggestion that might be a genuine asset to both zoom (distributing usage help) and the zoom user community.