This documentation is a revised edition of the
MICE documentation of
National Support Centre London
Revision by Jens Elkner (elkner@irb.cs.uni-magdeburg.de).

Other User documentation

The list of participants

Participants are listed in the main vat Window. Names are displayed in boxes that are highlighted when the participant is speaking. By default people joining are added to the list and those leaving are removed. If required, those leaving may be left on the display grayed-out.

As the number of participants increases, the horizontal space allocated to each diminishes. Additional space may be made by resizing the window.

A participant may set the name in the Menu window or by the command-line parameter (-N). Name defaults to the user name and local host.

Mute Source
To mute an individual, click with left mouse button on the checkbox to the left of each participant's name and it will be checked. Repeat the process to unmute.

This facility is useful where two or more users are participating in a conference on separate workstations in the same room and one is providing the output via speakers. In this case, the user with the speakers should mute the other user(s) to prevent feedback.

Statistics
To view the network statistics for a participant, click the left mousebutton on the name. The statistics are displayed while the button is depressed. For a persistent view, hold the shift key before clicking. To output statistics to standard output, type s or S in the window.

The statistics are updated every second or so. The three columns show:

  1. value since the last update time.
  2. a smoothed average of the first column.
  3. the aggregate statistics since vat started.
The graph is only displayed in the persistent window. It shows the selected statistic over time. To select a statistic, click on the diamond to its left. In the example, Missing has been selected.

Full details of the options available for statistics are in the vat manual page.

Asides
It is possible to set up an aside with another participant in a conference.

By clicking the middle button on a name, a separate vat session is created in a new vat window that talks only to that participant. For a two-way conversation, the other participant must likewise select you from his window.

If you create a new window aimed at a particular participant but they haven't created a window aimed at you, they will hear you speaking in the main conference window and may not realize that your audio is being sent only to them. You should tell them that you want a private conversation so that they do not reply to the conference as a whole.