Software Installation
To install the software, please visit the Unity page and press the Launch button to run the installer.
User Guide
Full documentation for the Unity software can be found here.
Issues for Windows XP , Vista, 7 users
Documentation on Windows specific issues can be found here.
Echo Cancelation
To video and audio conference with others successfully, it is important to either use either headphones or an echo-canceling microphone. Headphones are adequate when only you will be using your computer to conference with others. An echo canceling microphone is necessary when you need to have several people around your computer all participating in the conference. Both of these approaches ensure that your computer speakers do not play the speech you are hearing (from others) back into your own microphone which can cause remote participants to hear their own voice as they speak. It is very difficult to speak when you hear your own voice coming back to your computer over the network (echo).
For echo canceling devices to work, they must be used as your audio input within Unity, and must also be selected within your system preferences as the audio output device (On Mac, set this in the System Preferences using the Sound panel. On Windows, set this using the Sounds and Audio control panel). We highly recommend the ClearMic Duo sold online by Global Media at www.globalmedia.com which works with both Macs and PCs.
Login
You must login to a server to use this software as a registered user (someone who can initiate conferences). To do this, you must enter a valid server address, user name, and password into the Login Panel which is explained in more detail here.
You can login as a Guest user (someone who can only attend conferences created by a registered user). To login as a Guest user, see the following Guest User documentation.
Speed Testing (Registered Users only)
When you are running Unity on a network where you have not used it before, it is important to know what sort of performance you should expect. This requires running a speed test, which is explained in more detail here.
Conferencing with other People
To conference with people, you need to select them in the contact window and start a call using one of the available services. Starting conferences is explained in more detail here. For tips on managing large sessions see the Large Sessions documentation.
Understanding Sessions and Conferencing Features
Detailed information about managing sessions can be found here, and detailed information for all session services can be found here.
Sending Messages to other Users (Registered Users only)
You can send messages to other users without going into a conference. This feature works even if the other user is offline, and is similar to cellular text messaging. The Messaging service is explained in more detail here.
Sending Files to other Users (Registered Users only)
You can send files to other users without going into a conference. This feature works even if the other user is offline. You can transfer files to another user by simply dragging and dropping a file onto their contact in the Contact Window. This service is explained in detail here.
Learning and Practicing (Registered Users only)
One way to help learn the Unity software more quickly is to log into two accounts at the same time (using different user names), and place calls to yourself from one account to the other. You can do this on two computers (ideal), but you can also do this on one computer (you can open multiple contact windows from the File menu, and login with different user names). By calling yourself, you get to experience a session from multiple perspectives at the same time. You can also run test sessions with yourself using one account (see the Settings menu item "Test Session", and the related documentation online), however this is a bit less informative. Either method allows you to practice more often without requiring the presence of other individuals.
Test Sessions (Registered Users only)
When video conferencing with other people, you will only ever see your local video in high quality. You will not see the compressed video that you are sending to other people. It would waste network resources for the server to send back your own video. For this reason it is often useful to test your video in a way that allows you see what others would see in a conference with you. Test sessions allow you to do this. They allow you to see the quality of your video settings as others would see it. This also allows you to see how smooth the video is after traveling to a server and back. Test Sessions are explained in more detail here.
Port Usage
The following ports are used by Unity and must not be closed if a firewall exists between your computer and the internet:
TCP: 60,000 (All login connections are made on this port)
TCP: 60,001 (Used to provide PDF rendering services to Windows based PCs)
UDP: 60,000 - 61,000 (Port range used for all audio and video data)