Event Videoconferencing Best Practices

Here are some tips to getting the best experience when participating in a Power Poll videoconference session.

Update Your Browser

Update your web browser.  While the Power Poll videoconference platform will work with a variety of browsers, the combination of browsers, versions of browsers, operating systems, and versions of operating systems is expansive.  We cannot (and have not) tested every combination.  We have tested extensively with Chrome and Safari (and to a lesser degree Firefox and Edge) have had excellent results with those.

Sign in Ahead of Time

The Agora is accessible from every Area landing page.  Events are accessible from the Events page of your area and are also typically accessible using a special link from your invitation email.  In all cases, however, you cannot actually join the video session without signing into Power Poll.  We do this for security and to ensure that only Members are able to access the Agora and events.

If you have never signed into Power Poll before, you must set an initial password.  Murphy's Law says that, if you wait until immediatley before the event, your email server will inevitably experience a slow-down at that precise moment.  See [% ref=sign-in %] for more details.

Browser Notices

Most browsers have implemented a variety of privacy measures, particularly with regard to accessing your device's camera and microphone (and for good reasons).  As a result, you will be prompted to allow access to your camera and microphone.  If you accidently deny access, depending on your browser, you may have to dig through your browser's settings to re-allow access.

Close Applications

Close any applications running on your computer that you do not need open during the session.  This helps free up CPU for the videos and, in the case of Zoom and other videoconferencing applications, eliminates them from modifying your microphone and camera settings at the operating system level.