Healthdirect Australia Help Center

    The Video Call consultation screen and controls

    This page is for all Video Call account holders

    When you join a Video Call, the Video Call Screen opens in a new browser window and shows all participants in the call as well as the various screen controls and functionality options. Please see the information below for a detailed look at the call screen and the functionality available during a call.

    Video Call Screen layout

    While in a call, you will see all participants in their own window - you can have up to 6 people in a single Video Call joined from the Waiting Area.

    By default, when you first join a call with a patient or client, you will appear in the smaller screen and they will appear in a larger screen to the right.

    The are a few options for the call screen windows:

    1. The default view with your screen smaller and to the left, as shown in the top image to the right. In calls with multiple participants the individual video screens will arrange themselves and be smaller in size.
    2. You can minimise your screen as outlined below, using the minimise button when you hover over your video feed.
    3. Hide your video using the Collapse your video button in your minimised screen (highlighted in red in the bottom example to the right)

    Default call screen with two particpants
    Call screen with video feed minimised

    For calls with multiple participants you can go into Settings and select your preferred Layout:

    • Classic
    • Grid (an option for calls with multiple participants)

    Whichever layout you choose will carry through to your next Video Call (your last setting will persist into future calls until changed).




    Flip video
    The self-view screen in a Video Call is designed to mirror the image by default. Participants have the capability to flip their video horizontally, if desired. 
    Flipping your local feed can be useful for things such as completing physiotherapy exercises, or having a non-mirrored view of a specialised scope device.

    Flipping your video changes your view of your own video feed, it does not affect what other participants in the call see.
    This image shows a side by side view of a default and a local flipped video feed, after pressing the highlighted flip video button.

    Mute and pin functionality
    Health service providers (hosts) joining a call can mute others in the call by hovering over a participant's screen and clicking on the mute button and confirming they would like to mute that person. Muted participants will be able to unmute themselves, as required.
    There is also a pin icon, giving all participants in a call the capability to pin a participant to be the main video feed for their view. Participants other than the host will only have the pin functionality available to them.
    Please note, participants in a call will need to have their call screen set to Classic View for pin functionality to be available, as Grid View sizes all participants the same and lines them up in a grid.
    Minimise your self view
    All users in a Video Call have the option to minimise their video feed or collapse it completely so they can focus on the other participant/s. Hover over your video fed and click on the minimise icon (two inward facing arrows).

    This can be useful to focus on your patient or client rather than self monitoring your own video, which some people may find distracting or tiring. If you minimise or collapse your screen, you can expand it at any time using the outward facing arrows.
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    Call control buttons

    Along the bottom of the call screen you will see various call control buttons:

    • Settings 
    • Hang up
    • Refresh 
    • Microphone
    • Camera
    • Lock (if enabled in your clinic by your clinic admin)
    • Switch camera
    • Help
    • Chat
    • Call Manager
    • Apps and Tools

    Please see below for details on each of these buttons and their functionality


    Settings 

    Clicking on the settings icon opens up Device, Video Quality, Layout, Language and Advanced options.

    Device Settings:

    Click to change the settings for your device. Select your preferred option from the dropdown menus:

    • camera 
    • microphone
    • speaker

    Other settings:

    • video quality 
      • Choose from the available video quality options, including low quality for low bandwidth areas and Full HD for high bandwidth areas.
      • In most cases, setting to Adaptive will be the best option.
      • Please note, the video quality you select will persist for future call but you can change this at any time during a call.
    • layout 
      • Select how participants are displayed in multi participant calls)
      • Grid view works well for calls with 3 or more participants
    • change language
    • change audio behaviours

     

    Please note: You can switch camera using the keyboard shortcut Alt-N

    Find out more about Changing Your Video Quality Settings in a Call.

    Language Settings

    Select your preferred language from the drop-down options. This changes the call controls within your current call and all future calls to your selected language preference. This can be changed at any time.

    Select Layout
    Select your preferred layout for the call screen with multiple participants




    Select camera Select microphone Select speaker
    Select video quality

    Language settings
    Select layout

    Advanced Settings Options 
    Click on Change Audio Behaviours to access noise suppression settings. Click on noise suppression to toggle on and off (on displays a green tick). Having noise suppression on helps the quality of the call by cancelling background sounds.
    There is generally no requirement to touch this setting and it is configured to be 'On' for all calls by default. Please note: When toggled off, users can make repetitive sounds without the system dampening or cancelling the noise out. This is useful, for example, when conducting speech pathology consultations where the patient or clinician needs to make repetitive noises other than normal speech.

    Hang up
    Click to either Leave the Call or End the Call: 

    • Leave call: when in a call with one other participant it puts that participant on hold in the waiting area. If in a call with more than one other participant, when you leave the call will continue for the other participants.
    • End call: ends the call for all participants.




    Hang up options during a call
    Refresh
    If your connection drops out, or the video freezes for a prolonged period, click the Refresh button to re-establish connection with all callers.
    Microphone
    Click on the microphone icon to mute and unmute yourself in the call, if required.

    Unmute Tooltip
    If you are talking and your microphone is muted, the system detects this and a tooltip displays, reminding you to unmute your microphone.

    Camera
    Click on the camera icon to turn your camera off and on during the call, if required.
    Switch Camera
    Click to switch your camera if you have more than one available.
    You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt-N (Option-N on a Mac) to switch camera.
    Lock Call
    If enabled by the clinic admin in the clinic, click on the Lock icon to lock the call so other team members cannot click on the Join button in the waiting area.
    To find out more about locking and unlocking calls, click here.
    Apps & Tools
    Share resources into your Video Call to enhance your consultation.
    For detailed information on Apps & Tools, refer to the Apps & Tools page

    Chat
    Click on the chat icon to send messages within the call. All participants can see and type chat messages and there is an option to download the messages as a text file for your records.

    To send a chat message:
     

    Click on the chat icon to open the chat drawer, type a message and press Enter to send the message.

     

    To download the chat messages:

    Click on Download chat at the bottom of the chat window before the call ends. This will download as a text file and can be added to the patient's record, if desired.



    Chat - typing indicator
    There is a new indication message that displays when a Video Call participant is typing in the chat window. This improves the chat functionality for all participants in a call, alerting them that a question or comment is being typed.

    Call Manager
    The Call Manager enables you to:

    • invite participants into the current call via email or SMS
    • transfer the current call to another Waiting Area
    • remove individual participants from the current call, if required. 

    For detailed information about the Call Manager, please click here.


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    Video feed not available indicator

    When a participant's video and/or microphone is unavailable during a call, this will be communicated in a message in their call screen video feed. This will make it clear to all participants in the call what is happening for that participant. 

    If the participant has a profile picture associated with their account, or they have provided a picture when they enter a Video Call room, this will show as the image in their video feed when their camera is unavailable. If they have no profile picture, their participant colour and initials will show in their video feed. An icon reflecting their camera feed state will also display.

    Please see below for examples:

    When a participant turns off their camera, this screenshot shows the message and design of their video feed in the Video Call Screen. 

    Please note: this participant does not have a profile picture, hence their initial is showing.
    In this example, the participant has turned off both their camera and microphone.
    In this example, the participant has tabbed away to another screen or application. The participant can still hear you while tabbed away and can be guided to tab back to the browser they are using for the Video Call.

    A pause icon displays and the message in their screen (under their initials) reads: 
    Participant is busy in another application, please wait.
    When the participant has no camera feed available and is speaking, the outer circle around their picture or initials highlights, as shown in this example.
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