How does CONNEXROOM work?
All users joining a call from the same room (e.g., a meeting room or a classroom) need to install and use CONNEXROOM on their devices and join the same virtual room. The underlying tech in CONNEXROOM exploits different distributed algorithms for echo cancellation and speech enhancement, and requires the different devices to communicate with each other.

 

Do remote users also need to install and use CONNEXROOM?

No. Those users who are joining the call from a different room (e.g., a user joining with one laptop from a separate room), will not need to install and use CONNEXROOM. Therefore, they can join the call as usual. 

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What should I select as audio devices in my communication app of choice?
In your communication app (Zoom, MS Teams, Meet, etc.), you should select the CONNEXROOM virtual microphone and the CONNEXROOM virtual speakers. Visit our user guide for more insight. 

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What should I select as audio devices in the AUDIO preference of CONNEXROOM? 

Select the internal microphone and speakers of your laptop, e.g. Microphone (Realtek Audio) and Speakers (Realtek Audio). Visit our user guide for more insight. 

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Could external audio devices (like speakerphones or headphones) connected to a laptop in a room be selected in the AUDIO preference of CONNEXROOM? 

This is potentially possible, even different devices may independently choose different audio hardware (than the internal microphone and speakers of the laptop ). However, this may lead to some (unpredictable) glitches in the audio quality, as the current version of CONNEXROOM is optimized for cases when laptops use their internal microphone and speakers. Future developments will improve make such interoperability between internal and external audio devices.  

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What should I select as audio device type in the AUDIO preference of CONNEXROOM? 

Windows Audio (Low Latency Mode) is the best choice, but in some laptops and with some driver configurations it is not possible. In such a case, Windows Audio works, too.
 

What is exchanged between the devices?
CONNEXROOM requires the device to communicate specific data (e.g. audio, parameters, variables) required for enhancing the audio and speech quality.

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How does CONNEXROOM share data?
CONNEXROOM does currently use encryption only between the client app and the server, NOT for the data communication between users. So, albeit unlikely, the data shared between users could be intercepted (we are working on this aspect and hence it will be improved in the next versions).
 

Does CONNEXROOM process data on the cloud or on the devices?
The required data processing is solely carried out on the devices. The connection server is only used to ensure the proper functioning of the apps and to let the users in the room connect to each other.

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How much bandwidth is it required to run CONNEXROOM?
Running CONNEXROOM requires some additional bandwidth compared to only running your communication app. Nevertheless, the added requirements are minimal and in the order of tens of kb/s. In the current version of the apps, the required bandwidth depends on the number of devices used per room. 
 

Are there preferred networks to use to run CONNEXROOM?
For best results, and to achieve the lowest latencies, it is recommended that you connect to a fast low-congested WiFi network (better if using the 5GHz band). Should there be audible audio artifacts, we suggest you lower the Default Network Speed (e.g. from “Medium” to “Slow”).
 

How many devices does CONNEXROOM support in each virtual room?
The free version of CONNEXROOM currently supports 2 devices per each virtual room. However, it is already possible to increase this to 5 devices by contacting us at this link. This limit will be raised in future versions.

 

What if some users in the room want to join the call, but without having  CONNEXROOM installed on their device?

We recommend that such users join without audio, since at this moment CONNEXROOM does not have any preventive mechanism to solve the audio issues in such combined scenarios. 

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Is the technology in CONNEXROOM patented?
Yes. Various parts of the developed proprietary technology used in CONNEXROOM have been filed and currently patent pending. 
 

How do the devices running CONNEXROOM in the same room find each other?
At the moment, the devices in the same room need to manually join the same virtual room. However, we’re working on ways to automate co-location detection.
 

Does CONNEXROOM introduces some latency?
CONNEXROOM does introduce some latency, since it includes audio processing and it sits between your audio devices and the communication app. However, the added latency won't be noticeable in most situations as it is optimized to prevent lip desynchronization.
 

What platforms (Operating systems) does CONNEXROOM work with?
CONNEXROOM currently works with Windows (10/11). A MacOSx version is being developed and will be released in the coming months.

 

Does the installation of CONNEXROOM need administration rights?

Yes, the current version of CONNEXROOM requires the users to have admin rights (especially for the installation of the virtual audio drivers). Future versions may remove this requirement. 
 

On Windows, do I need to switch the Audio Enhancement ON or OFF?
CONNEXROOM works better with Windows Audio Enhancement ON (the default option of most laptops), as the latter can in most cases provide beneficial audio improvements, which may then reduce the CPU load of our app.
 

Does CONNEXROOM detect users joining from the same room?

Currently, CONNEXROOM does not implement any kind of automatic co-location detection. The users joining a call with their favourite communication app from the same room must first join the same virtual room in CONNEXROOM (this is virtual room is tied to the license). We're working on ways of automatically detecting co-location of users.

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Does CONNEXROOM work on any network?
CONNEXROOM works on networks that allow peer-to-peer communication between the devices in the same room. If this is blocked due to e.g.. network security, networks integrating symmetric NAT (check it here), the peer-to-peer communication cannot be established and as a result CONNEXROOM won’t work properly. We're working to fix this problem in future versions of conneXroom.

 

Is CONNEXROOM compatible with different Windows Audio Drivers?

The app compatibility of CONNEXROOM varies with different audio drivers:

• Recent versions of both Realtek (e.g. Realtek HD Audio version 6.0.9350.1 [5/10/2022]) and Conexant drivers (e.g. Conexant HD Audio version 9.0.278.150 [11/18/2021])  for both Windows 10 and 11 are the preferred ones, ensuring maximum compatibility.

• Some specific versions of audio drivers, e.g. Realtek HD Audio version 6.0.9247.1 [10/5/2021], are problematic as changing the Speaker volume might lead to the speaker to stop working. We recommend the users to always update their audio drivers to the latest available.