NEFFA 2022 Festival
Frequently Asked Questions
GETTING STARTED
Q: Where do I get started?
Q: Where can I find the NEFFA events?
Q: What is the Festival Lobby?
Q: Why can’t I see the event I’m looking for?
Q: How does the schedule grid work? Why doesn’t clicking in the grid take me right to the session?
Q: What and where is the Help Desk? and Q: I have questions that are not answered in this FAQ; who do I ask?
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF ONLINE NEFFA
Q: Why am I stuck in a waiting room?
Q: Are sessions being recorded? Where can I find them?
Q: What if I don’t want to be recorded?
Q: How do I get into room X
Q: Can I use a breakout room to organize my own event?
Q: My friends are in a breakout room in the Cafeteria. How can I find them?
Q: We’re singing together in a breakout room, but it sounds horrible. Help?
Q: Can I share the link to the Lobby with my friends so they can come to NEFFA too?
Q: How can I change Zoom Views
Q: What’s the etiquette if I need to step away from my computer for a while but want to stay in the meeting?
Q: Who are the NEFFA staff in each meeting?
Q: How can I reserve a cafeteria event?
Q: Where are the videos of this weekend’s events?
ACCESSIBILITY
Q: What do you have to aid the visually impaired?
Q: Can closed captioning be turned on?
REGISTRATION
Q: How do I register?
Q: What happens when I re-register?
Q: I just want to go directly to one hall for a single event. Can you send me the link?
Q: If the Festival is free, why do I need to register and give you my email address?
TECHNICAL and ZOOM related
Q: Do I need a Zoom account?
Q: How do I use Zoom?
Q: I can’t do X with Zoom.
Q: How do I move to breakout rooms?
Q: I don’t see an option to join breakout rooms.
Q: I can see breakout rooms but can’t join them.
Q: How do I rename myself on Zoom?
Q: Basic Zoom troubleshooting
Q: I registered but I can’t get to the Lobby, why?
Q: I’m trying to enter a meeting but it’s asking me for a passcode. Why?
Q: If a host muted me, does that mean I did something wrong?
Q: How do I use chat? and Q: How do I chat just to the host?
Q: Audio/Video Out of Synch
FOR PERFORMERS
Q: I’m supposed to soundcheck, and the meeting I’m supposed to be in to do that isn’t letting me join. Now what?
Q: How come I lose my speakers when I plug in this USB microphone?
Q: Note about playing recorded pieces
GETTING STARTED
Q: Where do I get started?
Q: Where can I find the NEFFA events?
A: Events are listed on the schedule. That page will let you see the schedule, but you can’t join the rooms that the events are in. To do that you need to Register and use the Lobby
Q: What is the Festival Lobby?
A: The Lobby is a secure webpage open to registrants only, with links to all the Zoom halls for Festival events. Once you have registered, you can go directly to the Lobby. Use the blue hall buttons in the Lobby to navigate between halls and attend events. The Lobby also includes links to the Help Desk, Cafeteria, Crafts Hall, Folk Bazaar, T-shirts, Festival News, videos, and other helpful information about the Festival.
Q: Why can’t I see the event I’m looking for?
A: Only one day of the 3-day Neffa Festival schedule is displayed at a time. Click on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to view the schedule on a different day.
Q: How does the schedule grid work? Why doesn’t clicking in the grid take me right to the session?
A: Clicking grid items brings you to information about performers and bands, just as it has in previous years. The large blue buttons ABOVE the grid are where the Zoom links are. Take note of which room the event you wish to visit is held in, and click the corresponding blue button above. The rooms are in the yellow bar at the top in the grid view, and top left right under the event name in the description.
Q: What and where is the Help Desk? and Q: I have questions that are not answered in this FAQ; who do I ask?
A: The Help Desk is a separate zoom room that will be staffed by NEFFA volunteers. Go to the Lobby at the top right, above the schedule grid (the red oval) is the Help Desk room.
You can also reach the Help Desk by phone:
+1 301 715 8592.
When asked for a meeting ID type in 87672566011
When asked for a passcode type in 156417.
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF ONLINE NEFFA
Q: Why am I stuck in a waiting room?
A: If you’re in the waiting room, that’s normal. The performer may still be setting up. If you have not been able to get in by a few minutes after the listed start time, please ask for help at the helpdesk.
Q: Are sessions being recorded? Where can I find them?
A: We’re doing our best to record everything we have permission from performers to record this weekend. We hope to make them available, but specifics are still developing. We won’t have better information until after this weekend is over.
Q: What if I don’t want to be recorded?
A: Your choices are to not be in that session, or to mute yourself and turn off your video. If you want even more anonymity, you can set your zoom name to something like “anonymous” and use a blank picture.
Quoted from the NEFFA CoC:
Recordings
Sessions may be recorded for delayed viewing with the permission of the performers. Recordings will be announced at the start of the session. If you do not wish to be recorded, please turn off your video and mute your microphone.
Q: How do I get into room X
A: At the top of the Lobby page are red/blue* oval clickable buttons that look like the one to the right here. There is one for each room. If you do not see these buttons, you are either on the schedules page and not the Festival page, or you still need to register.
* Clarification: the buttons are currently red because the (zoom) links are not live yet. Once the festival starts, they will be blue.
Q: Can I use a breakout room to organize my own event?
A: That’s what the Cafeteria is for! Each of the breakout rooms in the Cafeteria will be named after some of the favorite cafeteria foods we’ve seen over the years. You can reserve a table and invite your friends to meet you there for a rounds sing, a jam session, a rehearsal, a Morris meetup, or whatever you can think of. The Cafeteria is for socializing! And again this year, your rowdiness won’t disturb other people in the Cafeteria!
Q: My friends are in a breakout room in the Cafeteria. How can I find them?
A: If they haven’t told you which of the rooms they are in, ask the NEFFA staff person to help you find them. You can also see a list of who’s in which room from the Breakout Rooms button.
Q: We’re singing together in a breakout room, but it sounds horrible. Help?
A: Regrettably, Zoom does not support group singing. It works best if only one person (or household) is unmuted at a time.
One alternative is Bucket Brigade (https://echo.jefftk.com) It’s a free, open-source program for making music over the internet. It measures how much lag you have, and assigns people into 6 ‘buckets,’ with the lead singer in bucket one. Other people can hear people in the buckets above them, but not those below.
Q: Can I share the link to the Lobby with my friends so they can come to NEFFA too?
A: You bet! If someone hasn’t registered, the Lobby link will take them to the registration page so they can register. Once registered, the link takes you directly to the Lobby. Both registration and the Lobby have a link to make a donation, which goes to a revenue share for performers after Festival expenses. We hope you will share the link widely and invite all your friends to NEFFA.
Q: How can I change Zoom Views
A: If you’d prefer to see everyone, not just the performer, look at the top-right of your Zoom window for the View menu. You can select Gallery (to see everyone in their little rectangles) or Speaker (to see just the person speaking).
If the performers are not Spotlighted (and some will have requested to have that turned on) you can also click on the top-right of any person’s rectangle to bring down a menu and select Pin to make that person large and everyone else small.
Q: What’s the etiquette if I need to step away from my computer for a while but want to stay in the meeting?
A: Turn off your camera or leave the Zoom meeting, for several reasons. We don’t want the performers to look at empty rooms. There is also no reason to stay logged in between events because we’ll be stopping and restarting the meetings between performances (for the majority of the events).
Q: Who are the NEFFA staff in each meeting?
A: The people named along the lines of “NEFFA Staff – John Doe” and “NEFFA Tech – Jane Smith” are both NEFFA volunteers and staff who help make this year’s NEFFA possible. The NEFFA staff is the social host for the event, helping with questions from the audience. This is the person to send a chat message to for minor issues. The NEFFA Tech is there to help with the technical end of things, helping the performers and making the musicians sound good.
Q: How can I reserve a cafeteria event?
A: You go to the Cafeteria, and you ask a NEFFA staff member to do that for you. You can do this either beforehand, or just show up and see if there is a room available to reserve right then.
Q: Where are the videos of this weekend’s events?
A: Once the festival is over, all the events that NEFFA has gotten permission to record will be made ready for viewing as soon as possible. They will all be on Vimeo, where all NEFFA’s videos are. The website has links to our archives: https://www.neffa.org/neffa-videos-quick-start/.
ACCESSIBILITY
Q: What do you have to aid the visually impaired?
The Help Desk has a list of phone numbers with associated meeting IDs and passwords for all of the NEFFA spaces.
To reach the Help Desk by phone:
+1 301 715 8592.
When asked for a meeting ID type in 87672566011
When asked for a passcode type in 156417.
Q: Can closed captioning be turned on?
A: Every room has closed captioning capability. Zoom calls it Live Transcript. By default, it should be turned on. If it is on, an icon labeled Live Transcript will appear at the bottom of your screen, between the Record and Reactions icons.
If you click that, you will get a menu with some options. By default, it should not show you subtitles; you can turn them on by selecting “Show Subtitle” and turn it off again by selecting “Hide Subtitle”. The other options (View Full Transcript and Subtitle Settings) do exactly that.
You can click and drag the caption box to any place on the screen – Some people like to put them on top, so that they don’t cover people’s feet.
REGISTRATION
Q: How do I register?
A: Visit The Lobby
If you are not registered yet, this page will prompt you to enter your name and email address. That’s it! It will then return you to the Lobby where you can view the grid and select sessions to visit.
Registration stores a cookie from NEFFA on your browser. If you clear this cookie, or use a different or incognito browser, you may need to re-register.
Q: What happens when I re-register?
A: The only thing that will happen is that the browser you are using will get a cookie so you can get into NEFFA. We keep track of the number of attendees by unique emails.
Q: I just want to go directly to one hall for a single event. Can you send me the link?
A: For security reasons, we do not distribute Zoom links via email. All Festival attendees must register and use the Lobby to navigate between events. It’s easy! Go to The Lobby and once you’re registered you can use the button for your hall.
Q: If the Festival is free, why do I need to register and give you my email address?
A: Registration is a security practice to protect attendees from trolls and Zoom bombers. NEFFA will *only* use your email for communication leading up to and during the Festival unless you have opted in to receive our email newsletter or a reminder to donate after the Festival.
TECHNICAL and ZOOM related
Q: Do I need a Zoom account?
A: No, you do NOT need a Zoom account, you can use the Zoom program/app/client without an account.
Q: How do I use Zoom?
A: There is a section on the NEFFA website to help you get started: https://www.neffa.org/folk-festival/new-england-folk-festival-online-2021/#zoom
Q: I can’t do X with Zoom.
A: You likely have an older version of Zoom. Please install the newest version from here on the Zoom website.
Q: How do I move to breakout rooms?
A: You must be running a recent Zoom client, version 5.3 or greater, to be able to move yourself among breakout rooms. Click on the “four-squares” icon at the bottom of your zoom window. If you don’t see that icon, click on the ‘More’ button and it may appear. If you still have trouble, ask the meeting host for help. It will pop up a window with the available room to join. It shows the number of people in each room to the right of the room name; to see who is in each room, you can expand the room by clicking on the arrow in front of it.
To go into the room, put your cursor over the number. The word “Join” will appear. Click on that to move into that room.
Once you are in the room, you can leave the room, by clicking on the blue button that will have appeared in the bottom right of the screen.
Q: I don’t see an option to join breakout rooms.
Q: I can see breakout rooms but can’t join them.
Easy answer: you can be assigned to breakout rooms by the NEFFA host (The person named “NEFFA Staff – John Smith”). Please use the chat directly with them and ask them to assign you.
Detailed and more technical answer:
Follow-up-question-1: Are you on a laptop or desktop computer, or a computer that uses ChromeOS? And are you using the Zoom client?
A1: You likely have an older version of Zoom. Please install the newest version from here on the Zoom website. Until you have time to do that, you can ask a NEFFA staff member, using the Zoom Chat, to place you in the room of your choice.
Follow-up-question-2: Are you using zoom in a browser or from another device? For instance, dialed in from a phone, or using the zoom mobile app from your phone?
A2: These situations may prevent you from choosing a room, because of the way Zoom is set up. You can still be assigned to breakout rooms by the NEFFA host. Please chat directly with them and ask them to assign you.
Q: How do I rename myself on Zoom?
A: Click on your video. A list of options will show up (see picture -> ). Select “Rename”.
Q: Basic Zoom troubleshooting
A: The Zoom website has a troubleshooting section.
Q: I registered but I can’t get to the Lobby, why?
A: Registration stores a cookie from NEFFA on your browser. If you clear this cookie, or use a different or incognito browser, you may need to re-register. Your browser must accept cookies for you to get to the NEFFA lobby. (You can delete them later.)
Q: I’m trying to enter a meeting but it’s asking me for a passcode. Why?
A: Make sure you are using the whole link from the Lobby buttons, and don’t have a mis-copied link or bookmark or the like. The passcodes should be part of those links; if that doesn’t work, please contact the Help Desk and we’ll try to figure out why.
Q: If a host muted me, does that mean I did something wrong?
A: Not necessarily. You may have had background noise or echoing in your audio, and someone may have muted you as a courtesy to our performers and audience. It is not a penalty; you should be free to un-mute when you need to speak or ask a question. The button is in the bottom left of your zoom window, and a keyboard shortcut is Alt-A.
Q: How do I use chat? and Q: How do I chat just to the host?
A: One of two ways.
1: At the bottom of your screen is a chat icon:
Once you click that, a chat window will open on the right of your zoom screen. You can type your messages at the bottom. If you want to close the chat window, you can click on the chat icon again, or on the little “v” in the top left corner of the chat window.
Note that the default is set to send the message to everyone in that room.
On the bottom of the chat window is a blue button with an arrow next to it that by default says “Everyone”. If you click on that, you get a popup window with a list of the participants. You can scroll through to find the person you want to chat directly to, or in the top part where it says “Send chat to” start typing the name. The NEFFA volunteers on duty all have their name start with “NEFFA”, so they are easy to find.
2: For direct chat, you can also click on the video/name of another person in the room; a list of options will show up. If you select Chat, you will chat directly with that person. The host is named something like “NEFFA Staff – John Doe”
Q: Audio/Video Out of Synch
A: Is your audio out of sync with your video? Try clicking the caret next to the mic (Mute) icon. Then click “leave computer audio,” Click on the mic (Join Audio) icon again. Select “Join with computer Audio.” If this doesn’t help, try leaving the meeting entirely and then rejoining it.
FOR PERFORMERS
Q: I’m supposed to soundcheck, and the meeting I’m supposed to be in to do that isn’t letting me join. Now what?
A: If the meeting hasn’t started yet, the host may be a little late and we will try to find who’s assigned to that and make sure they get on it. Most session spaces will be open 30 minutes before the performance’s start time for sound checks. Sessions using Source Connect (SCN) will open 60 minutes early for sound checks. (If you haven’t been told that you’re using SCN, then you’re not using it.)
Q: How come I lose my speakers when I plug in this USB microphone?
A: There may be a 3.5mm headphone output jack on the microphone somewhere so the USB device takes over your input AND OUTPUT by default. If you don’t plug anything in there, you won’t hear anything unless you go into your sound settings and change the output back to normal speakers or some other device that’s connected. Example: Blue Yeti
Q: Note about playing recorded pieces
A word of caution for performers wanting to play a recorded piece. If you are singing (or otherwise making music) along to the recorded piece, you should not use the share audio feature. You will be annoyingly behind. Instead, you should play the audio out of some kind of speakers and sing along to the ambient sound of it in the room and turn on Original Sound.
Last update: April 22, 2022