Modena Hub operation modes

Rooms and sessions

Within the context of Modena, a room corresponds to a single connected Modena system (including the Modena Hub or Hub+ base unit, as well as any connected peripherals such as a display, webcam, microphone, or loudspeaker). Each room is identified by a name that is defined by the system administrator. Often these will correspond to the physical space (e.g., "First Floor Huddle Room"), but they may also correspond with the group that makes use of the system (e.g., "Marketing Department Room 1") or the purpose of the system (e.g., "Tech Demo"). 

A session is an occurrence of a group of people utilizing a Modena room to meet, most often for the purpose of sharing presentations or conducting a videoconference. A session begins when the first meeting participant connects to a room and ends when the last meeting participant disconnects from the room.

Passcode

By default, each session is protected with a passcode to ensure meeting privacy. The passcode comprises a randomized 4-digit number that will be automatically generated when the first session participant connects. Any subsequent participants will need to enter this passcode upon connecting to the session.

The passcode for a session can be found in several places:

• Status bar of the Modena app for participants who have already joined the session.
• HDMI display when the system is idle.
  • This requires the "Force passcode request to the first participant" option to be selected in the web admin console.
• HDMI display status bar.
  • This requires the "Show status bar during presentation" option to be selected in the web admin console.

Passcode protection can be disabled altogether via the web admin console, but this is not recommended. 

Roles

Within a session, there are several possible roles. Below is a brief description of each of these.

• Participant: someone who is connected to a session.
• Presenter: a participant who is sharing their screen with other participants.
• Viewer: a participant who is receiving the presenter's screen.
• Host: a participant who is running a videoconference on their device and sharing its screen with other participants.

Huddle mode

This mode is intended for small group meetings, typically arranged in a huddle space or small conference room where Modena supports wireless sharing and videoconferencing.

When set to Huddle mode, Modena will be configured as follows:

• Maximum number of user devices: 12
• Maximum number of simultaneous presenters: 6
• Presentation sharing stream quality: 1080p @ 30fps
• Videoconferencing quality: 720p @ 30fps
• Built-in wireless access point (Modena Hub+ only): Enabled

Meeting mode

This mode is intended for larger groups and larger meeting spaces than Huddle mode. 

Note that, in this mode, the built-in WiFi access point for Modena Hub+ is disabled in this mode. Users must connect to Modena via the local corporate LAN.

When set to Meeting mode, Modena will be configured as follows:

• Maximum number of user devices: 64
• Maximum number of simultaneous presenters: 4
• Presentation sharing stream quality: 1080p @ 30fps
• Videoconferencing quality: 720p @ 30fps
• Built-in wireless access point (Modena Hub+ only): Disabled

Auditorium mode

This mode is intended for even larger groups and meeting spaces than Meeting mode.

In meetings of this size and scale, it may not be possible for all users to comfortably see presentation content being shown on the main display from where they are located in the space. Because of this, Auditorium mode allows for 150 user devices to connect to the session and have the meeting content shown on their personal devices.

The video feed received on the Modena Hub USB port is automatically broadcasted to all connected participants devices, which are 'receive-only' and cannot become presenters. The video source can be, for example, a USB webcam or an HDMI signal connected through an HDMI to USB converter: 

• In a university room, a camera pointing to the teacher and the blackboard can be connected to the Modena Hub USB port and send the video stream to the devices of the students sitting in the back rows, far from the teacher
• In an auditorium, one of the video matrix HDMI out can be converted to USB and connected to the Modena Hub USB port in order to broadcast the projector signal to the devices of people sitting away from the screen

Note that, in this mode, wireless presentation from the app or browser is disabled. Wireless videoconferencing is also disabled, as is the built-in WiFi access point for Modena Hub+ devices. Users must connect to Modena via the local corporate LAN.

When set to Auditorium mode, Modena will be configured as follows:

• Maximum number of user devices: 150
• Maximum number of simultaneous presenters: USB feed
• Presentation sharing stream quality: 720p @ 10fps
• Videoconferencing quality: Disabled
• Built-in wireless access point (Modena Hub+ only): Disabled

Capabilities and performance

The table below summarizes the capabilities of each Modena model in each of the available operation modes.

*Note: if the Modena Hub+ wireless access point is configured for 2.4GHz, the maximum number of participants and presenters in Huddle mode is reduced to 4 each.