Telehealth

Please select an option from the list below.

Allowing camera access on iOS

Some people have a very strict setting on iOS about accessing the camera. That’s very good and we don’t want to discourage that.

Our telehealth platform is a web application and as such runs on a web browser. On iOS that’s the Safari Web browser.

If your Settings on Safari are very strong, then access to the camera will be refused.

You will need to allow the telehealth.rasa.org.au website access to a camera and microphone to make video calls.

1. Navigate to your Settings

   2. Scroll down until you find Safari. Go into this menu.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the menu to find the Camera. Choose this option

4. Choose Allow

What to do about a black/blank screen on Mac

If you are receiving a blank/black video when attempting to capture your video on your Apple Mac computer, it might be a result of a problem with the driver software that OSX provides to control the camera.

In the event of the driver software having an issue, it is possible to restart the driver and restore your camera to working order.

Before using these instructions, please ensure:

1. You are using an Apple Mac computer
2. You have followed the instructions in the ‘Stuck at restart camera?’ instructions

To restart your camera:

1. Use ⌘+Spacebar to open up Spotlight
2. Type Terminal to open a Terminal session
3. In the Terminal prompt, type the following command: sudo killall VDCAssistant and hit enter
4. When prompted, enter your Mac user password to allow the command to execute

If everything worked successfully, your camera driver will have been restarted and you will now be able to capture video from your camera again.

Improving speed with low bandwidth internet connections

Solutions for slow internet and low connectivity issues.

1. Use your smartphone as a “mobile hotspot”
It is possible to turn your smartphone into a “Wi-Fi hotspot” and access its fast 4G internet from your computer. To do this, simply turn on “mobile hotspot” in your smartphone’s settings & connect to it like any other Wi-Fi connection. To determine if your 4G or Wi-Fi is faster, run an internet speed test on both devices (smartphone on 4G and computer on Wi-Fi) and compare the results. Mobile routers (like the Telstra Nighthawk) can also provide fast 4G internet connections. For optimum experience on our telehealth platform, a minimum of 350Kbps upload and download speed is recommended.

2. Reduce unnecessary internet use
Your internet speed will be greatly impacted by how other people are using your Wi-Fi connection. Ask your housemates to refrain from data-intensive activities (like video streaming or teleconferencing) or ask them to hotspot from their phone. Close any applications which might be uploading data in the background, like Google Backup or Dropbox.

3. Check your internet hardware
If the internet is slow for every device on your internet connection (other people such as partners or children using the same connection), try resetting your Modem and Router. You may have outdated firmware on your router which will need to be updated by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
If the internet is only slow for 1 device try resetting your device, installing any machine updates, and ensuring you have the most up to date Web Browser.

4. Wi-Fi vs Wired (Ethernet) Connection
If you are using a Wi-Fi connection your internet may be fine but you may need to reposition or boost your Wi-Fi signal. Brick and Concrete may block your Wi-Fi signal from getting through. Placement and distance to your computer make a big difference.
If you have the option of using a Wired Connection also known as an Ethernet connection, this is more reliable than a Wi-Fi connection.

5. Call your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
After trying all of these troubleshooting options, the next thing to do is to call your Internet Service Provider and see if this is a problem on their end that can be fixed for you. Outages can happen.

What do I do if a connection is not created?

There are a couple of causes why a connection cannot be set up. Please see below for further information.

Check your web browser

RASA’s telehealth platform currently supports Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Edge. You can check your browser at https://www.whatsmybrowser.org/. RASA prefer a Google Chrome browser (49+) but telehealth.rasa.org.au also works in Firefox (50+) and Safari (12+). Try to use the latest production browser as it will support all features.

You can run telehealth.rasa.org.au on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.

Screen sharing is not working

A mixed Chrome/Firefox browser environment will disable certain features, amongst them Screen sharing, because of lack of browser interoperability.

Check your Internet Connection

If it is taking really long to connect and when it connects you get poor quality video and broken audio, please check your internet connection. We recommend a minimum of 350Kbps upload and download speed.

Also, your latency (or ping time) should be less than 100ms. There is more information available under Bandwidth usage if you are interested.

My camera is not working

Are you stuck in a loop of not being able to access your camera? Make sure you’re in Google Chrome or Firefox.

If you don’t have a camera, you can do an audio-only call, but it will give you a reduced experience.

If your computer has a camera and you still can’t access it, try closing and reloading your browser. If that doesn’t work, restart your computer.

My audio is not working

You can’t hear the other end? Make sure your speakers or earphones are plugged in properly, the volume is turned up and not muted.

You can always try playing a YouTube video to check if the audio works.

You have the option to choose different output devices – go to Settings and choose your speakers.

My microphone isn’t working

The person on the other end can’t hear you? Make sure your microphone is plugged in properly and that the microphone level on your computer is turned up.

Make sure, telehealth.rasa.org is using the right microphone. You can choose your microphone input by going to the Settings and clicking on Microphone.

On tablets or mobile devices check that the microphone has not been disabled or muted.

Modern connectivity can take many forms – you might be connected via ADSL, Cable, optical fibre, 3G or 4G. Telehealth.rasa.org.au powered by Coviu is able to deal with any of these connectivity setups as long as you have a minimum of about 350Kbps each upstream and downstream for a 2 endpoint call.

Make sure to have sufficient, sustained and available bandwidth of at least 350Kbps to hold a high-quality video call.

Data usage per call

Next, you may be concerned about how your available monthly data quota may be impacted by a telehealth call.

Videos will use up to 1Mbps if that bandwidth is available to them. So, assuming you have enough available upstream and downstream bandwidth, and the call goes for 30 minutes, and it’s a call with 2 endpoints, your data usage will be a maximum of:

Data Usage = 30 [min] * 60 [sec] * 1 Mbps * 2 [users] / 8 [bytes] =  450 MB.

If your call gets pushed down to the minimum bandwidth usage it’s more like:

Data Usage = 30 [min] * 60 [sec] * 350Kbps * 2 [users] / 8 [bytes] =  158 MB.

Most likely it’s something in between these two numbers.

The above numbers are calculated with 2 endpoints providing one audio-visual connection upstream and downstream each.