Put Frasiey on the room's laptop

What the room needs

A laptop that stays in the room for the whole session, the microphone the room already uses, and an ordinary internet connection. The microphone can be a ceiling array, a table microphone, or the feed from the lectern into the laptop. Frasiey shows you a level meter before you commit to any of them.

A Mac running macOS 12 or later works, and so does a 64-bit Windows 10 laptop or later. The download page has a button for each. If you are running this at a venue, ask them which laptop drives the room screen. Most houses have both.

frasiey.com/download lists the exact hardware and setup requirements for whichever laptop you use.

1. Download it, on the laptop that will stay in the room

Open frasiey.com/download on that laptop and press the download button. Free to install, and it updates itself quietly from then on.

2. Let Frasiey hear the room

The first time it opens, Frasiey asks for the microphone and explains why: it listens to this room's microphone and turns what is said into text, on this laptop. Only the text leaves the laptop. Say yes.

If the laptop belongs to an IT department the answer may be blocked rather than refused. Frasiey says so, and the fix is to ask your IT team to allow Frasiey, then press Check again.

3. Connect it to your account

Frasiey shows a six-character code and a QR square beside it. Scan the square with the phone you are already signed in on and the laptop joins your account in one tap, then your phone asks which room it is in. No phone to hand? Open app.frasiey.com/pair in any web browser you are signed in on and type the six characters.

A code works once, and the laptop shows a fresh one by itself before the old one runs out. If it says something went wrong, press Get a new code and use the fresh one. You never have to sign into Frasiey on the venue's laptop, and you should not: the laptop takes its instructions from Frasiey online, the site you sign in to, from here on.

4. Choose its room

The laptop asks which room it is in. Pick the room you are standing in. Not sure? Choose it later, and choose a room for it in Frasiey online under Rooms. Its name, such as Laptop 3, is at the top of its screen.

Each room has one laptop. If the room you pick already has one, this laptop asks before anything changes. It can take the room from a laptop that has been offline for a while, but never from one that is on there: move that one in Frasiey online first. Frasiey online is also where you check that every room has its laptop, and where you move one that chose the wrong room. The laptop follows by itself.

5. Test the audio, the day before if you can

On the laptop, choose Test the microphone. Pick the microphone this room actually uses, say a sentence, and read back what Frasiey heard. If those words come back right, the room will too. Frasiey listens right there on the laptop, and nothing is sent anywhere.

The first time in a room, Frasiey also gets itself ready, which is a few minutes and about 300 MB. It happens once per laptop. Doing it now, rather than in front of a full room on venue Wi-Fi, is the single best five minutes you can spend on setup.

Update Frasiey

Frasiey updates itself. It downloads a new version by itself and installs it the next time the laptop restarts, so an update never stops a room that is captioning.

If Frasiey online says a laptop needs an update:

1. On the laptop, press Check for updates at the bottom of Frasiey's screen.
2. When it says An update is ready. It installs by itself the next time this laptop restarts., restart the laptop. Do it between sessions, never while the room is captioning.
3. Frasiey opens again with the new version (if it doesn't, open it). Frasiey online stops saying Needs an update once the laptop is back.

Still says Needs an update? Open frasiey.com/download on that laptop and install Frasiey again over the old one.

When the meeting is over

The laptop keeps its room after the meeting's last day. The day after, it shows Captions off. From the next day it asks whether to set this laptop up for a new meeting, on its screen and once a day as a notification. Press Set up for a new meeting and it asks which room it is in, for your next meeting. Press Keep it as it is and it asks again tomorrow. In Frasiey online, the Laptops page shows it as Meeting ended.

Nothing changes until you choose, and the question never stops a room that is captioning. A meeting with no end date never asks by itself: Set up for a new meeting is under Show more on the laptop whenever you want it.

So there is no need to remove a laptop between meetings. Removing is only for laptops you hand back, such as the venue's own: a removed laptop leaves your account, and it needs a new code to connect again. See Someone else has the laptop.