Improving EVO's Video and Audio Quality

[edit] Four steps to maximising the audio and video quality in EVO

If at all possible, all people involved in the meeting should use headsets:

The microphone is positioned very closely to the mouth resulting in much higher audio quality and other participants wont need to strain to hear what is being said
Contrary to what some manufacturers claim: echo cancellation devices or inbuilt Webcam mics never sound that good, and other participants will find you difficult to hear (they may even stop listening to you!)
Logitech USB headsets are highly recommended

Have your University open a port (see box below) in the University Firewall for your computer: your network traffic will not be routed by some institutional proxy/NAT and wont have to go through a network 'bottleneck'
This ensures that your video and audio communication is transmitted at maximum possible bandwidth
The local or institute firewall (if any) should permit communication on the following port for your computer:

Both IN and OUT, Both UDP and TCP: Port Number 46015

(For New Zealand based users)
The New Zealand production EVO Panda Server is BeSTGRID_NZ.
the Panda server you are connected to is listed in the bottom left of the Koala window.
You are automatically connected to the nearest Panda server -- sometime EVO doesn't make the best decision. You should aim to connect to BeSTGRID_NZ.
To reconnect to the BeSTGRID_NZ panda choose: Koala menu -> Koala Monitoring. Select "evo.bestgrid.org" from the "Best Panda Servers:" drop-down list, and Click "Connect to Selected Panda".