Sync Methods
Organization Admins can adjust their organization's Sync Method to limit certain data sent to Ovation servers.
There are three types of Sync Methods: Default, Limited, and Local. All organizations begin with Default but can change it on the Organization/Settings page of the web portal immediately after their trial or subscription begins.
Default – Most resources, including Speeches and Recordings, are backed up to Ovation servers, can be modified on the web portal, and can be shared. Analytics and Grades can be reviewed on the web portal.
Limited – Metadata (name, date created, venue, etc.), Analytics, and Grades for Speeches and Recordings are sent to Ovation servers, but all Recording playback data (audio, events, etc.) and Speech Items (Text, Slides, Board images) are kept on the user’s local PC. Analytics and Grades can still be reviewed on the web portal. Cloud Sharing is no longer available.
Local – No Speech and Recording data, Speech Items, Analytics, or Grades are sent to Ovation servers (see exceptions below). Cloud Sharing, Analytics, and Grades are no longer available on the web portal.
Default - Changing to Default will allow new resources to be synced and backed up to Ovation servers. Resources created before the change will remain in their previous sync state.
Limited - Changing to Limited will permanently delete from Ovation servers all existing Speech Items and Recording playback data of everyone in the Organization. Resources on the local PC will not be affected.
Local - Changing to Local will permanently delete from Ovation servers all existing Speeches and Recordings, Speech Items, Analytics, and Grades data of everyone in the Organization. Resources on the local PC will not be affected.
Limited and Local Sync Methods prevent certain data from being sent to Ovation servers, but there are some exceptions and clarification needed.
Speech-To-Text: Some of Ovation's most important features are Filler Word Training and Voice analytics. In order for both to function, they require Ovation to send recorded microphone audio to a third-party speech-to-text provider (IBM Watson), who then returns a text transcript. For all Sync Methods, the recorded audio is sent in real-time directly from the local PC to the speech-to-text provider's servers for transcription. For Organizations with the Default Sync Method, the text transcript and recorded audio are then sent to Ovation servers. For Organizations with the Limited Sync Method, only the text transcript is sent to Ovation servers. For Organizations with the Local Sync Method, neither the recorded audio nor text transcript is sent to Ovation servers.
Speech Item Import: Before PowerPoint, PDF, Word, and other proprietary files can be imported into Ovation, they first need to be converted to a format Ovation can read. This is done by sending the file to our server, converting it, then sending back the converted file to the application. For Organizations with Limited and Local Sync Methods, the files being converted are only stored on our servers for the time necessary to perform the conversion process and to send them back to the application. The original and converted files are then immediately and permanently deleted from our servers. If users want to avoid the conversion process altogether, they can import directly into Ovation certain files that do not need to be converted, such as .txt, .jpg, and .png.
Sync Methods other than Default limit some important Ovation features that you may want available. Further, changing between methods can permanently delete Organization and Member usage data. If you have any questions about the method that is right for you, please contact us at [email protected]
