Welcome back crusader! Week 1 was a meek start along this forsaken path of PVC’s. Now that we understand some of the vocabulary, we can forge our path to creating a PVC by logging in and exploring the dashboard!
If you haven’t already, login or create your SignalWire Space. Without a SignalWire Space of your own, creating a PVC would be like Frodo entering Mordor without Sam. IMPOSSIBLE!
To create a new SignalWire Space, go to: Sign Up for a SignalWire Account | SignalWire
If you already have a SignalWire Space, you can login at: Log into Your SignalWire Account | SignalWire
Once you are logged in, the real adventure can begin! You are going to see a whole mess of tabs on the left hand side of your screen.
The tab that we are going to focus on is “Video”. Once you click into this tab, you are at the home of everything PVC (Programmable Video Conference). This Overview page is your quick view to see your usage, video quality breakdown, and access our most common reference guides.
If you are familiar with some of SignalWire’s other offerings, you may have fiddled with the API tab. In the case of PVC’s, your video conference token is already in the code snippet that will be provided. You will not need to create a separate project ID, or token.
Near the top, you will have additional tabs for a Overview, Logs, Conferences, and Recordings.
The Logs tab will provide you with a detailed description of the usage on your video conference rooms. This includes the room name, how long the room was active for, how much it cost to run the room, and the video quality of the video conference room.
The Conferences tab is where all your video conference rooms will live. You can create multiple rooms, edit or delete them from this page.
The Recordings tab will be the home for any recordings you have from your video conference rooms. They can be downloaded or deleted from this page. If you would like to view the cost of storage for room recordings, you can view that here: Programmable Video | SignalWire
In the top right corner of the page, you will see notifications available, a help icon, the support tier your account has, your subscription plan, and your account balance.
You can upgrade your support tier, and subscription plan anytime by clicking on them. You can also set automatic billing to your account with the “low balance setting” so you never run low on credits.
Now that you are familiar with your home page and dashboards, explore and play around. Remember, not all those who wander are lost! When we meet next week, we are going to plunge head first into our first video conference!