Getting started with Shark Bridge Console for Windows

Before you start, please contact us to establish your teacher's account. We do not allow just about anybody to create a teacher account. Send us an email to admin@thesharkbridgecompany.com. We will check you out on the Internet and welcome you onboard.

You need access to a Windows 10 computer or Windows 10 Parallels on Mac ($80) to run the
Teacher's Console, your students can use what ever system they have no limits.

Hardware requirements: i5 CPU; 16GB RAM (8GB will do for up to 25 students); 1 large monitor, 2 is alway better .

Once you have your account, we provide free support to get you started.

Here is a quick guide on how to do a basic session with your students.

Connect your students to your favorite video conferencing tool, Zoom is the most popular one, Shark works well with any of the available platforms.
Introduce your students to the topic of the day and to how they will be participating through Shark.
Time to start Shark Bridge Console on your Windows Computer. Once the application is up:

Click on the "Start Session" button. If it is the first time you open it, you will be instructed to login with your account.
If you have a dedicated server given from Shark Bridge, put it in the field “Bridge server.” If you do not have a dedicated server, the app will fill the name of the server automatically. At this time this is our test server; once you get comfortable, we move you to the production environment.
When you are ready, click on the “Connect" button, and then a session will start.
Copy the link at the top on the screen, and send it to your students, it is best to post this link in your communication application chat.
You will see the student list on the bottom right starting to fill in with the names of your students.

Get to know the control panel of the teacher's console.

On the right-hand side of the Console window is the Control Panel. Some of the actions are also conveniently available on the Teacher's Table.

End Session: Stop the session and disconnect all students.

Add Tables: Use to add students tables

Teacher Table: Use to bring the Master table into focus. When you click away from the Teacher's Table, it goes off the screen.

Zoom Out, No Zoom, and Zoom In: Use to control the display size of the student's table. What the students see is not affected.

Load Deals: Use to send deals to the student tables

Deal Generator: Use to autogenerate deals and send them to the students' tables.

Replay Deal: Use to explain a deal. It will auto stop any action on the students' tables and you can start playing the deal from the Master Table.

Next Deal: If you are using Deal Generator or have uploaded a full set of deals to our servers, you can go forward to the next deal. Note: Use it with Deal Generator only. Loading deals from the Library is one extra click and you know exactly which deal is sent to your students.

Stop Play: Stops all action of the students and turns off robots. Use to take full control of all tables.

Run Robots: Use to enable robots on all students tables. Robot does not autoplay on your Master table.

Show All Cards: Use to turn all hands face up on the students' tables. The button will turn red to caution you that all cards are now visible. You can press to close hands that should not be visible as per bridge rules. Fine-grained hand visibility is available from the Master table. You can find more in the “About the Teacher's Table” section of this manual.

Swap Students: Allows you to quickly swap positions of N-S and E-W.

Read the rest of our posts on how to accomplish the following tasks: