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I'm looking at setting up meetings which mix in person and virtual. This is for community group with up to say 12/15 in person.
Is this any more complicated than setting up a zoom meeting and using laptop, big TV and webcam combo to cover the in person room. Two specific questions:
(1) Will any old £25 webcam work for the visuals
(2) Audio - is the microphone on the webcam likely to be enough? Would it be better to get a separate conference microphone and if so would a £15 mike cut it?
Interested in real world experiences using cheap kit. We do this sort of thing all the time at work, but the video conferencing tech is all professional quality so it's whether cheap tech would cut it I think.
The biggest issue you face is the people in the room.
And then the room.
And then the microphone.
My current webcam is an old mobile its superb. A proper conference mic in the middle of the table helps but if everyone keep talking or are poorly disciplined and the room is dead echoy the people online might as well hangup.
A mix of multiple folk in a room and individuals joining from their own location usually results in a poorer experience for everyone.
Better all co-located or all individually remote (e.g on zoom).
(2) Audio – is the microphone on the webcam likely to be enough? Would it be better to get a separate conference microphone and if so would a £15 mike cut it?
You need something that's actually designed as a conference microphone, IME.
I'm with @oldtennisshoes on this one, mixed meetings like this are always shit, even when using a room designed specifically for the purpose. Get everyone on zoom, or everyone in person and it will be a better experience for all
the hybrid approach can be made to work in some settings - essentially where the panel is in the room and the audience is virtual, but even then the mics in the room need to be good enough, the panel disciplined enough and whoever running things on their game.
generally, hybrid meetings are the worst way.
It tends to be an awful experience even with the high end VC kit.
One of the better conference mics will help but with that many people, some will be out too far to be picked up properly, and you often get noise from the closer people. Thing put down on tables, papers shuffling, chairs moving, etc.
You need to lay the room out around the screen, so it’ll be u shape or rows and that’s a pain to mic up. There are fancier conference mics that have satellite mics so you can cover a wider area but there’s often still the background noise issue.
If the kind of meeting suits you could have a mic to be passed around (although with COVID maybe less appealing) - fine for someone presenting, audience question, etc - not so good for back and forth group discussion. Can work though with good moderation / meeting discipline.
Spend £50+ on a webcam and you have half a chance of a clear image of the people in the room - still very hard for remote people to tell who’s talking though.
A dozen or more people, all needing to be involved in a discussion? Go for all remote or all in person if at all possible.
Thanks for the comments. We do (did!) these mixed type meetings all the time at work (and have done for years) but use professional grade equipment, including multiple switchable microphones in the bigger rooms
The reason we are wanting to try it for the non-work meetings is that some people really don't like or have the wherewithal to use zoom whereas others will he reticent because of covid to do face to face even though it will likely be September before we make the move back (or not the way things are going).
I guessed audio would-be the real technical issue and any workable solution may be too spendy.
We do have guest speakers though and I think an option for them to present remotely may be an easier win
On the cheap.... get a jabra bluetooth conference speaker. Link it to your phone and use that for audio. Then any cheap HD web cam will be enough. But you will have to dial in for audio and use the pc only for visual.
I have run loads of hybrid meetings with very expensive corporate kit (decent mikes, cameras that auto focus on the speaker etc). They are always rubbish compared with all in person or all online meeitngs. The ability to chair a hybrod meeting is a rare skill, and usually the people in the room dominate and those online tune out.
Rather than a hybrid, why not have those who are zoom phobic come into an office and use Zoom there, with support to help them? That way everone is online and the meeting can be managed for the technophobes.
as most of the people above, hybrid will be rubbish. I've done rooms with single mics, and even multi mics and you can never get good audio for those on the phone - the only time I've seen it work well is a dedicated, wired in mic array in the ceiling, and I think that setup cost £10k
people in person each with a headset might work (if they're good at muting)
get each person in room to use a laptop/ ipad with camera on / mic off to get everybody's face on the go. Then have one room mic of quality. doubt you'd see much on a Room Cam