Combining ZOOM with physical meetings
Ron Reilly
78 Posts
Our Hawaii Island Chapter is attempting to facilitate more participation in monthly meetings by have people Zoom in to the physical meeting.  We have only tried it three times, and with limited success.
The main problem is that remote Zoomers have a hard time hearing the conversations going on among the physical participants.
We have tried using a smart phone (in the meeting room) as a "talking stick". This phone is logged into the Zoom meeting audio connection and is passed from one physical participant to the next in an "orderly" manner. A problem is people sometimes have a hard time being sufficiently orderly (talking over each other, two talking at the same time, etc.) and the remote Zoomers end up with a lot of missed, semi-garbled audio.
Another more expensive solution would be to buy a set of table mics and have them placed around the table/room. However, online reviews of various multi-mic-sets products are mixed... and they cost.
Any and all helpful suggestions welcome.
Thank you Ron  
9 Replies
Tony Sirna
784 Posts
I've not used this in a CCL context but in another group I had success using a microphone like Samson UB 1. Cost is under $100 online. USB - connects to Mac or Windows. We were able to skype people in to a meeting with a dozen people and had good sound quality that picked up all the voices in the room.

 
Sara Wanous
243 Posts
Hi Ron! Thanks for working to find ways to engage all of your members over such geographic distances. 

Unfortunately I don't have any tips for having a simultaneous Zoom and physical meeting. However, I know Miranda Phillips‍'s chapter hosts two separate meetings: one in person for those who can attend, and another one on Zoom for those who can't make it to their physical meeting. (Miranda, please chime in if you have any tips/tricks/feedback regarding this approach!) This might be an alternative approach if you can't find a solution to making the meeting engaging to both the participants on Zoom and in the room.
Ron Reilly
78 Posts
Thank you Tony for this relatively affordable recommendation. Great to have a word from an experienced user. 
Ron Reilly
78 Posts
Aloha Sara,
Thank you for your reply and good to know that Miranda Phillips is using a double meeting approach.  We wondered if this would be an alternative for us.

Watching Amy "effortlessly" do two-per-day Liaison monthly calls is a masterful model.

Would certainly welcome any tips/ pitfalls to avoid from Miranda.

Thanks also to Todd Elvins who suggested a post to the "Ask Anything" Forum
Mahalo to all, Ron 
Brett Cease
3861 Posts
Thanks Ronald Reilly‍ - moving this to the Chapter Organizing category to help get more attention given it's focus! 

Copying Elinor Sparks‍ , Carol Braford‍ and Jennifer Glazer‍ and Moni Usasz‍ as I know they may have some stories / experience hosting Zoom meetings for rural areas to help bring people together online and help folks connect!
Ron Reilly
78 Posts
Thank you Brett for the move to Chapter Organizing.  BTW I'm in touch with Andrew Fraser of the CCL New Zealand Chapter, Andrew is also looking for Zoom solutions for their July 29th meeting. The Samson UB 1 is on its way from Amazon :-)
Elinor Sparks
119 Posts
I don't have any stories to share.  I really like the organizing that Miranda Phillips does in general.  I think she would have some solid wisdom and experience to offer you.

Love,

Elli
Steven Selby
233 Posts

@Tony Sirna

We've been doing hybrid meeting since we started meeting in-person again.   The microphone in the live portion is a challenge.

I bought this.  It's now $24 on Amazon.  I put it in the middle of the table of our small group.   On-line attendees say they can hear even when someone speaking is 6 to 8 feet away.  It really works better than I expected.


 

@Ron Reilly n Austin we've found that hybrid (in-person plus Zoom) meetings are worthwhile, but it took us several meetings to overcome the technical challenges. To keep the Zoom attendees in the loop requires attention to both the video and the audio they receive. We typically have 25 to 30 people attending in person, so a single microphone doesn’t work, nor does a fixed video camera. 

We run our meetings’ Zoom sessions and slide shows on a MacBook Pro which is connected to a 55-inch TV which displays the Zoom screen, including the meeting’s Google slides. Our video camera is a Sony HandyCam HDR-CX240 ($135) whose HDMI-OUT port is connected to one of the MBP’s USB-C ports through a Guermo audio/video capture card ($21). We use two CKOKC wireless microphones ($33 for the pair), plugging their receiver into another of the MBP’s USB-C ports. The video and audio signals are routed to OBS Studio, which routes them to Zoom.app. The Zoom session is displayed on the big TV, whose speaker outputs the remote attendees’ audio. 

How about the physical setup? The video camera is mounted on a tripod. The microphones are little lavalier mics, which are designed for interviews in which each one is clipped to one speaker’s lapel. For discussions in our meetings, in which the microphones are frequently handed from one person to another, they are attached to short sections of wooden dowel rod using binder clips.  

31b5a900d48b58970ddad7077b82b728-huge-te

Making this work requires a crew of four in-person volunteers. One runs the Zoom session, screen-sharing the slide-show window. Another keeps the camera aimed at whoever is speaking. A third person watches for Zoom attendees’ raised hands and chat questions. The fourth—usually the meeting’s leader—hands the microphones to people who want to speak, and reminds others to refrain from talking until they have one of the microphones, i.e., to treat them like talking sticks.

This is just one of a great many possible setups, to show what can be done for much less than the cost of a Meeting Owl, whose price ($1049) presumably puts it out of reach of most CCL chapters. 

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories