Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Hybrid Zoom Meetings - Need Help

[Jim Culang (culangjim]

Hi, Ed.
We at Wolf Creek Lodge are experimenting with hybrid meetings for our general 
and team meetings.  We thought, just like you, that hybrid would expand 
participation for people who might be ill or away. The majority of our members, 
however, want to stay with Zoom.  Our hybrid meetings satisfy the few who 
prefer to meet in-person (in-room.)  At our last general meeting, seventeen 
attended remotely while seven met in the common house.
We set up our first hybrid meeting with five cameras in the common house. 
Finding only seven in-person attendees, we have cut the number to two.  Only 
one camera is actually needed to show the people in the common house.  An iPad 
mounted on a tripod can smoothly scan the seven chairs.  The iPad joins the 
meeting without audio so as not to create feedback.  A laptop is also used.  
The laptop has a usb microphone on an extended cord.  The laptop provides the 
audio input.  It is connected to a bigscreen TV which provides the audio output 
as well as video of the Zoom screen. The video camera on the laptop is turned 
off so that the Zoom screen is less busy.
To your questions:   
   - We use share screen to share documents on the giant TV in the common house 
and those connecting remotely see the documents on their Zoom devices.
   - Remote viewers can see in-person presenters and participants via the video 
feed from the iPad and hear from the audio feed from the laptop.
   - In-room participants can see and hear remote participants on the big 
screen TV.  We use the "Spotlight" feature of Zoom to highlight presenters. 
I'm happy to clarify any matters that you may have about our set up.
Jim CulangWolf Creek Lodge, Grass Valley, California 

From: Edwin Simmers <edwinsimmers [at] bellcoho.com>
Subject: [C-L]_ Hybrid Zoom Meetings - Need Help
Date: November 9, 2023 at 9:27:17 AM PST
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Cc: Edwin Simmers <edwinsimmers [at] bellcoho.com>
Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

Here at Bellingham Cohousing we used Zoom extensively during the pandemic for 
our general meetings and committee meetings. Now that we’ve returned to 
in-person meetings, there’s still a desire to keep Zooming for folks who are 
unable to attend in person because of illness or distance. We’re finding that 
hybrid meetings are more difficult to manage than Zoom-only meetings and would 
like to learn from other people who’ve tried hybrid meetings.

Challenges:

- We use a projector and screen so that in-room participants can see documents. 
How do we make the documents available to remote viewers? The screen is too dim 
for a Zoom camera.
- How can remote viewers hear and see both meeting presenters and in-room 
participants?
- How can the in-room participants see and hear the remote viewers?

We are researching equipment that would make hybrid meetings better for all 
participants and easier to manage the technology during the meeting. Could you 
share with us anything you’ve learned about equipment and processes for hybrid 
Zoom meetings.

Thanks

Ed Simmers

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