Popular building-design and workstyle trends are raising office noise levels, and the results often negatively impact staff productivity and businesses' bottom lines.
The push toward increased “daylighting” in building designs, often in pursuit of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, presents office noise challenges. Increasing a building’s natural light coverage means more glass, both in terms of external windows and interior partitions. Glass performs poorly as a noise blocker, thus contributing to an increase in overall office noise.
If you're in the ProAV or video conferencing industry you most likely get this question all the time. How can I use multiple cameras with my web video conferencing software? Power users have adopted web video conferencing for it’s powerful communication benefits and they want to push the limits of what they can achieve. Using multiple cameras will allow presentations to include a second view for products, speakers and almost anything else you can imagine. In this article we review the easiest and most cost-effective ways to add a second camera to your web video conferencing experience no-matter what software you are using.
Connect multiple USB cameras to a single PC and switch cameras using the software settings
Use multiple computers in the same meeting space each with their own cameras connected to same meeting
Use a USB video mixer such as a Roland or Inogenie (reviewed in this article)
Use a software-based video mixer such as Wirecast or vMix which can create a virtual webcam input from almost any mix of sources which is selectable in any video conferencing software as a USB webcam.
UPDATE - 2/6/2019: Just this past week the HuddleCamHD released a short update on this topic that covers just this topic!
In the above short 10 minute webinar, Paul Richards and Tess Protesto review some tips for using multiple cameras in your video conferencing software. Updates include, how to quickly switch between multiple USB cameras inside Zoom Video Conferencing, how to control multiple USB conference cameras with the same IR remote control and why you should be considering an overhead camera. The entire webinar includes live demonstrations so you can see in detail how to use multiple cameras with your video conferencing software and what it's like to control multiple cameras during a webinar presentation.
UPDATE! 10/19/2016: Lead Engineer Matthew Davis Review the Inogenie Share2 allowing users to combine multiple cameras for use in
Matthew Davis explains how to use multiple cameras with Skype for Business, GoToMeeting and WebEX using the INOGENI Share 2. The INOGENI Share 2 is an amazing USB 3.0 capture device that allows users to bring in 2 cameras into their favorite web video conferencing service along with 2 additional USB devices with a single USB 3.0 input.
For this how to video Matt Davis set up the unit to demonstrate 2 cameras via HDMI and DVI plus an audio input coming from a USB 2.0 HuddlePod Air wireless dongle. As the INOGENI Share 2 demonstration is done you will see that the device has 7 buttons for easy camera layout changes. The layouts include: picture in picture, side by side and other layouts for sharing multiple cameras with your Skype for Business, GoToMeeting, WebEX or Zoom conference.
The INOGENI Share 2 is a great dedicated appliance making dual camera systems for web conferencing a breeze. It's nice because there are buttons on the top, an application and crestron/extron control. There are software alternatives for using multiple cameras in a single USB selectable virtual webcam but it's very nice to have a dedicated appliance to streamline easy of use in the conference room.
This week we have a really amazing new free resource for audio visual managers, IT support technicians and audio visual integrators! It's called the AVBot for Slack. The AVBot is a real-time resource management system specifically designed to organize meeting room technology in Slack.
What is Slack?
Slack is a team communication application for the 21st century. It's also the fastest growing business in history. With an elegant design that works seamlessly between all modern devices, Slack has taken the unified communications industry by storm.
Skype Translate is revolutionizing the world of international business
In December last year, Skype launched its Translate app preview which will revolutionize video calling forever. We live in a technological world where everyone is connected with their friends, family and colleagues through social media and social networking apps. The only barrier that stops us from connecting with new people is language. Language is the biggest barrier in communication even though English is the most commonly spoken language, still more than half of the 7 billion people on this planet cannot communicate in English.
Skype for Business, Improved and Integrated with Office 365
Microsoft has replaced Microsoft Lync with the improved Skype for Business video conferencing software. Skype for Business is an improvement over Microsoft Lync while retaining the same popular features and adding new ones. Great news for professionals, Skype for Business offers new integrations with Office 365. There are three pricing plans now available for users – Business Online 1, Business Online 2 and Server 2015.
Cisco JabberandSkype for Business (formerly Lync) are two of the most widely used video conferencing softwares in the world. Reason being, both softwares are developed by highly reputable companies with extensive background knowledge on office software and hardware. Cisco is the most popular networking, video conferencing and office equipment manufacturer while Microsoft is the pioneer behind Office applications. Both applications fight neck to neck to gain corporate awareness and with video conferencing now a common practice in organizations it’s about time both companies polish their tools even more.
As we reach the end of 2014, Conference Room Systems put together a Video Conferencing Technology Timeline covering audio and video conferencing technologies from 1980 all the way up to 2015. We cover web video conferencing hardware and software including: Apple iPhone, iPad, Logitech's first webcam, Jabra's first bluetooth microphone, Phoenix Audio, HuddleCamHD, PTZOptics, ClearONE, Apple FaceTime, BlueJeans, Lync, Google Hangouts, Vaddio, WebRTC, Skype, Polycom, GoToMeeting, WebEX, VSee, Zoom.US and finally Conference Room Systems.
Today we are focusing on ways to use video conferencing effectively for your sales team. Using these 10 Tips your sales team can wield a more effective sales approach and reduce the costs of business travel. Let's quickly look at the Pro's and Con's of using Video Conferencing for 100% of sales related business calls.
Pro's:
Lower your overall cost of doing business
Increase your time to sell
Increase your availability for clients
Boost productivity with collaboration tools
Con's:
The old fashion handshake is lost
Establishing rapport can prove more difficult
Gathering site survey information can prove more difficult