Audio Visual Insights for Web-Conferencing and Live Streaming

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.

Most asked Questions of July 2018:

Every year ConferenceRoomSystems.com releases their predictions for the video conferencing industry along with the results from the previous year. We didn't see everything we predicted for 2016 but we did see some amazing advances in video conferencing, live streaming and wireless presentation.

See Last Years Predictions for 2016 below... 

Hello Web Conferencing Professionals,

Lately it seems like the ChromeBox has been taking the meeting room by storm. IT folks are seeing the ChromeBox as a simple and affordable option for a "Meeting Room" Computer. Google put together an attractive package called "ChromeBox for Meetings" built from the ChromeBox, a Logitech C930e and a Jabra Speak 410 microphone. Google also includes a "Google User License" and they made custom "Meeting Room Software" to make the room easy to schedule and usable for Google Hangout meetings. Much of the demand is driven by companies who are on the Google Platform for gmail and therefore unified communications.

So the fact that these ChromeBox's are going into meeting rooms begs the question: Why bundle a desktop webcam? That camera is made for desktop video conferencing where users are literally 2-3 feet from the camera. Putting this camera in a large room makes the users look like ants and field of view is always way to wide. 

USB Camera with Optical Zoom

When you think "webcam" or "USB Camera" most people think of the desktop logitech webcams. And until recently that's what a "USB Camera" was. With the new HuddleCamHD camera line we have added 12X, 18X, 20X and 30X options for larger rooms and spaces where HD video quality is needed. Check out our test footage to see exactly what Optical Zoom on a USB camera does for video conferencing and web-casting during your webinars. 

Reason's for using Optical Zoom USB Cameras

• Webinars in auditoriums or large spaces
• Need for dynamic presentations
• Zooming in to whiteboards
• Recording live shows
• Broadcasting events
• Live streaming
• Board Meetings in large spaces
• Showing detailed images from far distances

Hello AV & IT Professionals!

Every year ConferenceRoomSystems.com releases their predictions for the video conferencing industry along with the results from the previous year. We didn't see everything we predicted for 2015 but we did see some amazing advances in video conferencing, live streaming and wireless presentation.

Hello IT & AV Pros!

In this blog post we review how to iron out “video jitter” and “packet loss” with a simple check list for improving online meetings.

In an effort to increase the quality of online meetings for our customers we have created a easy to use checklist of “best practices” for connecting to an online video conferencing service such as GoToMeeting, Skype for Business, WebEX or Zoom. Understanding the quality of bandwidth access available and the common causes of packet loss will help increase the quality of your online video meetings.

We have two free tools available at the end of this article to help you avoid common pitfalls. First we have our best practices checklist which includes a detailed list of tips and suggestions for “video conferencing, recording, live streaming and mobile connections.” Second we have a free online tool for spot testing bandwidth access. This tool is available at http://speed.huddlecamhd.com and it allows users to ping our server in Scottsdale, AZ (more info available speed.huddlecamhd.com).

Hello AV & IT Pros!

We hope this will be an interesting post for anyone who has wondered: Should I set up a video conference call or a webinar? 

What events are best suited for a video conference, a webinar or just a plain old live stream?

Sometimes the video conferencing service your using can't host everyone your expecting... Sometimes you only want to broadcast a one-way live stream. With the rise of YouTube Live, will the world of video conferencing and live streaming find synergies? 

If your planning a big event you might ask yourself if your video conferencing service has enough space for everyone that your expecting. When you plan larger video conference calls, most services like GoToMeeting, WebEX and Zoom suggest webinar packages. These packages are great for adding more "view only" participants and they solve most meeting capacity limits up to 3,000 users.

But what if you want to do more of a live broadcast? You might not really need to set up a video conference at all! Maybe you can use a service like YouTube Live to stream to thousands of viewers around the world for free!

In this post we will discuss these options plus a way to combine them! That's right, tips for live broadcasting your video conference calls using YouTube Live :)

When to Video Conference:

If your used to video conferencing you will find any excuse to use it. Let's face it. Video conferencing is super easy these days! Once users start benefiting from the time savings, the cost savings and the superior communication it starts to make an impression. This is not just some "honeymoon" with a cool new piece technology either. Video conferencing usages "Grew by 100% in the past 2 years 2013-2015" (more in this Vytopia report). So using video conferencing is coming naturally to today's tech saavy workers.

If you are interested to learn more about when to meet "face to face" vs "online" check out this great article by Joe Mullich of the Wall Street Journal. 

Hello IT and AV Pros!

I have lost count of how many clients have told me they use Microsoft Lync AND another service. Cisco Jabber AND couple others. It seems like organizations are always using multiple web video conferencing solutions in different ways. A popular combination we have found is GoToMeeting and Skype OR Microsoft Lync and WebEX. There are so many different and unique web video conferencing services out there that it seems like organizations are choosing to use multiple services Click Here to read a Gartner Study about market trends on "new entrants that often conflict with established service providers".

Whether or not buisness leaders are trying to use the best from each service or simply test un-traveled waters is beyond me. But the web video conferencing software providers who are making it must admit heavy video conferencing users use multiple platforms on a regular basis. 

For example, a huge number of organizations are using Microsoft Lync for their internal video conferencing accompanied with a more "cloud friendly" service like GoToMeeting, WebEX or Zoom.US. It was this type of video conferencing experience that inspired the creation of our latest "Lync Meeting Room Control Software" product which integrates with native SDK's within Microsoft Lync (Skype for Business) and a unlimited amount of third party web conferencing software API's including Office 365. 

It's worth noting that Bluejeans got this market right from the begining and made a business on providing interoperability features for companies that simply wanted the best flexibility options no matter the cost. But I think the majority of companies use a mix of different services by choice. I think they choose the services that reach out to them the most. A friend of mine from Citrix warmly referred to this "fact of life" as "Cross-Polination". GoToMeeting uses the same USB webcam technology as Skype does over at Microsoft. And Citrix would know a thing or two about the web conferencing market holding on to the big #2 "soft codec" position with GoToMeeting, second only to Skype, the #1 soft codec now also known as "Skype for Business."

Check out our slideshare demonstrating the software we feel is an ideal interface for organizations that are using Microsoft Lync coupled with another software like GoToMeeting, WebEX or Zoom.US. The CRS Lync Meeting Control Software was built to provide elegant control for Lync & MS Exchange plus add much needed features such as support for Google Calendar and 3rd party web conferencing applications like GoToMeeting, WebEX and Zoom.US.