[Zoom] Video Meet Tips
Edition: 2019-01-18
The UIC video meet feature is presently (since late 2016)
using the Zoom Cloud Meetings technology from Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
The UIC help page for this is: Virtual Meetup Help.
Read that page first. In general, it’s a trivially simple process
to join a meeting. The following article provides some wider detail.
Meetings can only be joined once in progress. You can’t join until the
meeting goes live, which may not occur until precisely the scheduled time,
or even a few minutes later if the host is tardy.
The link to join appears in both
the front page INNER CIRCLE DISCUSSIONS scroll, and on the Inner Circle
Virtual Meetups page: Meetups Currently in Progress scroll.
For the weekly Vmeet, check that Dr. Davis is shown as the host.
Unless you are the intended host, don’t attempt to start the meeting yourself.
If you do that, the intended host is unlikely to join the meet, and if
they do, they will not have host control, nor can those functions
be transferred once the meet has started.
You do not need a Zoom account. You do not need to sign up for meets.
You do need to be logged in on UIC.
You may need to provide an arbitrary identity upon joining the first time, which can be your
real name, UIC user screen name (suggested), or something else.
The Conference Experience
When you join one of these conferences, typically you’ll see a thumbnail for
each participant. If they have their cameras enabled, you’ll see live, low-rate
video from each camera. If they have their mic enabled, you’ll hear
whatever they have to say (or noise, if they are in a noisy environment
like a moving vehicle). Controls are provided for managing what you see,
and what you send.
Mute. Mute Mute. By default your mic is live when joining (although your
video is off). See more below.
If you don’t wish to be seen, use the icon to turn off your video
(and it is off by default). Don’t just
obscure the camera lens, because that just causes the auto-exposure to
transmit a noisy dark gray image from your camera, chewing up network
bandwidth needlessly.
Enable sidebar chat.
The conference has a Chat feature for sending messages to
specific participants (or All), but newer users may not notice
the indicator, and may miss that they have a message. All of the message traffic
is lost when the conference ends. You can copy and paste in the
Chat dialog, and save it. I routinely save it for open meets that I attend, which is then
anonymized and posted to the weekly
vmeet thread.
There’s also a Raise Hand feature buried in one of the menus, but it either
doesn’t work with the version UIC is running or whatever it does is
going unnoticed.
Although user-initiated meets are limited to 45 minutes, Staff-initiated
meets may be unlimited. The weekly meet can easily run 90 minutes.
Additional Setup Information
You need a supported device to get to the conference. If you
don’t have audio and/or camera on that device, it is not yet
possible to connect by phone (below).
For a normal join, obviously, to even lurk on a Video Meet
requires at least audio
output on your device (speakers or headphones). To contribute
requires audio {microphone} input. My main desktop PC deliberately
has no mic or cam, so I use my laptop or Android phone for meets.
I’m less certain about
our ancient Android tab.
Some homework may be required for older devices.
Ideally, use a headset. When you use a speaker, your mic picks
up not just room sounds and your voice, but also all the
conference audio. The Zoom app is very likely using squelch
and feedback cancellation algorithms, but they probably have
limits, which, when exceeded, result in distracting artifacts
in the conference audio. If you must use a speaker, it’s even
more important to mute your mic except when speaking. If audio
from your mic becomes a problem, don’t be surprised if the host
mutes you. Unmute to speak.
The presentation on the Android phone is, unsurprisingly, a bit
different, due to the smaller screen and presumed touch input.
You really need a screen-side camera.
There are fewer on-screen controls until you touch it, and on
mine, there were 5 separate screens, accessed via swiping.
It was not possible to see all the participants at once.
System Requirements
See
the Zoom page on technical details. The sidebar has
links for additional platforms. I can report that my
2Mbps down/500Kbps up
rural wireless internet is just adequate.
A connection that is too sloggy might require
opting out of video.
It appears possible to join without a camera.
I’m less sure of without a microphone.
In any event, you can lurks, with both cam off and mic muted.
Software: the Zoom tech relies on:
The Zoom site appears to have numerous video tutorials.
Tip: Install Well Prior to First Conference
For lowest risk of surprises, you might want to run through the
install/add-on process some time prior to the
conference. You may need admin privileges for application installs on
your machine.
It may be worthwhile to create a {free} account on Zoom. It’s not used
for a UIC Meet. UIC meets automatically create an account for you
under the site license.
How to Test Your Capability and Connection
Once installed, direct your browser to the
Zoom Test Page.
doing this will avoid the annoyance of discovering
during conference that no one can hear you.
The test video (if any) displayed from your camera appears to
be via remote loop-back. Low resolution and/or any judder speak
to your bandwidth.
There’s a link on the test page for
Test Computer Mic & Speakers
The speaker test is just a tone from Zoom.
The mic test is a delayed remote loop-back from your mic.
Take note of the various icons around the screen (and you may
have to activate your pointing device to make them appear).
The audio and video mutes are lower left on the desktop app.
The presentation using the Android app was different from the
desktop app. Click the icon or username at lower left for
some options. The other icons then appear. Also, the
test conference had no audio or video loop-back, and I was
only able to join it by starting with a browser, which handed
of to the app. If Zoom has a static conference number for the
test conference, it’s not published.
Further, it’s not clear, on mobile, if the audio for a
conference is considered Media or Call. If Media, be sure to
test your headset, because some Bluetooth devices (like
my Motorola H720) support only Call. I’ll be using a wired
headset if I join via my Android device.
Meet-Up Tips
- Enable video upon join, unless you don’t want to be seen.
Your cam is off by default.
- Mute shortly after
joining a meet (after saying hi if that’s
still going on). Your mic may be on by default.
It’s an icon at screen lower left. Stay
muted unless getting ready to speak, then resume mute afterward.
- If there’s any doubt about your audio output and microphone
status, by all means briefly hit the Zoom test page
and adjust as needed.
- Scheduled UIC conferences may not be joinable until the Live
Event banner appears, and that may not occur until the precise
scheduled time. Check
the Virtual Meetups page.
- Getting in early on the conference may matter, because so far
it’s had a relatively low participant count limit (raised to
20 for the 2017-07-06 event).
If you find that you can’t get in, please remark about it,
perhaps a comment on this forum thread.
- If not using (and maybe even if using) your Zoom account,
look around to see if you are being asked to provide some
identifying name that appears to everyone else under your
thumbnail. Note that these names are relatively arbitrary
and may not be the same as usernames on the UIC forum.
- Chat works. Use it to do things like sending additional
information to other participants, where not of general
value to all. Use Chat-all sparingly. If someone uses it,
consider setting the reply to just that user.
- If using a Zoom app, it’s worth firing it some just prior
to meet start, because it checks for
updates.
Mute. Mute. Mute.
Mute shortly after joining a meet. Unmute only when preparing to
speak, and while speaking.
Your mic is open by default. Even if you aren’t speaking, it
can pick up things that are remarkably disruptive to the meet.
The top problems are:
- pets, family members, household and neighborhood sounds
- typing, mouse clicks and adjusting the PC/tablet/phone
- echo: if you are listening via speaker (in device or external),
the Zoom squelch algorithm has limited capability to cancel out
what you are hearing from being picked up by your mic and being
added back into the conference audio
- hum in the audio chain from an external mic, or fan noise
on a laptop
Thumbnail Issues
If you have your camera enabled, by default your view of yourself
on your screen
may be mirror-like left-to-right. Everyone else is correctly
rectified, and they see you correctly rectified. There’s a
video option for defeating the mirror.
The video app has options at upper right for presentation.
The Gallery view may show everyone. The Speaker view may
show what the app thinks is the current speaker, and an
incomplete thumbnail stack of everyone else.
The Record button requires some sort of conference host
approval, which is not likely to be granted until the
consent issues are worked out.
My Device Can’t Conference
The most recent conference I attended did not have the phone tab.
If it ever appears, here’s how it works:
- On the device you use for normal UIC/Cureality visits,
install the Zoom app anyway.
- Go to the Zoom test page (above).
- Click the Phone Call tab on
the Zoom dialog. It provides an example phone number and Meeting ID
and Participant ID. Note the process here, but not the numbers.
- When the real meeting goes live, click through to it on your
unsupported browsing device. Get the phone# and IDs for the
actual conference. Make the call.
___________
Bob Niland
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