Andyjr1515 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 23 minutes ago, Richard R said: @Andyjr1515 - you still seem to be in the meeting. Can you hang up? Off now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Still showing as running with you in 🤔 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Done this time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Trouble is, the bar with the red phone disappeared very quickly and I had close the app too! Not terribly intuitive first time round Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Yep! Everyone has to explicitly hang up, or the meeting continues. Apparently the feature for the organiser to kill it is due out real soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Well that was entertaining. A few technical issues, but the basic principle of meeting over VC is sound, and people seem to want to do it again. Tech Notes: - Teams only lets you see four people on screen. Not a major problem, Skype does the same, but requires a bit of management of the meeting Users should change their name as displayed in their profile settings, otherwise it picks up the first part of their email address. Having a Microsoft account is a prerequisite. Again not a major problem but it wasn't made clear Cameras vary in quality, but all are better than mine. My phone was better than my PC, and actually wasn't a bad experience to join on Audio was OK, and it is possible to DI a bass into the audio. Everyone has to explicitly hang up to end the meeting. Tech Question: Do we want to try this over Skype as an alternative? Other Notes: Only @nickmew had wine, which made the rest of us terribly jealous @jebroad's mini bass is even smaller in real life than it appears in photographs. Tom's african build 2 is going to be fab! Fan frets are clearly in this year I'm happy to organise another one, with an open invitation to all members. In which case I think we would have a more specific agenda. I'm happy to have another test run with Skype if we think more people will readilly have that and therefore the startup time is reduced. (Zoom isn't an option if I'm organising, it's invasive and insecure) Honest comments please: 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldman Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Great “Craic” tonight guys good effort Rich B 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 (edited) For a first go - and with this the first time with Teams for many of us, it was pretty successful. And I got to stay on it the longest 😎 Thanks for organising, @Richard R Edited April 3, 2020 by Andyjr1515 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len_derby Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Thanks @Richard R for this. Sorry, I didn’t get a Microsoft account sorted in time for last night but I’ll do that and be ready (hopefully) for any further tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldman Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Can we get more than 4 screens on at the same time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jebroad Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 May I just be clever and interject with the fact that the top 3 active people's video feed is shown as you always see your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 That is a limitation of both Skype and Teams. To be honest though, I spend half my working day on video conferences, and usually you only look at the current speaker anyway. You just have to assume that people are concentrating and not scratching their bits under the desk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 59 minutes ago, Richard R said: That is a limitation of both Skype and Teams. To be honest though, I spend half my working day on video conferences, and usually you only look at the current speaker anyway. You just have to assume that people are concentrating and not scratching their bits under the desk. I read on the MS Admin stuff that they are planning to add more windows on MS Teams relatively shortly. (Might be like Covid-19 testing, though) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ped Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 Hi guys sorry I thought it was tonight for some reason, I think I read 8pm and my increasingly addled mind logged that as the 8th in my calendar. I’m waiting for a new brain but it’s stuck in customs! Sounds like it went well but we’re at the limits of the tech as usual. I use Zoom and Google Hangouts for work and both work well - I’m pretty sure with Hangouts you can have as many people on screen as you like, or have them mini size and the speaker maximised. Zoom has just been updated and now I think is secure. As soon as one of us with a premium account joins the conversation there’s no time limit like the free version (45mins) Hangouts is so easy though - as long as the organiser has a google account they can invite anyone no matter what their email address, and once the meeting is ‘booked’ anyone can join just by clicking the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldman Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 48 minutes ago, ped said: Hi guys sorry I thought it was tonight for some reason, I think I read 8pm and my increasingly addled mind logged that as the 8th in my calendar. I’m waiting for a new brain but it’s stuck in customs! Sounds like it went well but we’re at the limits of the tech as usual. I use Zoom and Google Hangouts for work and both work well - I’m pretty sure with Hangouts you can have as many people on screen as you like, or have them mini size and the speaker maximised. Zoom has just been updated and now I think is secure. As soon as one of us with a premium account joins the conversation there’s no time limit like the free version (45mins) Hangouts is so easy though - as long as the organiser has a google account they can invite anyone no matter what their email address, and once the meeting is ‘booked’ anyone can join just by clicking the link. That sounds like what’s needed. Thanks Ped 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 I agree we would be much better with something where we could post a link and have people join, rather than needing to have a specific account in advance. Zoom have improved their client, password required by default and a few things, but they still use sub-standard encryption, route traffic through China for no good reason, and ship data to FB without being upfront about it. Hangouts looks better, need to look further into it. There are a couple of lesser-known options too. For typical consumer offering you have to accept that a "free" service is often paid for with your personal information, and that's acceptable of you know up front and are happy with the trade off. Likewise companies shouldn't claim a service is enterprise grade end-to-end encrypted when it isn't. Zoom rolled their own encryption algorithm so low bandwidth performance was better. A schoolboy error because it was demonstrably rubbish. (I probably come across as wearing a tinfoil hat and sandals when it comes to security. That isn't entirely the case - my sandals broke on holiday last year.) Will set up another test after Easter, then a VBash in May I hope. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 I've got a Google Hangout meeting for an astroclub tomorrow, but numbers are limited to 25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bnt Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 How about Cisco Webex for this? They say: Quote Your free Webex Meetings plan gives you meetings with 100 participants, HD video, screen sharing, and a personal room. Use it as long as you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Hi all, Sorry I haven't had the time to come back to this thread or set up any sort of test/trial. I currently have a wide open test Jitsi meeting room at: https://meet.jit.si/Sohowdoesthisthingwork67 Jitsi is very like Zoom and can handle multiple people on the view, but there is no sharing of data to social networks. From a PC there is no requirement to install anything, it should run fine in the browser. IPad and phones there is a lightweight app. I'll be there about 8pm on Monday if anyone wants to say hello. The room should be unsecured, so you can just hit the link now and test, even if I am not there as host. I think. Please don't share the URL though. I have a Cisco meeting room too, but I haven't used that yet. Cheers, Rich ===== 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldman Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Thank Rich I’ll give it a shot🤓 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 I've successfully taken part in meetings using zoom messenger, google hangouts and microsoft teams. My video out is rather poor, but everything else works. Skype refuses to recognise my camera. Some of these have participant limits but hangouts has raised the limit from 10 in the last week, not sure if it will now be enough but it is one of the easiest to use. Teams won't work with Firefox but I use the app or I could use <spit> Edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Teams is rolling out video for 9 at the moment, different people will get it at different times. The downside is that for the free version you have to join the organisation, as we found. You can use an Android phone as a webcam. DroidCam runs as an app on the phone, with a client app on the PC. Once installes, and PC rebooted, then when DroidCam is running it appears as another webcam, USB or wireless. Conferencing apps should recognise it. I have a cunning plan to set up a camera on the bird table using my daughter's old phone. She doesn't know this yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 New Edge is a good browser. Chromium engine under the hood, built in add blocker, and faster than Chrome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 I'll be around on the above link for half an hour or so. If you see a greying geezer with a puzzled expression and a Brawley bass it's me. Anything else on your screen I can't help you explain to your significant other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Hi, Richard I'm on Edge but it's telling me that it doesn't recognise the browser I'm on and that I should use Chrome or Firefox. Is there anything I have to tell Edge to do settings-wise? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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