Live presentations

We have just started using Zoom, and one of the things we want to do is share our monthly company meetings with staff in other locations. We tried this a couple of days ago but the results were a little disappointing. So I’ve been thinking about how I’d like to do this and here are a few thoughts. First some background.

The meetings take place in a large room 20m x 40m. Powerpoint material is projected onto a wall at the end of the room. This end of the room is darkened so as to maximise the clarity of the Powerpoint screen, so the presenters are a little in the dark.

The presenters use a handheld radio mic which feeds a pair of wall mounted speakers about half way down the room.

Initially we shared the screen of the Mac that was being used to present the Powerpoint slides, and also used its built in microphone for the audio. The feedback from the remote attendees was that the sound was indistinct in places, and not being able to see the presenters was off-putting.

So I’m wondering if I could do the following.

  1. Have a camera set up above the audience to capture the whole stage, plus share the screen of the presenter’s computer. Then have the remote attendees be able to switch between both feeds. I see there’s a kb article on how to switch between two cameras, but I think only the presenter can do the switching? Maybe I need two computers and zoom accounts, both set as participants to the conference to do this?

2) Substitute the audio from the sound system into the camera feed, so that the sound is clearer. I guess I’ll need an audio interface to do this. Has anyone used something like the Presonus Audiobox for this?

  1. If the remote user can switch between the camera feed and the screen share, I’d like the audio to stay with the microphone though.

  2. Have some control over the brightness of the camera to lighten the image. We’ve been using Facetime and Logitech cameras, none of which seem to have advanced PQ controls, or am I missing something?

Any ideas welcome. Thanks.

Greg: I recommend submitting this info in a ticket to our support team:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/requests

We have a PSO team that specializes in doing installs, and they will be able to give you a lot of advice on the setup. I’m focused on the API, but not much on room setup.

What we do for our all-hands meetings:

  • We have one camera that shows only the presenter

  • The presenter uses a wireless headset for the mic; I do not think we have any kind of amplification of the presenter for the room.

  • We also do a screen share

In the room with the presenter, one video monitor shows the shared screen, and one shows the presenter.

Then, the viewers typically configure their Zoom Clients to show the screen share, with smaller horizontal gallery view at the top of the screen, so that the active presenter is always shown as the first person in the gallery view.