Best videoconferencing software ?

[DaveReading]

Skype/Zoom/Mirosoft Teams/etc ?

Doesn't need to be free. Interested in CCers' experiences of the above or other alternatives.

 

[dodgy]

We've used Slack, excellent audio quality, great collaboration tools.

 

[Hugh Manatee]

Funnily enough, we had a conference call yesterday about this. Teams seems OK at first glance. I am hoping to use it for a few university sessions. I liked the way someone else (the lecturer in my case) could arrange everything like invites etc, and then give me control. Would probably be better with two screens on the go.

 

[marinyork]

Dunno about the best but I've been using zoom the last week. I like Zoom as someone can just follow a link. Simples. Lag and stability is decent. Skype I like but always seems to confuse the hell out of people and I don't know why.

Zoom has an array of options like share computer sound and whiteboard and so on.

Not sure on the picture quality on zoom, don't get good vid out of it at all, but I have the same issue on skype with my webcam/computer which I think videoconferencing stuff doesn't like (Logitech 920 webcam). Phone tends to get better picture.

 

[Rocky]

We use FaceTime or WhatsApp for the kids (28 and 31) who at various stages have been dotted around the globe. We got a special system for my elderly mother - it's called Komp for my elderly mother. We access it via our smartphones using the app and my mum has an old fashioned TV-like screen at her end. All she needs to do is turn a dial to switch it on - so very low tech her end. We can also post photos for her to see.

 

[bikingdad90]

I’ve used Teams, Zoom and Cisco WebEx. My favourite is Teams as it’s easy to use, you can share you screen and give control and kick out and mute participants.

Zoom is similar except when you flick between screens when presenting you need to manually select it which can be a bit annoying.

Cisco I found clunky and not user friendly as it was hard to navigate round but it allows you to chat and and ask questions separately either to all or a particular individual and you can have more than one presenter.

 

[cosmicbike]

Teams is our standard go to. Had a call with 185 people on Wednesday with no issues, able to share docs, comment and so forth

 

[marinyork]

If anyone has any cool uses of zoom or any non-official tutorials/ideas then it'd be appreciated .

 

[geocycle]

Been using Teams extensively for three weeks. Successfuly ran three all-staff meetings of up to 250 people. Also good for one to ones etc. it is pretty good but not completely intuitive. Creaked a bit last week when the whole of Europe started using it so MS introduced more capacity. Zoom is also good and we have had a major international project with 60 people from 15 countries using it.

BTW, was told that 60% of domestic bandwidth in UK is used by Netflix!

 

[bikingdad90]

Teams is our standard go to. Had a call with 185 people on Wednesday with no issues, able to share docs, comment and so forth

flipping heck! Why so many people? Was this a call or a presenter presenting to everyone else set up as I believe Teams does both?

 

[kynikos]

Quick survey of the 120 staff we converted to home-workers this week gave Zoom as #1 and that's what we've gone with, despite having Teams which we've never used

 

[postman]

We had a church meeting last night using Zoom,all sat i our own living rooms.Got to say Mrs P put it together but now i have it on my phone and cheap tablet.And i can just about understand it.Next use Monday night Men's Fellowship group.

 

[geocycle]

flipping heck! Why so many people? Was this a call or a presenter presenting to everyone else set up as I believe Teams does both?

it’s ok for big groups. Ask everyone to mute their microphones when not speaking. Also best to turn off their video otherwise the whole group gets to see their laundry rooms! Take questions using the chat facility. If you’re chairing it is good to have someone els to monitor the chat. You can also record the event in case people couldn’t join which is important with home working.

 

[geocycle]

And here‘s a nice parody of a video call

View: https://vimeo.com/163549755

 

[cosmicbike]

flipping heck! Why so many people? Was this a call or a presenter presenting to everyone else set up as I believe Teams does both?

Big company. Set up as a conference call so we could all chip in and add docs and comments as we went along.