[kwlug-disc] Remote vs local meetings, five months in

[Bob Jonkman]

Paul wrote:
> (A large number of the in-person attendees also are on BBB for some reason?)

Yes, if I were at the meeting then I would be on BBB too. Just as remote 
people don't want to miss the chatter in the room, so the in-person 
people don't want to miss the chatter on BBB.

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to attend many meetings online, and 
none in-person. The things that keep me away will eventually be over, 
and then I'll be back, but probably online mostly.

One thing that would help engagement between in-person and remote 
attendees is to point a webcam at the in-person audience before the 
speaker starts, during intermission, and for a short time afterwards. 
And if you allow remote webcams during that time and project BBB on the 
screen then everyone can see everyone else. If the bandwidth 
requirements of all-webcams is too much, at least show the chat box to 
the in-person audience so those without a personal BBB device can still 
get some of the online flavour.

I too would like to get a better sense of the chatter in the audience. I 
realize chatter in the audience may be rude for the presenter, but this 
is a problem to be fixed by social means, not technology. And some 
presenters may appreciate the audience interaction.

To improve the audio for in-person presenters, maybe have two mics? One 
lapel mic and one hockey puck mic should work well. Of course, that may 
require some analogue audio gear...

--Bob.


On 2024-02-14 11:25, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 08:23:21PM -0800, Ronald Barnes wrote:
>>
>>> Subject: [kwlug-disc] Remote vs local meetings, five months in
>>
>> First off, it's been five months?  So, I've missed ⅖ of them... Time flies.
> 
> Nope. I lied. It has been six months. Our first hybrid meeting was
> September, not October. Off-by-one errors are the worst.
> 
>>
>>
>>> How have the hybrid meetings been going for people?
>>
>> It's definitely less engaging. Kind of a second class citizen feeling.
> 
> It is my strong intent that people online have a first class citizen
> experience, so we should work on this. I really really don't want
> people feeling obligated to be in-person for them to feel like they
> are part of the group.
> 
> 
>>> What is irritating?
>>
>> The conversation in the room being picked up by the mic.
>>
>> Maybe it would help if the presenter had a dedicated mic (this may already
>> be the case).
> 
> This is interesting, because I am hearing different perspectives on
> this. Here are some clarification questions:
> 
> - Is the existing microphone working okay for hearing the presenter?
> - Is it that you do not want to hear background chatter at all, or is
>    it irritating because the background chatter is faint?
> - Do you feel differently about our presenters that are remote as
>    compared to those in-person? (It is interesting that usually at
>    least one of our presenters ends up being remote each month).
> 
> (Other people can also respond to these questions)
> 
> 
>>> What is working well?
>>
>> I seem to recall suggestions of having the presenter read out questions
>> before answering them.
>>
>> This worked well from what I remember.
> 
> Good. You and others who are online: Please remind us to do this. If
> there is ANYTHING that is not audible put it in the chat. If there is
> a break in the conversation you can even hop on your microphone and
> ask for the question to be repeated. Don't be shy about this.
> 
>  From our end we will try to remember to have questions repeated.
> 
> We can also try to have the in-person chatter summarized in chat, but
> it may have to be somebody else who is the secretary here. (A large
> number of the in-person attendees also are on BBB for some reason?)
> 
> 
>>> What/how should we improve?
>>
>> Better audio.  i.e. some kind of directional mic on the presenter.
>>
>> Having no idea how it's currently setup, I can only speculate if this is a
>> solution.
> 
> The current setup is the opposite of a directional microphone. John
> Steel has a Jabra "puck" microphone that is intended to pick up all
> the conversation in the room. (I think this is it?
> https://www.jabra.ca/Business/speakerphones/jabra-speak-series/jabra-speak-510)
> . Our thinking was that (a) it was good enough that people could hear
> the presenters clearly, and (b) hearing the in-room questions and
> chatter was a feature, not a bug.  This may not be the case.
> 
> I do not know if it will change soon -- Andrew has a directional
> microphone setup from pre-pandemic times which we might be able to
> use. We are getting the workflow down for the Jabra mic, and will have
> to see how that workflow would need to change if we tried the
> directional mic. Having both microphones in play is a recipe for
> feedback, I think.
> 
> Other people: what are your thoughts on directional vs room
> microphones?
> 
> 
> - Paul
> 

-- 
Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>          Phone: +1-519-635-9413
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