Zoom

 

Since the start of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, how many of us have begun to use Zoom or other "meeting" software?

If so, for business or pleasure?

Computer, tablet, smartphone?

Have you hosted a meeting or just participated?

Do you use your camera for live video or substitute a static image or just your name?

If using a webcam, do you use a custom background, static or live?

I have started and use my desktop PC. So far, I've only been a participant but I may have to learn about hosting. I use a photo rather than webcam.

I have used it ...

for attending church services, on my Alienware laptop, camera and microphone enabled.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Zoom

started using zoom for business from Ipad with Live video, often stopped

My wife is a school teacher.

My wife is a school teacher. She has zoom meetings with her colleagues. She uses a Windows laptop issued by the school for this.

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. 2 Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Nuvi 2689, 2 Nuvi 2460, Zumo 550, Zumo 450, Uniden R3 radar detector with GPS built in, includes RLC info. Uconnect 430N Garmin based, built into my Jeep. .

Yes

My wife and I use Zoom on a laptop with built in camera for church services and associated meetings. No special background, just a live view of our living room.

We also use a similar more secure version of teleconferencing for interaction with our doctors.

Android and windows

We have used Zoom on Android tablets for the doctor and the wife's knitting club.

It works okay but it's hard to get a good angle on the camera. I just received a Logitech B525 webcam for use on a PC. It also has a mic. We set it up today with Zoom for Windows. The top of the monitor at eye level is a good location for the camera.

dobs108 smile

question

When using a webcam with a mic and separate speakers on a PC, is there ever a problem with feedback or degraded sound quality? Does the Zoom app control feedback in software? Some internet posts recommend headphones or earbuds rather than speakers.

How is the mic volume level adjusted in Zoom for the PC?

dobs108 smile

every day on i5

it's better than skype which is phased out soon.
Pretty good for everything.

Have

Have used it for Grand and Great Grand children's birthday parties. Used our Surface Pro 2 attached to a LG 27" monitor (HDMI) and Anker Bluetooth speaker. Great to have all the family together, from all over the country during this time.

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Nuvi 350, 760, 1695LM, 3790LMT, 2460LMT, 3597LMTHD, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, DriveSmart 61, Garmin Drive 52, Garmin Backup Camera 40 and TomTom XXL540s.

Our Guitar Group Uses

it for jamming together. Usually 4 or 5 of us get together. Tried it on my smart phone, but that was too small, so switched to the PC. 4 of us fits nicely on my 29 inch monitor. One thing we found is the delay sometimes causes problems when we all play together. You are usually not in sync with the rest. We found that it works best when 1 person plays. Talking together is not so problematic.

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"As life runs on, the road grows strange with faces new - and near the end. The milestones into headstones change, Neath every one a friend." - James Russell Lowell Garmin StreetPilot C330, Garmin NUVI 765T, Garmin DriveSmart 60LMT

Viewer and hoster

I've been a viewer and a hoster. I usually do it on my laptop, but have done it on my smartphone too.

I like it that you can share your screen (even from your smartphone) which is great for doing demos and hosting Q&A sessions. In addition, you can record them. Sometimes I use it to do training videos with just myself, then I can post them on YouTube. The Q&A sessions I record too. I announce beforehand that it will be recorded and just before I start recording. This way, people that can't make the Q&A session can view it at a later time.

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Garmin Nuvi 2450

Been doing Zoom for about 2 months

I have been hosting and a participant for both my Scout Troops. I mostly use my computer but have used my netbook, Ipad, and Iphone. Sharing the screen has come in handy many times. Unfortunately I had to purchase a microphone and webcam. The 1st available I bought worked (when it finally arrived). They couldn't find it so I had to order another. The 2nd one is far better. After this it will never be used again.

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Nuvi 2460LMT.

Music

A lot of music teachers around here are conducting lessons using Zoom or the other platforms.

I tried working a little with the violinist with whom I play chamber music using Zoom. We found that we could listen to each other and make useful comments for needed adjustment, but that we could not usefully play together as the connection introduced a delay which is too little to be much of a distraction when just holding a conversation, but a hopeless complication in trying to actually make music together.

I think the Zoom software is doing some pretty fancy computation in the server to allow groups of people with wildly mismatched devices actually to hear each other usefully. I think there is a throughput delay caused by that computation. Land lines would not introduce that much, and a synchronous satellite link would introduce more.

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personal GPS user since 1992

Any problems with zoombombing?

I haven't tried Zoom. Has anyone here had any problems with their conferences being "zoombombed" with nasty material submitted by somebody who didn't belong? I know there are settings to help make that much less likely, but not everyone uses them. Or is this just one of those overblown media crises du jour?

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"141 could draw faster than he, but Irving was looking for 143..."

A Problem, but Overblown

Lost Anyway wrote:

Or is this just one of those overblown media crises du jour?

I don't know anyone who has had that trouble. Nor do I know anyone troubled by their other most advertised security problem.

That second one was that Zoom made it a little too easy for other participants in your conference to view PUBLIC INFORMATION you had shared elsewhere but not explicitly shared with your Zoom conference participants.

As to Zoombombing, I think the essence of that one is that someone who somehow found their way to your session could post to it, and maybe you might not like what they posted. Well, Duh!

I don't mean to belittle the dismay of schools who were using it for children's classes and found themselves blamed for the little tykes seeing things they should not, but out here in the real world, for most of us, these are on the order of blaming the highway department if someone sprayed an obscenity on a road sign.

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personal GPS user since 1992

Tried it for several weeks

as a partipant using an Android 8" tablet. So far, it has worked well meeting up with friends and family.

thank you

archae86 wrote:
Lost Anyway wrote:

Or is this just one of those overblown media crises du jour?

I don't know anyone who has had that trouble. Nor do I know anyone troubled by their other most advertised security problem.

That second one was that Zoom made it a little too easy for other participants in your conference to view PUBLIC INFORMATION you had shared elsewhere but not explicitly shared with your Zoom conference participants.

As to Zoombombing, I think the essence of that one is that someone who somehow found their way to your session could post to it, and maybe you might not like what they posted. Well, Duh!

I don't mean to belittle the dismay of schools who were using it for children's classes and found themselves blamed for the little tykes seeing things they should not, but out here in the real world, for most of us, these are on the order of blaming the highway department if someone sprayed an obscenity on a road sign.

Thank you = Amen to the road signs

The people that complain

The people that complain about Zoom, are the same people who complain because their baby cam is compromise, or their security cameras are compromised.

They are too stupid to create a password and change the default, despite the written warnings to do so.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

Many Platforms, Varied Combinations of Hardware

The best way to manage unwanted audio (feedback squeal, robotic buzzing on the back end of something spoken, etc.) is for everyone except the current speaker to have their microphone on mute. The problem typically arises when the device's speaker(s) volume is high enough that the embedded microphone picks up audio from the speaker. For those who recall, it's like the early days of "conference" phones, where it took technology improvements to overcome similar audio issues for a "full duplex" (both directions simultaneously) to overcome the limitations of earlier "half duplex" (either listen or speak, but not both at the same time) phones.

A second participating device nearby can also create audio problems if not muted. If not manageable through volume adjustment, workarounds utilizing other hardware (some already mentioned above) will help.

The host (and any cohost) has options to mute all, with further option to either prohibit or to allow others to unmute themselves. On most desktop type versions of Zoom, participants can use their keyboard's Space Bar akin to a microphone button to temporarily "key their mic" to speak when otherwise muted.

Thus far, I've run Zoom via:
- an Android smartphone (small screen and steady camera avoiding up-your-nose angles are the drawbacks)
- An old (Windows Vista era) laptop now running Linux. Audio issues led to employing a Bluetooth transmitter to feed either an earpiece or a trucker's headset. Other wired or wireless options would also work.
- a Windows desktop PC w/o speakers, camera, or microphone. Observed video via Zoom web browser extension (or the app itself) while dialed into the meeting via phone for audio.

The only feature inconsistency among the supported platforms I've found thus far was the Space Bar press to temporarily unmute the mic doesn't seem to be available under Linux (or at least the version I'm running on that laptop).

Lastly, new installs are already compliant, but any 4.x or earlier version of Zoom will become nonfunctional after the end of May as determined by Zoom in order to get everyone onto their more secure software. Pay attention if prompted to upgrade the next time you launch Zoom.

They have instituted many security features.

You just have to use. Passwords are required and embedded in the link but the password should not be an easy and the same one. You are also put into a waiting area and then let in by the host. That one has got me a couple times because I forget to keep checking.

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Nuvi 2460LMT.