Planning a meeting or class where some attendees will join remotely? Include everyone by using Airtame together with a video conferencing system.
How to present with Airtame during a conference call
While many people around the world are being slowly allowed back to work and school, many of their colleagues and classmates will continue to work and study from home. Many companies have instated a flexible work-from-home policy, and even those who’d prefer to have everyone back might be limited be legal limits to the number of people allowed within a single workplace. For the foreseeable future, a vast majority of meetings and classes will include people who are physically present and those who are still remote. What’s the best way to accommodate this dynamic? Video conferencing is a popular choice.
If you’re already using Airtame for wireless screen sharing, then you may have wondered how it works during a video call. There is a multitude of video conferencing solutions on the market, but only two different scenarios to consider depending on the type of conferencing solution you use. Before we look at these two scenarios, let’s talk about why you should use Airtame instead of having everyone in a class or meeting room just dial into a conferencing call from their personal device.
Why screen share with Airtame instead of through the video call?
Most people do bring some sort of personal device with them to a meeting or class, whether that’s their smartphone or laptop. In theory, you could skip using Airtame and instead have everyone dial in through the video call to share content to other participants’ devices. But here’s why Airtame is the better bet for anyone physically present within the meeting room or classroom:
- It eliminates the annoying audio feedback loop. This otherwise happens when the attendees in the room join the call, and then the audio plays out of the room’s sound system and feeds back into the microphones of attendees’ devices. This creates the feedback screech, the sharp echo torturing the ears of everyone involved.
- It reduces bandwidth consumption. If everyone in a classroom or meeting room joins the call it will mean many more devices consuming excess bandwidth that’s required for video calls. This puts unnecessary strain on the local network, likely degrading the quality of the call.
- It’s easier to get started. Joining a video call comes with more steps and takes more time than simply using Airtame for screen sharing. Should everyone keep their camera on, or off? Has everyone muted their mic? Those physically present won’t have to worry about any of this if they use Airtame, which supports screen sharing via AirPlay, Miracast, and Google Cast. With these three options, participants can share instantly from any device; no installation needed. Meanwhile, those joining remotely can still screen share via the conferencing platform.
With the benefits established, let’s take a look at how Airtame and video conferencing fit together in two different scenarios.
Scenario 1: Your video conferencing solution doesn’t include a codec (e.g. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet)
A codec is simply a video conferencing device (e.g. hardware that connects to a TV). In this first scenario, the video conferencing solution relies on participants using their own device (laptop, tablet, or smartphone) to dial into a call through e.g. Microsoft Teams. With this type of setup, whoever is moderating a meeting or a class is usually the one responsible for beginning a conference call from their computer. For those in the meeting room or classroom to be able to see their remote colleagues, the moderator shares their computer screen to an Airtame-equipped display (e.g. the TV or projector at the front of the room).
To have audio playing as close to real-time as possible, a safe bet is to forgo streaming audio to Airtame as this creates a 1-second buffer. Stick to sharing your screen to the Airtame-equipped display, and then either turn up the audio on the moderator’s computer (if you’re in a small room) or connect the moderator’s computer to the room’s sound system if it’s a larger conference room or lecture hall.
Scenario 2: Your video conferencing solution does include a codec (e.g. Poly Studio X series, Lenovo Hub 500, Cisco SX series)
In the second scenario, conferencing devices (also known as codecs) almost all have HDMI inputs. You can connect your Airtame 2 device to one such HDMI input. With this setup, anyone can still present wirelessly with Airtame to any screen that the codec is connected to. What’s more, anything shared via Airtame will also be visible to anyone who’s on the conference call that the conferencing device enables.
The example above shows how Airtame combined with video conferencing hardware lets you seamlessly switch between presentation material and the camera view of remote attendees (as shown above). For this to work, enable Sleep Schedule via Airtame Cloud Plus and ensure that Instant Mode is selected. This way, the screen will seamlessly switch back and forth between the video conference view and the presentation content shared through Airtame.
Interested? Let’s talk.
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