Some 20 years ago I was project manager for Project Cambrensis, a videoconference network across all sites of the National Museum of Wales. This network was used to both deliver outreach between museums and also from each museum out to schools and community groups. The technology was expensive. The running costs high.
To paraphrase Harold Wilson, 20 years is a long time in museums. Or is it? Whilst access to videoconferencing is now open to anyone with a laptop or mobile phone, I am finding that users still do not understand how to use today’s technology to its maximum potential.
I last delivered a training programme on videoconferencing about 16 years ago. I apologise if I’m a little rusty and may be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but here are a few tips to make your videoconference go smoothly:
Arrange yourself so that you are sitting facing the light source. Do NOT have a window or light behind you as the camera will shut down its iris and give viewers a terrible image which will flare wildly if you move about.
Try to not have too much light-coloured decoration behind you (for same reason as above). If I was to be really picky I’d suggest a mid-blue colour behind you as it will allow the best exposure (cue a run on Amazon for “mid-blue curtains”…).
ALWAYS mute your microphone if you are not talking. The microphone will switch the video to whoever is talking so, if you are continuously saying “yes”, “hmmm”, “yep” or coughing, or shuffling paper, or your child wonders into the room behind you and the nanny explodes in to rescue them, then your microphone thinks “hey, this person wants to speak. Let’s switch the video to them! Oh, hang on, they aren’t speaking now. Let’s keep the video with the other guy. No, hang on, there they are again…… etc etc etc etc ). This results in a very messy “satellite delay” kind of audio. So keep your mic off!
If your mic is muted but you want to interrupt the current speaker with a really important/witty/intelligent interjection just put your hand up. The visual cue will be enough for the speaker to make a decision to allow you to interrupt their flow. Might sound infantile but it works. Just jumping in with the mic on is, in my opinion and experience, rude.
Once you have made your important interjection, mute your mic again!
If in a videoconference with many people I’d also suggest you mute your camera as well as your mic. That way participants aren’t presented with hundreds of videofeeds on their screens. It also makes interjections clearer as there is an obvious visual cue when you switch your camera on again.
All of the above issues are less of a problem if all participants have equal access to high speed broadband, but they are still useful protocols to use. If you have poor/unstable broadband then mute your camera and use only the microphone. The decrease in data will help.
I hope those few pointers are useful? If you have others please leave them in the comments section of this blog post. This only took 15 minutes to write and isn’t intended to be exhaustive. Happy videoconferencing!
Until then, have this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMo6Ju8SJ8o
Exploring the potential of adult learning in the culture sector 