Forum Discussion
Recommendations for one-off Hybrid Meeting setup
I think the biggest challenge will be capturing everyone's audio. Even in U-shape, 20 people will be pretty spread out. The Poly Sync 40's can have two paired - that may give you extra coverage but you should also check out the room acoustics to see if it'll work.
I'd also utilise the external camera as well for your speaker. Laptops are usually placed a pretty low angle for presenters so it'll look odd if you were planning on using the laptop camera.
A second laptop could also be helpful. It means the presenter doesn't need to deal with any technical issues that may come up and gives you some more control over the speakerphones and projector.
If the Poly's are suitable, you could do something like this:
Set up meeting:
- Presenter laptop
- Connect external camera (and external mic if needed)
- Joins meeting with audio on, camera on (using external camera)
- Uses laptop mic or external mic so presenter is heard online
- Presents screen to meeting
- Control laptop
- Connect Poly 40's via Bluetooth and daisy chain them
- Connect projector
- Join meeting, with projector as second screen.
Running meeting:
- During presentation
- Control mutes speakers and mic on Poly 40's (to avoid delay between the presenter and the speakerphone speakers and potential feedback from speakerphones and presenter's mic)
- Online people hear presenter via laptop mic/external mic, in-person people hear presenter un-amplified (if this is an issue, we're adding more complexity)
- In-room sees presentation via the Control Laptop's screen, projected (use Focus on Content to hide other participants being on screen if needed)
- During discussions
- Enable speakerphones for everyone.
- Mute presenter's mic to avoid feedback. If presenter needs to participate, they could join a table
- Turn the external camera around so online people can see the room
That's assuming the speakerphones will be sufficient and you have someone in the room who can juggle things.
- Presenter laptop
In point 5, how do you suggest configuring a speakerphone in conjunction with the other devices? Are you suggesting that a separate audio conference bridge be used in addition to the Teams connection or something else?
One option could be to use a separate audio conference bridge in conjunction with the Teams connection. This would allow remote participants to dial in using their phone and join the audio portion of the meeting, while still being able to see and hear the in-room presentations via Teams.
Another option could be to use a speakerphone that has both USB and phone connections. This would allow the speakerphone to be connected to the laptop for Teams audio and also to an audio conferencing bridge for remote participants to dial in.
In either case, it's important to make sure that the speakerphone is set up and configured properly before the meeting to ensure that everyone can hear and participate effectively.
