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
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.
HelloBenTeoh - that nails it. Thank-you.
I have an external microphone and camera, but for simplicity's sake, will test first without them to see how well it all performs. The Poly Sync 40's are a good recommendation and match what I was zeroing in on based on my own research.
Laying out the scenarios in the meeting and the specific configuration steps required was above and beyond what I was expecting for a response. Thanks so much.
Dale
- Happy to help! I haven’t had personal experience with these Polys and based the comment on their spec sheets. But they sound like they could be a good fit. Hope it all works out!