Video Conferencing hardware & Software

pablo21

Hi there. Has anyone any experience in setting up a video conferencing solution for SME's? Looking for idea's on what hardware to utilise. Broadband is between 100 and 300mb so no issues with speed. Medium sized meeting rooms so good hardware for the audio and will probably use a 65 inch HD tv for the video element.
Need to be able to collaborate and share documents, or at least present them and share screen.
Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated!

pablo21

*BUMP* Anybody have any experience of this?

cunavalos

I only have limited experience but are you sharing the screen internally with other users in the same room, i.e multiple laptops and you want to switch between user 1 and user 2 etc rather than transfering all documents to a single pc and passing the pointer around.

If this is the case try looking up the Barco Clickshare option https://www.barco.com/en/clickshare(Used by a lot of hotel conferencing venues and schools)

If sharing the screen between different venues/locations then the screen share options are typically controlled by the video conferencing platform.

For audio any speakerphone option should suffice, i would look into a VOIP solution as a backup as you will not believe the hassle with people connecting audio using different platforms (Webex, Gotomeeting, Skype etc.) and this gives you the option of dialling a landline to ensure good audio.

Look into offerings from Jabra, Plantronics, Konftel and Polycom.

I don't like video conferencing (it makes me uncomfortable) so never use camera features

pablo21

Thank you. That is helpful. I imagine the meetings to be lead by a single host (sales manager) who will present data to attendee's. it will typically be point to point, one meeting room in ireland connecting with one in the UK.

DVD-Lots

We use Skype for Business and it works well for us, especially for training or presentations. One main presenter can screenshare and then you can give control of the screen to other attendees etc. Video calls included and you can also record all of the meetings and save for later or audit purposes etc. You can purchase external numbers for people to dial into also.

We also have another solution from Arkadin but it is very clunky compared to Skype.

Cuddlesworth

pablo21 wrote: »

Hi there. Has anyone any experience in setting up a video conferencing solution for SME's? Looking for idea's on what hardware to utilise. Broadband is between 100 and 300mb so no issues with speed. Medium sized meeting rooms so good hardware for the audio and will probably use a 65 inch HD tv for the video element.
Need to be able to collaborate and share documents, or at least present them and share screen.
Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated!

As somebody who worked in video conferencing for 5 years, don't bother. On top of it being a minefield of different standards and platforms, with constant issues around usability, quality and cost. While the vast majority of people hate the video part and only really want the content sharing part. The people who cry out for the video part are usually such narcissistic pricks that you should avoid working with them anyway.

Get Skype for business or Jabber etc for the SME, create a meeting.
location A shares screen to TV + Skype/Jabber, Location B can present same content to screen via laptop as well. Users dial into meeting with a normal conference phone or SFB conference phone if you want.

There are smaller cheaper video solutions based around skype from companies like Polycom but I was never that impressed. They might have changed in the last 4 years, god knows there have been at least 4 products cycles since then.

The Surface Hub is pretty good also for Skype. The version I played with was a prototype though.