Last nights OAS Meeting

[The Thing]

Hi All,

I haven't Zoomed in to a monthly meeting for ages, it was great seeing lots of people through Hughes laptop cam (beware you are being watched!) and I really enjoyed the talk. The meeting conflicts with a family Zoom so I have to choose...

The only issue was the sound. Watching on Zoom I could see the active speaker (green border round the video vignette) regularly swapping between Jon the presenter and Hugh the Alford. This was causing weird echoey sound effects due to the mic separation and room acoustics. So please can everyone make sure their mics are muted during the various excellent presentations.

I hope to be with you next week.

Lovely to see you all,

Duncan

[AndrewRamsay]

Duncan -

Thank you for your comments.  It was indeed quite a tour de force with a lot of intricate science covered in a short time - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Regarding accoustics, you joined us on a day when our A/v expert, Raf Kaminski, was away and it was the first time our new "technician" had set up the equipment.  We can usually arrange for the speaker to have a remote mike, but on this occasion we made do with less sophisticated kit.  We were also struggling with a change to the linux operating system on our main computer, which meant we were unable to show some of our earlier presentations.  It all should be much better next month 

- Andrew

[The Thing]

Thanks for the reply Andrew. Changing IT is always a pain, I did it at work for years I'm sure it'll all be resolved next month.

Duncan

[Rick]

Yes, the speaker's microphone (when it's working) makes a big difference, but it's also importnt that, at least during a talk, other microphones in the hall are muted. Even the quietest whisper will be picked up quite well (and shared with all the zoom audience) if it's uttered too near an open laptop microphone...

[Hugh]

Hi All

Sorry, just picked up on this thread.  Thanks for your comments on how you are hearing us.  It is sometimes not easy for us to judge how well you are getting the sound and I do try to monitor the chat messages and change things for the better when I/we can. 

To explain a little; I am not that techy but OK with the zoom side.  As Andrew explained Raf has most of the tech knowledge and whilst Chris is good at that as well, over the months we have tried various combinations of links and Raf has tried various changes to the society laptop which Chris had to learn quickly and last Weds was a steep learning curve for both of us.  Whilst I essentially run the Zoom side of things, Raf runs the meeting through the society laptop and then through the projector.  Sometimes the speed between the two laptops does not match and we get a little lag in vision.  As a Zoomer, you may see this as a lag with what you see on the screen with that of the supporting sound.  It was particularly bad last weds and can be worse if we have to default to running the projector from the speakers equipment and then Zooming to you through the Zoom link from the speakers laptop or ipad. 

I did notice the sound being displayed on both my laptop and the speakers as well Duncan but when I tried switching one off, we got very loud feedback in the hall.  I did notice that the sound seemed primarily through my laptop and as the speaker was closer to mine, I left it as was hoping that you would get the better sound.  Clearly that didn't work as well as I hoped. I do sometimes leave the laptop speaker open to give Zoomers a little feel of the buzz in the hall and hope that doesn't spoil it too much your end if it sounds just a mush

To be honest, the problems through the society laptop meant that we did have the option of switching off the Zoom and concentrating on the hall attendees (which was large) but ruled that out as we still wanted to deliver for all.  Sometimes if it seems that you are getting vision and sound OK, we try not to tamper too much with the settings for fear of spoiling it for you.  There were clear indications that the wifi signal strength was not good as well on Weds, which we cannot do too much about. 

I can only assure you that we do try our best but Zooming the meetings out is quite challenging on most society evenings.

Best

~ Hugh

[Rick]

During a talk it would be better to have a single source for the speaker's voice. Ideally, of course, that would be the speaker's microphone. If a laptop microphone is being used then it needs to be close to and directed at the speaker. Laptop microphones are very good at picking up whispers...

[Rick]

I was in a Zoom earlier today, and one of the other participants was lamenting the fact that Zoom on an iPad can't have its sound output completely muted. If an iPad running Zoom were too close to another microphone that might explain unexpected feedback issues...

[Carole]

We are not using iPADs though. 

[Rick]

I gather the presenter was...

[Carole]

If it is any consolation l could not hear much either and l was sitting in the hall.

He spoke far too fast especially at ends of sentences. I know of two others who made the same comment. 

[Dave A]

I thought the presentation was very interesting but he did speak to fast at the end of sentences and his voice became a bit of a blur so difficult to understand