Is the Organization making there own Zoom program

[Qapla]

The Organization has a "corporate" account that many of the Congregations use to access Zoom. There are some of the features that, by default, the Branch has set as being "off". Some of these include:

• Any/all participants being able to "share screen"
• The "chat" feature
• Displaying an image when your camera is off - it defaults to the name

If the Branch had not wanted our cameras on or directed that our cameras should be off during the meeting, wouldn't that be the default? Instead, the default is to allow cameras.

[Qapla]

It might also be noticed that the default is also to allow "Virtual Backgrounds"

[Thesauron]

The Organization has a "corporate" account that many of the Congregations use to access Zoom. There are some of the features that, by default, the Branch has set as being "off". Some of these include:

• Any/all participants being able to "share screen"
• The "chat" feature
• Displaying an image when your camera is off - it defaults to the name

If the Branch had not wanted our cameras on or directed that our cameras should be off during the meeting, wouldn't that be the default? Instead, the default is to allow cameras.

Yes, the default is to allow cameras. It is not a requirement, though, for individuals in attendance to have their camera switched on. If possible, great, if not, that’s alright.

[carlos]

7 hours ago, GoldAussieGirl said:

We don’t have our cameras on during the meetings. Only those who have parts. Must be very distracting? 

 

7 hours ago, Hinata said:

We’re told it’s a Branch direction to have the camera on all the time. I was under the assumption this was the norm for other congregation, also seeing the photos from jw.org. But I guess the situation is different for each location.

Shannon, we do the same in our congregation. The elders decided it would be much easier if we all keep our cameras off, except the person who is having a part, or when we want to give a comment. That way it's easy to see who is raising their hand, even if you are using a smaller device. If someone forgets to switch their camera off, the host will do it.

 

I have become used to that method and actually prefer it. The only downside is that when you have a talk you don't see any faces, just your own. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.

[Lee49]

well, I have a home made green screen, I can put any image on it that I choose but try to keep it simple, pictures of my home interior even though we are in a back bedroom/office or a bookcase, that isn't ours, It's tempting to put on too much of a showy display ( which I have to be careful) because you do not want to put too much emphasis on what you own or do not own (lifestyle) , most friends only show their faces, which is fine, i find it boring and like to have fun, sometimes, like after the meeting displaying a moon shot or earth shot, sometimes hanging out in a tent down by the river ha ha ha !

[Hope]

I "visited" a congregation in Trinidad that keeps their cameras off except for the speakers. Only on before and after meeting. It was a very nice meeting but I did not like not being able to see the friends- especially when they were commenting.  I was told it was because of bandwidth issues on their island- which is fine, of course. For me, it just felt very lonely not seeing the friends "around" me.  I can't imagine giving a talk and not seeing my householder or the audience. 😔

 

Interestingly, the sister I visited joined my meeting a couple of weeks later. I encouraged her to wear her lipstick coz our cameras are on! 👄😉  She was shy at first but gave it a go. She LOVED it! It was her first experience with the cameras on and she said it helped her feel closer to these friends who were strangers 😊🥰

 

As for the blue hand vs real hands... we'd NEVER finish our meetings on time if a conductor had to scroll thru four or five pages of screens to see who was waving!  We have from 86 to over a hundred participants at each meeting.  The blue hand also allows those who don't use video to be called upon.  

 

It's simple- the blue hand puts the name of the publisher to the top of the participants list so it's very easy to see who wants to comment. And even using one's phone- which I do often during the meetings for service, there's no problem using the raise hand feature. Sometimes, I don't have my camera on for that but I'm happy to participate!  

[New World Explorer]

8 hours ago, GoldAussieGirl said:

We don’t have our cameras on during the meetings. Only those who have parts. Must be very distracting? 

It's not distracting at all, (at least for me) especially if we set Zoom on a "speaker view" 

It really comes to our attitude, and how we approach the meeting. (and how much we want to be distracted  )

If we tune in, and concentrate on the material presented, additional windows with brothers and sisters will not distract us.

Same like when we attended meetings in our physical KH's.

In a physical KH we had "active environment" to deal with (brothers in attendance counting, someone adjusting air-con, noisy kids, trips to toilet etc etc ...name it!) but yet we have enjoyed the meetings, and derived spiritual nourishment. 

 

Point: We did not have to "shut our cameras - eyes" in order to partake a spiritual food. 

We simply "dealt" with active environment subconsciously. 

 

Nothing has changed in this regard on Zoom. 

 

[GoldAussieGirl]

59 minutes ago, carlos said:

 

Shannon, we do the same in our congregation. The elders decided it would be much easier if we all keep our cameras off, except the person who is having a part, or when we want to give a comment. That way it's easy to see who is raising their hand, even if you are using a smaller device. If someone forgets to switch their camera off, the host will do it.

 

I have become used to that method and actually prefer it. The only downside is that when you have a talk you don't see any faces, just your own. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.

We don’t even switch our cameras on when we answer! 
 

I was never insinuating one is right or wrong😊it’s  just not what I have become accustomed to in our congregation. We do switch our cameras on after the meeting tho for association 😃

9 minutes ago, New World Explorer said:

It's not distracting at all, (at least for me) especially if we set Zoom on a "speaker view" 

It really comes to our attitude, and how we approach the meeting. (and how much we want to be distracted  )

If we tune in, and concentrate on the material presented, additional windows with brothers and sisters will not distract us.

Same like when we attended meetings in our physical KH's.

In a physical KH we had "active environment" to deal with (brothers in attendance counting, someone adjusting air-con, noisy kids, trips to toilet etc etc ...name it!) but yet we have enjoyed the meetings, and derived spiritual nourishment. 

 

Point: We did not have to "shut our cameras - eyes" in order to partake a spiritual food. 

We simply "dealt" with active environment subconsciously. 

 

Nothing has changed in this regard on Zoom. 

 

Very true brother I can see how attitude makes all the difference and good point about the distractions at the Kingdom Hall yet we focus on the speaker 😊👍🏻

[Tortuga]

The camera/no camera discussion is interesting. I appreciate that the direction from the Branch assigns the Attendants to watch for unusual or disruptive activity that may be viewed by the congregation, so it's kind that the brothers were aware that some congregation members would have their cameras on.

 

The same instructions from the Branch also discuss the two methods of raising hands and it appears that's a local decision that fits local needs.

[Old]

A number of posters in this thread have commented on having camers off to save bandwidth. At our zoom meetings we are constantly cautioned about using up bandwidth. Since bandwidth is consumed in upload from the host, download to field devices and upload on field devices, where is the pinchpoint on band width. I do not have answers to the following questions and our local brothers seem confused on the issue.

1. I have highspeed internet with excellent speed, both up and down so how is my device consuming anybody else's bandwidth if I have it set to HD?

2.  Some of our pubs have very slow connections (DSL?), does the poorly performing service/device affect an overall bandwidth problem?

3. Do all the thumbnail screens showing our video is on, effect or  accelerate a bandwidth problem?

4. What if any effect does the cloud have on any of this? (I really do not understand the cloud.)

[Qapla]

Our Congregation allows cameras on and virtual backgrounds. We have about half-and-half during the meeting as far as how many cameras are on.

 

At our house we tend to use the "gallery view" with the "non-videos" turned off so we only have live cameras displayed. They are being displayed on a 65" TV so the family can see them easily. We do not usually find it distracting.

 

There has been a couple times when either the Congregation or us at home have changed to "speaker view" due to an exceptionally distracting camera image. At one meeting my wife asked if I could turn a particular camera off. Since I could not I went to speaker view and we watched the meeting that way.  Later, while talking to the brother that hosted that meeting we talked about that particular camera. He was unsure why the attendant hadn't turned that person's camera off. That was the only time WE needed to switch to speaker view. There have been times when the host (attendant) switched the feed to speaker view and, when returning to gallery view the distracting video was no longer visible.

 

That has only happened a few times and one particular person who seemed to always be distracting has not visited our meeting since getting their camera turned off. (They were not in our Congregation, just visiting due to family and friends in our Hall)

 

As for the virtual backgrounds - we have several that use them:

• Our WT Overseer uses the KH stage as his background - makes it seem we are in the Hall and that is nice
• His wife uses "flowery" backgrounds - like rose gardens or other landscapes with flowers
• My brother uses a road heading into a tunnel (he took the picture when they went somewhere) he says the NS is on the other side of the tunnel
• I use a variety of backgrounds - something different each meeting, at least not the same picture twice in a row even though I will repeat some images (I have two of each image, one had a greeting to those on the "tie-in" and one without any text. I use the non-text during the meeting and the "Greeting" before and after the meeting
• We have a couple more that use ones with motion in them - waves, breeze etc.

We do get some comments about how much they like the various backgrounds - they often ask me where we are "visiting" since I use images from around the world. Not all of mine are landscapes - I have some really "nice" office and library images ... the ones with fireplaces are nice when the weather is cool (not all that often in Florida)

 

When we visited my daughter's Congregation meeting (our granddaughter had a part) the brother asked me to turn off my background (he said the Branch said we were not supposed to use them) - I didn't try to convince him otherwise, just turned the VB off. They do have bandwidth problems with many in their area.

 

Here are some of my VB's:

 

 

For the Memorial I used this one - it was viewed as the "Congregation's table" - everyone liked it

[Qapla]

25 minutes ago, Old said:

2.  Some of our pubs have very slow connections (DSL?), does the poorly performing service/device affect an overall bandwidth problem?

 

My FIL has DSL and his Zoom works just fine with the cameras on.

 

In some areas it is not "due to DSL" that they have bandwidth issues - some of the cable Internet systems have this problem, too. It depends on the provider's equipment and service.

 

In our area we have fiber for the transmission lines but copper drops to the homes. I am 800' off the road. They ran a "hard line" (RG11) down to a pedestal "near" the house and a "regular drop" to my house (300' of RG6)

 

We have fairly good Internet speed and connection although, had they run the RG11 close to the house we would have much better signal then we have.

 

My problem comes more with my PC. At times I have "resource" problems due to my PC being quite a number of years old and only having a 1.5 GHz processor and 8 GB of memory ... the PC I started Zoom with only had 4 GB memory and it had terrible resource problems.

 

If the problem truly is bandwidth it can have an impact on the overall meeting performance, especially if most of the participants have low bandwidth. If the problem is computer resources, it only impacts your PC for incoming videos and your image going out my seem jerky or freeze for others but it will not put a lag on the Zoom meeting as a whole like low bandwidth can.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Qapla

[Lee49]

You know, if you really want to get technical about what is a proper Zoom meeting, then just have a blank blue/green background like on the JW talks, from the mid waist up, until I'm told to do this or turn off my video and use a different format other than what I'm using, so long as it's not overboard, I see no reason to change, I have never gotten any negative feedback from the elders or anyone! We have some that are showcasing there homes with there wall size TV's with the family"s sitting in front of ! These meetings are hard enough and I'm just trying my best as an older brother to enjoy them the best that I can! We have some using a virtual background ( without a green screen ) and there video is terrible, faces going in and out ( one is a sister pioneer) we are all in this together and trying our best to cope, I say lets have fun, so long as it's not obtrusive or offensive! My 2 cents, I got cabin fever!

[Qapla]

I have a green screen. My PC cannot do the VB without one. I have noticed the "floating heads" with the VB that does not require a green screen. If I ever update my PC to one that will work without the green screen - unless it can produce the same results of the actual green screen ... I think I would continue to use the screen instead of the "virtual" virtual background

[ChrisC]

One problem with Zoom is that some areas don’t have the bandwidth, or any internet at all. (So the meeting is on TV and radio.)

With Elon Musk’s Sky-Vandalism, sorry Starlink constellation making rapid progress this could provide reasonable bandwidth to these areas.

Then the millions* of interested ones have have been joining us will get to use Zoom with us!

 

Or join us at the Hall in a year or two.

 

(*Wishful thinking.)

 

[Nemo]

On 8/7/2020 at 9:07 PM, ChrisC said:

One problem with Zoom is that some areas don’t have the bandwidth, or any internet at all. (So the meeting is on TV and radio.)

With Elon Musk’s Sky-Vandalism, sorry Starlink constellation making rapid progress this could provide reasonable bandwidth to these areas.

Then the millions* of interested ones have have been joining us will get to use Zoom with us!

 

Or join us at the Hall in a year or two.

 

(*Wishful thinking.)

 

Honestly I get the fact that they (Starlink) currently is blocking the stars. SatV4 is coated in black so it should help with the visibility issues associated with the original setup. Till then you May have a few bright SATs. Also because it’s basically space based internet...think about certain places where websites are blocked by certain firewalls...billons of people around the world would have access to the truth in a way that has never been done before. It’s almost like Jehovah is using this current development to speed up our connections for all of our brothers and sisters. We will need it for sure in the new world once the dust settles, especially will the Rampo project...who knows Jehovah’s always years before everyone else. 

[halfspanishlee]

I sometimes have my camera when in my meeting depending on what mood am in😁but I want to know when I have my camera off how do I show a photo instead?

[Shawnster]

Let's remember this topic is about the potential or possible development of video conference software by the Society. 

[bigvince]

I didn't read every comment, but wanted to say that the branch has in other situations opted to use third party services instead of spending millions or billions of dedicated funds to create their own. They heavily use microsoft exchange servers and services for a variety of things. We use many other services as well. I don't believe that the investment would be worth it if we have something already in place that works and is relatively inexpensive. AS far as the GT, I don't know that we will even have internet access, so that would make zoom useless.

[AH173]

On 8/7/2020 at 7:05 PM, Mephibosheth said:

appreciate that the direction from the Branch assigns the Attendants to watch for unusual or disruptive activity that may be viewed by the congregation, so it's kind that the brothers were aware that some congregation members would have their cameras on.

This is pretty important. When I host, there are at least 2 elders to mention to me if there's any problems with participants. Such as bad camera location and for newcomers. 

[AH173]

On 8/7/2020 at 7:11 PM, Old said:

Since bandwidth is consumed in upload from the host, download to field devices and upload on field devices, where is the pinchpoint on band width. I do not have answers to the following questions and our local brothers seem confused on the issue.

I was looking for some documentation on this. Do you have any? 

[BillyR]

On 8/7/2020 at 5:16 PM, Lee49 said:

well, I have a home made green screen, I can put any image on it that I choose but try to keep it simple, pictures of my home interior even though we are in a back bedroom/office or a bookcase, that isn't ours, It's tempting to put on too much of a showy display ( which I have to be careful) because you do not want to put too much emphasis on what you own or do not own (lifestyle) , most friends only show their faces, which is fine, i find it boring and like to have fun, sometimes, like after the meeting displaying a moon shot or earth shot, sometimes hanging out in a tent down by the river ha ha ha !

I use one of these as my virtual....

[bigvince]

Billy, I've done the broadcast, another brother in our hall went to the hall and took a photo of where he normally sits, it looks like he's in his seat at the hall. LOL

[Qapla]

Our WT Overseer uses the KH Stage with the "Year Text" and it looks like he is standing at the speaker's stand - even though he is actually sitting at his house

[JJMS]

3 hours ago, Qapla said:

Our WT Overseer uses the KH Stage with the "Year Text" and it looks like he is standing at the speaker's stand - even though he is actually sitting at his house

i would like this one...😀