Display Zoom Items at Hall

[Pabo]

Depending on the brother conducting the part at the lectern, some of the brothers in our cong have issues reading the screen on iPad, let alone a mobile phone. Hence why we converted the 27" monitor that hangs from the ceiling to be our Zoom gallery screen, instead of replicating the stage monitors.

 

It is interesting that for most brothers have found that recognising a face from the gallery is much easier than reading a name on the screen, even with poor eyesight. It is something that has been studied extensively on why we can see faces in clouds.

 

I think it comes down to the needs and abilities of the brothers that are conducting the parts. Not every congregation is the same, let alone what is the setup the Kingdom Hall is.

 

 

 

 

 

[brandonyap]

37 minutes ago, Pabo said:

Depending on the brother conducting the part at the lectern, some of the brothers in our cong have issues reading the screen on iPad, let alone a mobile phone. Hence why we converted the 27" monitor that hangs from the ceiling to be our Zoom gallery screen, instead of replicating the stage monitors.

 

It is interesting that for most brothers have found that recognising a face from the gallery is much easier than reading a name on the screen, even with poor eyesight. It is something that has been studied extensively on why we can see faces in clouds.

 

I think it comes down to the needs and abilities of the brothers that are conducting the parts. Not every congregation is the same, let alone what is the setup the Kingdom Hall is.

 

 

 

 

 

Having the large monitor is a really good idea, I like it.

I agree that having the faces gallery is more intuitive, the problem we have is a lot of people don't have their cameras turned on, and at that point you might as well just have a list of participants. But like you said horses for courses, every congregation is different 🙂

[Paul T]

2 hours ago, brandonyap said:

We're using an iPhone with a goose neck stand clamped to the edge of the podium. The phone is logged into zoom with the Participants list permanently up for the duration of the meeting. When you bring up the participant list on a phone it fills the entire screen and provides the conductor a better experience than an iPad with the floating participant list. We provided both options to a number of brothers of differing ages and eyesight capabilities and they all picked the phone option.

Does that mean the Cong have bought an iPhone?  I have an old 5S I could give, but it’s very small screen these days.  Guess don’t need any SIM card

[brandonyap]

7 hours ago, Paul T said:

Does that mean the Cong have bought an iPhone?  I have an old 5S I could give, but it’s very small screen these days.  Guess don’t need any SIM card

Yes that's correct. It's only a second hand iPhone XR (no sim needed), and was the cheapest model we could find with a decent sized screen. I forgot to mention we bump up the font size on the phone to make it even more legible. We went the iPhone route due to a number of reasons, almost all Android phones are unable to have the screen stay on forever, most have a 10 - 30 min auto lock timer which can't be changed without special apps like Caffeine. And also most of the technical brothers in our cong already have iPhones which makes them easier to support.

Edited May 5, 2022 by brandonyap

[Pabo]

9 hours ago, brandonyap said:

Having the large monitor is a really good idea, I like it.

I agree that having the faces gallery is more intuitive, the problem we have is a lot of people don't have their cameras turned on, and at that point you might as well just have a list of participants. But like you said horses for courses, every congregation is different 🙂

If there name is in place of their camera view, the names are larger to read than the participates list.

 

1 hour ago, brandonyap said:

Yes that's correct. It's only a second hand iPhone XR (no sim needed), and was the cheapest model we could find with a decent sized screen. I forgot to mention we bump up the font size on the phone to make it even more legible. We went the iPhone route due to a number of reasons, almost all Android phones are unable to have the screen stay on forever, most have a 10 - 30 min auto lock timer which can't be changed without special apps like Caffeine. And also most of the technical brothers in our cong already have iPhones which makes them easier to support.

If you are using Zoom on an Android phone, the screen should stay on, as you are using the app.

[Paul T]

2 hours ago, brandonyap said:

Yes that's correct. It's only a second hand iPhone XR (no sim needed), and was the cheapest model we could find with a decent sized screen. I forgot to mention we bump up the font size on the phone to make it even more legible. We went the iPhone route due to a number of reasons, almost all Android phones are unable to have the screen stay on forever, most have a 10 - 30 min auto lock timer which can't be changed without special apps like Caffeine. And also most of the technical brothers in our cong already have iPhones which makes them easier to support.

The brother taking cbs tonight had laptop issues so I logged into zoom and set up my iPhone for him, (6 plus) and set it to participants list.   It went very well. Much less hassle.  Thanks for the suggestion..

[brandonyap]

1 hour ago, Pabo said:

If you are using Zoom on an Android phone, the screen should stay on, as you are using the app.

That's what we thought too, until we tried it. It locked midway through the meeting and the platform brother had to go unlock it during the song.

[quincy]

12 hours ago, Pabo said:

Depending on the brother conducting the part at the lectern, some of the brothers in our cong have issues reading the screen on iPad, let alone a mobile phone. Hence why we converted the 27" monitor that hangs from the ceiling to be our Zoom gallery screen, instead of replicating the stage monitors.

 

It is interesting that for most brothers have found that recognising a face from the gallery is much easier than reading a name on the screen, even with poor eyesight. It is something that has been studied extensively on why we can see faces in clouds.

 

I think it comes down to the needs and abilities of the brothers that are conducting the parts. Not every congregation is the same, let alone what is the setup the Kingdom Hall is.

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to use a monitor also till the guidance came out in the S-160 and said not to instal a monitor just for speaker to see zoom. 

[Pabo]

That monitor on the ceiling was already in place for about 2 years or so before COVID. We haven't been supplied with any direction regarding S-160 with what we have done. So until anyone says anything, it will stay in place and they would probably keep it too.

 

[Floyd]

On 5/6/2022 at 8:58 AM, Pabo said:

That monitor on the ceiling was already in place for about 2 years or so before COVID. We haven't been supplied with any direction regarding S-160 with what we have done. So until anyone says anything, it will stay in place and they would probably keep it too.

 

Are you saying you do not have a S-160 in your jw.org forms? Its actually the S-260. We can have a stand of some sort for a device such as a tablet to see the Zoom participants. That is the direction we have received.

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Floyd

[Floyd]

On 4/4/2022 at 6:41 PM, luisenriquereyes said:

What you may have to do is drag the Zoom window from main computer monitor to the hall monitors.  We have to do this for videos or illustrations that are not in JW Library. 

Not if you use VLC and set it up like the Branch tells us.

[Floyd]

On 4/4/2022 at 5:24 PM, sierra20 said:

That’s the bit we are struggling with getting zoom to pop up on the second display. I couldn’t see any instructions for displaying zoom have I missed something? We have everything setup for second display at the hall. 

S-261 tells us to use dual monitor mode for Zoom. The main Zoom windows stays on the PC monitor and the second Zoom window goes on the secondary displays in full screen mode. Then spotlight the Zoom participant.

[Pabo]

11 hours ago, Floyd said:

Are you saying you do not have a S-160 in your jw.org forms? Its actually the S-260. We can have a stand of some sort for a device such as a tablet to see the Zoom participants. That is the direction we have received.

 

No, we were not supplied with that information, well I wasn't personally. Also I do not have access to that info to retrieve either.

[Pabo]

We had a visiting speaker from a neigbouring congregation yesterday, and he said that they only got their stage monitors up just before going back to the KH. There were still using a drop down projector screen before lockdown. Knowing some of the brothers their personally who are on the sound desk, I thought they would have had them up way about the same time as us, and we were one of the first to get our order in for the equipment from the branch and we thought we were the last to get them, seem not so.

 

However, they have major issues regarding having a stabilised internet connection, for which they have to use satellite link as apparently their mobile coverage is bad where the KH is. I asked them whether they tried using a direct 4G directional external antenna with a commercial 4G router, as surely they would have a direct line of sight at least to one 4G tower in the area north of them (their KH in on the northern slope of a hill which looking north is relatively flat). I asked them about how they view the participants on Zoom for the meeting conductor, and he said they have to log in with their own devices, but if they share the internet with the KH's WiFi, it interferes with their internet connection, or if they use their own data connection, they drop in and out, which makes it unreliable which most of the no longer do that option. Also, they do not have even a webcam as yet, so they are not even broadcasting the stage. So their circumstances are very hard to deal with.

 

When the brother noticed the monitor on the ceiling, he asked what it is for, and we said that is were we show the Zoom attendees using the gallery, which you can see the brothers faces if their camera's on ortheir name if it is off. He thought that was pretty cool. After the meeting, we spoke again, and local brother was with us (who was previously from that brother's congregation) and the visiting brother said he really liked that monitor, as it was much better then trying to look at a tablet screen. He liked that it was positioned that it wasn't in the way of the view of the audience, but having to just glance up, you have a good view who was on Zoom (we had 14 connections on that screen that morning). Also it would relieve the brothers of using a device with them on stage, as there will be only the brothers on the sound using the KH internet connect only, and they don't have to worry about dropping on/off with their own device.

 

He also asked about a table and chair that was positioned on one side of the stage and asked was that for the chairman for the CLM, which the other brother (who is an elder) said "yes, it was put up there when and it stayed there ever, and most of the brothers are are chairman for the CLM, they stay there during the CBS and do their counseling from there." The visiting brother thought that was great idea. The local brother said, 'at times things just get down around here, and at an elders meeting we ask "who set that up?" and which 95% of the time they answer "Pabo done it" and then basically they approve of what was done'.

 

The visiting brother took some pictures of the setup we had as he really liked how it was done, and that it only required one brother to do both audio/visual/Zoom. A brother from that same congregation had earlier in the month gave a talk at our congregation and also liked our setup, but he couldn't hang around much after the meeting to discuss it further, but he too liked the ceiling setup.

[Floyd]

Maybe Australia gets different direction than the US.

[Manwithnoname]

As Floyd said, make sure you have dual monitor use setup in Zoom settings, as per the branch direction.

When this is set up it means the platform monitors actually have both the JW app and the second zoom windows displayed at the same time - it's just that one is in front of the other, ( has the focus over the other.) So you only see one as it's full screen.

Then if you hover your mouse over either the zoom icon or the JW app icon on the taskbar 2 small preview windows will popup - one is the main program window, the other is the second screen window.  Just click on the second screen you want and it will come to the front, or be the visible focused window, on the platform screens.

Doing this makes it pretty smooth to switch between them.

[Pabo]

As I had said earlier, some of our elderly brothers have issues with their eyesight, and working out who has their hand up on Zoom is difficult for them if they were to use a tablet. Last night, we had worked out a system with our ceiling monitor in order for the conductor to see raised hands much more easier and noticeable.

 

Usually, we have the gallery view on the ceiling monitor with all the attendees (which is also duplicated on one of our sound desk monitors). This is "First Screen" when using dual monitors, whereas the "Second Screen" is allocated to the stage monitors.

 

During the midweek meeting, one of the brothers who was conducting their part had issues seeing who was on Zoom to answer (before resuming in-person meetings, his wife would assist him when asking comments when using Zoom). I thought to myself what would happen if I "Pinned to First Screen" the brother who had their hand up. So I pinned the brother's view up on the first screen, and it put his view as the larger main view and the others on Zoom in the row above as smaller on the ceiling monitor which made it easier for the conductor to see who it was.

 

Then during the rest of the meeting, whenever a brother put their hand up on Zoom, the brothers who were conducting discussion parts noticed it much more easier to see those on Zoom who had there hand up and who they are.

 

When the brother was giving their answer, I then would unpin them, and when they finished their answer I would the view back to gallery view. Then if someone else on Zoom put their hand up, I would pin them to the first screen and so forth.

 

After the meeting, those brothers who were conducting Q&A parts came up and said what I did made it even more noticeable those who were on Zoom with their hands up, and when no-one on Zoom has there hand up, it is just the gallery view.

 

The audience doesn't see those on Zoom giving their answers, only the conductor does, as he is the one who can only sees that monitor.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Pabo

[Floyd]

I find using the participant list to be the most effective in seeing raised hands.

[Floyd]

On 5/5/2022 at 8:31 AM, Pabo said:

It is interesting that for most brothers have found that recognising a face from the gallery is much easier than reading a name on the screen, even with poor eyesight. It is something that has been studied extensively on why we can see faces in clouds.

I must be in the minority. I just cannot see a dark hand against a dark background or a light hand against a light background. But I have no trouble seeing hands in the participants list with just names and I have the name right there so I don't have to think at all about who it is. Oh and I have never seen faces in clouds.

[Pabo]

I guess everyone is different. 

 

I just know the brothers in our congregation have a hard time using the participants list, even when we were at home. At times, they forget to pop out the participants lists, especially when a screen is shared, as it also hides the participants list when it hasn't been popped out. They are more reliant on using the gallery view. They know those who have put their hand up start at the top left hand corner of the gallery. That is only after showing them how Zoom behaves when hands go up, when mics are unmuted etc.

 

Most brothers in our congregation are over the age of 40, and most don't use computers in there everyday of life. They have been mostly tradies or worked with their hands and not with computers. And nearly all of them wear glasses to read too. I am about the only one in our congregation who uses a computer everyday. Also I manage our IT systems at work as well. And the interesting thing is I don't wear glasses at all, other then sunglasses. 😎

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Pabo

[howudodat]

I agree the participant list works better for me.  I dont see faces in clouds either.  However there is a difference between recognizing a face, and seeing a raised hand.  "Is that a hand or is that a moving pixel?"  The yellow hand next to the participant name is much easier to see, now.....reading their name that's another story.

 

Question: on an android you can make the participant list be the whole screen.  on an ipad it seems to be a small popup.  anyway to make it be the whole screen?

[Floyd]

8 hours ago, howudodat said:

Question: on an android you can make the participant list be the whole screen.  on an ipad it seems to be a small popup.  anyway to make it be the whole screen?

Yes on Android the participant list fills the screen and does not go away when someone is screen sharing. Its perfect for calling on people while discussing an image that is being screen shared. In gallery view it would be harder to find hands when there is screen sharing. I find the ipad next to the lectern to be very distracting and turn it so I can't see it while I am giving a part. I use my phone to call on people. I have also noticed when people comment on Zoom the speaker is looking at the ipad when he really should be looking at the camera.

[AH173]

4 hours ago, Floyd said:

I use my phone to call on people.

I use my note 10+ and simply navigate to the participant list to call on the raised hands. Very small and compact with a good screen vs a 10 inch tablet.

[GWings]

On 6/3/2022 at 3:39 PM, howudodat said:

Question: on an android you can make the participant list be the whole screen.  on an ipad it seems to be a small popup.  anyway to make it be the whole screen?

We're using an iPad as well. There's no way to make the participants screen larger but at least it doesn't disappear when the host shares his screen.

 

For displaying images or videos which are not available in in JW Library, we're using PowerPoint rather than VLC. PowerPoint has very nice integration with second screens and the transition from the year text to the image is very smooth.

[AH173]

Our operating committee for double hall bought 2 surface go 10 inch tablets. I will go and see our side's tablet and stand tonight.