Microsoft Teams Rooms vs. Watchitoo StreamingPro

We use Microsoft Teams Rooms across all of our main conference suites. This ensure our staff have consistent meeting experiences in out part of the education sector - meetings generally become hybrid fairly frequently and can even extend to pupils or staff working from home. We did try some of the poly equipment in a classroom environment but due to noise levels and the amount of pupils and staff it quickly became a non starter. We were advised to stick with participant numbers aligned to our purchased hardware before we tried this.

Incentivized

I think Watchitoo is a product that is great for many different use-cases for internal programming, one-on-one teaching, e-learning, live web chats, town halls, etc. The company is also very innovative in that updates are constantly being made to the platform and I've seen feedback immediately reflected in a new feature or button.

• Video and audio recording.
• Sharing content.
• Stable connection.
• Webinar features.

Incentivized

• Simplicity of interface and basic features to get non-technical speakers to enable camera/adjust microphone and preview their feed.
• Complexity of potential programming and special settings that can yield a rather high production quality using external camera, studio switchboards, and any other fancy bells and whistles you want to integrate from other media/communication equipment.
• Customer service was always on point with their responses to technical questions and exhibited great diligence when assisting live programs. They were good about being open about other customer experiences and troubleshooting methods learned from others using the platform.

• We would like to see a view which focuses on each individual and places them in a separate frame for an immersive experience.
• It should connect to the Teams app in laptop as soon as we enter the room using some medium like mic audio.
• Low bandwidth consumption codec to be developed to allow good quality video conferencing even in low bandwidth networks.

Incentivized

• The lower bandwidth environments often had trouble participating in Watchitoo StreamingPro so a custom "low bandwidh" theme was created. I feel like Watchitoo could offer more to more people if they catered to those with lower internet speeds and slower computers, or shoddy mobile service.
• The external media search functionality is great and can add a lot to a program, but it could be more user-friendly and a bit more configurable. I like to narrow my searches for specific content, colors, file types, shapes, sizes, formats, etc. Watchitoo peaked into the Internet, but I often had to search, find, download, save, upload instead of pulling directly into the program. NOTE: I am typically more particular in my media searches than others.
• Lastly, I'd say combining a ZUI (zoom user interface) would be a potentially interesting feature to add to Watchitoo. The idea in my mind is a multi-point feed show where folks are in relation to one another in the world. Somewhat how Google Earth toggles between points, but also like how Prezi presentation can have content spread out over a larger map area.

Hardware dependance: important to have the right certified hardware such as cameras, microphones which can limit flexibility. User onboarding and learning curve of using the product as with any new integration takes time. Therefore, maybe thinking about a more intuitive approach could help on an easier ramp up for 1st time users

Cisco Webex, Zoom

Incentivized

Adobe Connect is a tried, true and trusted platform given the Adobe name is widely recognized everywhere. Watchitoo offers a bit more of a start-up feel and are often much more responsive in term of customer service. Account managers were open to multiple modes of communication and constantly making themselves available, even to support ad hoc programs. Larger platforms would re-assign new account liaisons and technical support staff. Knowledge Management with respect to our use of the platform and previous troubles/lessons learned was much more fluid with Watchitoo

• Increase in Staff confidence to use meeting equipment
• less "device failures" during meetings
• More and more staff have reduced the need to travel to each of our sites for a meeting.

Incentivized

• Better customer service; it improved production quality and allow for a custom look-and-feel that was missing from other platforms in use.
• Enabled more participation; through the mobile features and easy connection procedure, users felt empowered using a simple program whereas other platforms were requiring special technician help.