My favorite remote conferencing software
January 16, 2019
My favorite remote conferencing software
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Zoom Video Webinar
Within my company, we use Zoom Video Webinar to conduct weekly meetings with remote research collaborators. I am not certain if Zoom is regularly used by other research teams at my company. Zoom is similar to other remote video conference software in that it allows participants to hold video or phone conferences or meetings. Zoom helps us avoid travel costs associated with meeting collaborators in person. Due to its reliability and high video and audio quality, it has boosted our work performance and efficiency. Thus, we can spend more time during meetings discussing research rather than waiting for buffering or asking participants to repeat statements.
Pros
- The video and audio quality are excellent. I have never needed to ask a participant to repeat themselves because of low audio quality or a time lag between the video and audio.
- I find the layout of the meeting interface pleasant and intuitive. I find it much easier to use than Skype. I also like that during a video conference, you can see all the participants on the sides of the screen, and the person talking is featured in the middle.
- I like the fact that you can join a Zoom meeting via a web browser, or you can use the app. This allows you to join a meeting even if you are not on your own computer.
Cons
- While the audio quality is very good, it is very sensitive to background noise. When we hold meetings with Zoom, all participants except the one talking have to mute their microphones, which is a bit of a nuisance during a discussion.
- I prefer joining Zoom meetings through a web browser on my laptop rather than using the Zoom app, but every time I want to join a meeting I get the prompt to download the app. I'm not a big fan of being asked multiple times to download an app that I do not want (this happens when I join Zoom meetings on a computer other than my work laptop).
- For the needs of my (small) research team, Zoom works well and is relatively inexpensive. However, Zoom pricing increases considerably for meetings of over 100 participants and longer meeting time caps.
- Zoom has increased the productivity of our research team thanks to its intuitive interface and excellent audio and video quality. We can have discussions without the interruption of buffering or the annoyance of a video/audio lag.
- We have increased the number of research publications and the volume of research we produce, as we can easily meet with remote collaborators.
- Zoom helps our research team save money by avoiding travel costs associated with in-person meetings.
I prefer Zoom Video Webinar over Skype for three main reasons 1) the user interface is intuitive and easy to use 2) video and audio quality are much better than Skype, and 3) the basic version is free. I find business meetings over Zoom much more enjoyable than those over Skype. The Skype interface changes frequently, and it always takes me a moment to figure out where the screen sharing button is or how to get to the messaging page. With Zoom, however, those features are much easier to find.
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