Two years after many of us were driven from our offices by the pandemic, we know that remote and hybrid work models are here to stay. Video conferencing is now the go-to tool to keep dispersed teams communicating.
When the pandemic hit, you and your staff may have quickly cobbled together a video conferencing setup. Trial and error may have led you to assume you had the best lighting for video conferencing or a virtual background that made sense. Now that the dust has settled from COVID somewhat, it may be time to look again at your video conferencing setup to maximize your professionalism during remote meetings. We have a few low cost – but high impact – strategies that will help.
Why Work on Your Video Conferencing Setup?
There’s a direct link between the video conferences you conduct and your bottom line. Today, everything from sales on the front-end, to customer support on the back-end happens via video conferencing. What the customer sees on their screen impacts their level of trust, their perception of your professionalism, and even how they evaluate your ability to do the job they hired you for.
Your video conferencing setup also matters to your employees. Video conferencing gives you a way to communicate with teams quickly and securely. However, you don’t want your employees frustrated by the video conferencing technology you use. It should be a seamless, effective end-user experience that doesn’t create friction with your teams.
There is also the more complicated issue of employee internet connectivity. That makes maximizing your video conferencing setup more complex. Not only will your business need the network bandwidth to avoid choppy interruptions to your video feed, so will your employees. Did you know that more than 21 million Americans lack a high-speed broadband connection? One study even puts that number higher, at 42 million. Too often, the video conferencing software is blamed for problems like screen freeze, when in reality, it’s the internet itself that’s the problem.
If you have an IT team, they may want to address this issue and provide support to any of your team members working from home. If your IT is more of a self-service model, here is a good article from The New York Times with some very concrete suggestions for improving home Wi-Fi connections.
What is the Best Lighting for Your Video Conferencing Setup?
After your internet bandwidth, maximizing your lighting setup is the next most important topic for making your video conference more professional. Having the right lighting can mean the difference between you looking like an indistinguishable silhouette, or a professional participant in the video conference.
There are dozens of articles on this topic, but really, video conferencing lighting has one basic rule that you must follow: Light from the front and not the back. Both you and your employees must practice putting a light source on the other side of your computer from you (i.e., behind the camera) to maximize lighting. While you can spend money on more sophisticated lighting setups, if you follow this one rule, you and the participants viewing the conference will have a much more effective and professional experience.
Now let’s turn our attention to the video conferencing setup that you can control; the one in your small office conference room.
Maximizing Video Conferencing for a Small Conference Room
Your office may have a small conference room or a series of spaces that you want to maximize for video conferencing. If you’re looking for small conference ideas, consider:
· You may have a small huddle room where teams can meet when they’re in the office. You’ll want an easy-to-use video conferencing solution designed for spontaneous collaboration in addition to scheduled meetings. Look for browser-based video conferencing solutions that are plug-and-play with no software downloads. The provider should offer great features like chat and whiteboarding to improve collaboration. Also, if you have external cameras set up, make sure it prioritizes a wide-angle lens to encompass the smaller space.
· A medium-sized space designed as an official conference room allows you to design the background behind a presenter for a more professional look and feel. You may want a dual-screen setup that allows the presenter to share content on one screen while still viewing the audience on another screen. Depending on the size of the room, you may add HD cameras with an optical zoom feature or add microphones to increase the quality of the audio. You can do all of this on a frugal budget.
Larger conference rooms require additional technology to improve the professionalism of your video conference setup. Depending on how you put it all together, the video chats you hold can do more than fulfill the goals of the meeting itself. They can greatly improve your brand.
Improving Branding with Virtual Backgrounds for Video Conferencing
Virtual backgrounds for video conferencing are a topic all on its own. When your employees are conducting their meetings using video conferencing, you have the additional worry of what the end-user sees behind your worker. Most employees will probably have professionalism in mind when holding a meeting, but what if they choose a virtual background that you think doesn’t fit your brand? If the employee doesn’t use a virtual background, it’s also the activity behind the employee that you should consider.
This is exactly why many companies set up corporate virtual backgrounds with their company logos and then mandate that all employees use them during professional meetings with external clients. But there is another way to brand your business professionally that you may not have considered.
Some video conferencing solutions offer white labeling. MegaMeeting offers this feature, which allows our clients to rebrand the actual video conferencing software with their logo and business colors. White labeling is hugely beneficial for any company, particularly small firms that want to look just as professional as their larger competitors. It’s a great way to build your brand during every video conference that you conduct.
For the Best Video Conference Setup, Use MegaMeeting
The utilitarian function of video conferencing software can’t be discounted. Today, video conferencing can keep your business running even in the face of disruption. These tools allow you to connect on a larger scale with remote audiences while improving communication and building your brand. All of these reasons are why MegaMeeting remains the solution for the small to medium-sized businesses seeking to professionalize their video conferencing setup without breaking the bank.
MegaMeeting is the secure browser-based video conferencing solution that offers the same features as our larger competitors. Unlike the competition, we allow you to fully brand our product with your company colors and logo for a souped-up experience to build your brand. Find out why more companies choose our solution to professionalize their video conferencing setup. Contact us today.
MegaMeeting solves the biggest challenges of modern video conferencing. For users, it is an all-in-one platform that delivers both video conferencing and webinars in a single, simplified interface. For attendees, it is 100% browser-based, making it highly accessible; joining a meeting is instantaneous from a single click. For enterprises, it is highly customizable, with white-labeling options for a private branded solution. For developers, it is API-driven and easy to integrate.
Powered by WebRTC, Node.js, React, and GraphQL, it is a cutting-edge platform that is fun and easy to use for users and developers alike.
