Holywood u3a
Holywood and District u3a
Hybrid meeting arrangements.
Our committee agreed to investigate hybrid meetings because of their potential usefulness to members who have difficulty attending meetings, and because of the increased opportunity to share and interact with other u3as.
We agreed to start with a simple solution for our large monthly meetings, which currently are still limited to 60 participants, but more normally might be 150.
The first experiment involved committee members’ computer, iPhone, iPad and other accessories, but it was decided that if we were to have a team of 4 or 5 members who could take turns to manage the technology, the u3a should purchase the equipment. The equipment needed is listed below with approximate prices.
1. A laptop with generous RAM and good screen, plus plenty of connection ports. A second hand 15” MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM was found for £575.
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2. The hall where our meetings take place has no public Wi-Fi, so a mobile router was bought along with a 12GB ‘3’ data sim card, for a total of £75.
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3. Our existing PA system (which has 2 hand-held radio mics and one head radio mic) has Phono output connections, so a phono to jack cable was bought. £20
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4. The jack plug required an adaptor to match the type expected by the computer, so a further £12 was spent.
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5. Instead of using members’ iPhones as cameras, we bought a refurbished iPhone 7 from GiffGaff. £89
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6. A tripod with a holder for the iPhone completed the equipment. Approx £25
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For the actual events the equipment listed above was supplemented by a member’s ipad (along with earpiece) for use as a monitor.
The actual set-up involves the laptop and iPad monitor on a table to the side of the hall, with a cable from the PA speaker to the laptop. The iPhone on its tripod sits in front of the speaker’s podium. The mobile router sits on a windowsill where the signal was strongest.
The laptop hosts the zoom meeting. The iPhone logs in to the meeting as a participant, and the host laptop can spotlight it, so that everyone else logging in sees the view from the iPhone. The iPad logs in as another participant, and the operator can then ensure that what remote participants see and hear is as it should be. The iPad also acts as an occasional second camera to show the participants in the hall, usually added to the spotlight so that speaker and hall are seen side by side.
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The longer term plan is to buy a better camera and associated accessories if the take-up by members justifies the extra expense.