By Charles Miller
During the holiday season many people will be making use of online video meetings in lieu of traveling to spend time with friends and family. Lately the most popular way to do this is by using the program provided by Zoom Video Communications, Inc., to the point that the word “zoom” has entered the vernacular even though there are other video conference products including Google Hangouts, Facebook’s WhatsApp, Microsoft’s Skype, Apple’s FaceTime, and others.
If you plan to participate in an online video call, take a few minutes to check out your hardware ahead of the event. This will assure you that your camera and microphone are working and will give you a chance to listen to your voice quality and check your lighting and camera angle.
There are several easy-to-use web sites ideal for this purpose. Point your web browser to OnlineMicTest.com where you will be able to perform a quick test of your webcam and microphone. WebCamMicTest.com provides online webcam and microphone tests. TurnCameraOn.com is more a novelty site, but does have some good instructions for how to turn on your camera if it is not working.
If you are experiencing technical issues, head over to WebCamTests.com. This site provides not only online webcam and microphone tests, but also can help you to troubleshoot. Scroll down near the bottom of the page to find an extensive list of the minimum browser requirements for many computers, tablets, and smart phones. If your device is not the most up-to-date you should check this list to make sure you are not below the minimums. There is also a link on this page to sources where you may be able to download updated drivers for your device if needed.
After verifying that your camera and microphone are ready, you should shut down all programs other than the one you will be using for your video call.
If you are the sponsor of an online meeting, consider activating your audio and video feed perhaps 15 minutes before the time that everyone is to join the event. Put on some holiday music, and position a note in front of the camera saying, “Our meeting will start in a few minutes.”
Doing this will give participants a chance to verify their audio and video connections to the meeting are working, and perhaps time to resolve any issues. I recently participated in a video conference and had tested my camera, speakers, and microphone, yet when the meeting started the Google Hangouts server did not connect to my camera. Rather than risk being disconnected entirely, I continued the call voice-only without anyone being able to see me. If the Hangouts stream had been live a few minutes early, I might have had time to resolve that problem.
Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 415 101 8528 or email FAQ8@SMAguru.com.
