Hybrid Club Meetings are now the Norm

I lecture at least twice per week and whilst it’s true to say in-person lectures are beginning to come back, now they are always hybrid.

Last week I lectured in person at Smethwick; we had 32 people in the room and a further 25 tuning in via Zoom.

Last night I was talking to Newark and they Zoomed me into the clubroom where circa 20 people attended, a further 10 tuning in from home.

I think this model is here to stay because it offers so many advantages. As a club you can use speakers from anywhere in the world & Zoom them into the clubroom, plus you can invite new members to join your club from any location too… and still maintain the all important face-to-face meetings for those that want to attend.

What’s not to like?

My Smethwick lecture on 15.10.21

Are Hybrid Club Meetings the Way Forward?

As we tentatively move out of the Covid era I know many clubs are wrestling with when and how to restart face-to-face club room meetings. I’ve delivered two lectures to hybrid meetings in the last week, the latest one being the President’s Evening at Southport PS, and both went really well.

At Southport there were 35 people in the room and a further 6 joined in via Zoom. The set up was very simple (see photo below); a free standing microphone about 3m away from me, a standard camera (Nikon Z6 with 24-70 lens) used in video mode connected to a laptop. The laptop then streamed the feed via Zoom to those at home. Southport used a 4G router (just like using a mobile phone) - but I know for sure Malvern didn’t last week. They linked a member’s phone to the laptop and used the 4G signal from that to stream.

Southport had implemented good Covid protocols too; masks worn when not sitting down, good ventilation, cleaning wipes given to everyone to clean chairs etc. All very well done and not at all obtrusive. If you want more details you can email Sue Critchlow at Southport and she’ll be happy to advise - critchlow517@btinternet.com

As more folk become confident enough to attend meetings maybe we’ll end up dropping the Zoom element all together. But then again, I know lots of clubs have picked up distant members in lockdown, so who knows, maybe it’s here to stay.

For my part I’m just glad to be back on the road again. There’s nothing like the buzz of a real audience.

President’s Evening, Southport PS, 20th September 2021

Back Delivering Face-to-Face Lectures

I did my first in-person lecture for 18 months last night to Beacon Camera Club (Malvern, Worcestershire). They ran it as a hybrid meeting with circa 25 people in the room and a further 20+ tuned in by Zoom. The Zoom feed was delivered by a small camera set up on a tripod and they used a mobile phone tethered to the club laptop for 4G internet connection. It all worked really well.

I know other clubs are considering this hybrid approach to ease back in to business as normal. If you’d like help setting it up I can put you in contact with Tony at Beacon, I’m sure he’d be happy to help.

For my part it was so good to be back on my feet & made me realise just how much I had missed it. I’m hoping more clubs return to over the next few months, we’ve all been locked away far too long :-(

Zooming Straight into a Club Meeting Room

My recent presentation to Masham PC was a first for me. I presented via Zoom from my home and the lecture was watched live by socially distanced members in their club room.

It was very simple to set up; the host’s laptop was connected to the room’s projector and he then logged into Zoom using the building’s WiFi broadband - everything went very well. Even if WiFi broadband had not been available it would still have been possible by using 4G internet on a mobile phone. It’s very easy to connect a laptop to a phone by bluetooth so you can use the phone’s internet signal.

This offers real possibilities post Covid. We can have the social interaction that face-to-face club meetings afford, but still use speakers from anywhere in the country, or indeed, anywhere in the world, time zones permitting.

Maybe there will be a few lasting benefits that arise out of this awful pandemic. Let’s hope so.

Masham members watching my Zoom presentation

Optimising Zoom to Run Video Clips

I use a lot of video in my lectures & this sometimes raises concern for the host club because they’ve had poor experiences with video in previous Zoom presentations. I’ve never had this problem & I think it’s because I have a couple of critical settings selected in Zoom.

The important thing is to make sure the person sharing the screen with the audience has ticked the 2 boxes on the share screen - highlighted in the first image below.

Make sure your Zoom meeting is set up so only one person can share their screen at a time - you’ll not be able to tick the box “Optimize Screen Sharing For Video Clip” otherwise.

If you’re hosting you can set this option yourself in your Zoom control panel, otherwise if you are the one doing the sharing, ask your host to make you the host (or co-host) & do it from your “Share Screen” - see second image below.

I’ve tried other remote delivery services (Go To Meeting, Teams, Skype) & I’ve found none of them to be as proficient at handling video (this includes AV slideshows set to music) as Zoom… but I’ve always had these settings selected. Hopefully this will help you if you’ve been having problems.

When you share your screen via Zoom make sure these 2 boxes are ticked

To be able to tick the boxes above you’ll need to make sure “One participant can share at a time” is selected

Workshop Delivered Via Zoom - I'm a Zoom Fan!

I’ve now delivered my one-day workshop How To Create Competition Winning Images via Zoom and it works really well. Actually, remote delivery brings some advantages;

• I split it over 2 mornings so it’s easier for everyone to keep their concentration levels up - and that includes me! Room hire costs & set up would prohibit this normally

• when I demonstrate the live Photoshop sessions it’s much easier to see the detail of what I’m doing because you see it on your own screen which is set up in a comfortable viewing position for you. It can be difficult to see the detail on a projected screen unless I can get the room really dark

Interaction is still good because questions can be asked at any time either directly or via the chat facility.

One-to-one tutorials on Photoshop & Lightroom are popular too for the same reasons. One hour sessions allow for real concentrated attention to one aspect of image editing.

I’ve also delivered 26 lectures via Zoom over the last 9 weeks of lockdown and never had a problem with any of them. At least 50% of these have been for camera clubs that would have been too far to travel for one lecture, both in terms of time & cost, so they probably would not have happened in normal times.

I know we’ve had Zoom forced upon us by this awful pandemic, but I really think that it has established a positive role in amateur photography that will continue into normal times. I certainly hope so because I’m definitely a Zoom fan!