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A Guide to the My Meetings Communicator
and to the Audio or Video App Integration Options
I use the Webo Online Meeting Room SaaS (Software). Webo has a focus on providing online meeting rooms that enable and facilitate efficient meetings. Audio and Video plugins are an ever-increasingly wide range of options that are stand-alone or which can allow a group to chat while in a Webo meeting room. The Webo online meeting room is designed to be a meeting back-office which delivers meeting packs online and which supports pre-meeting dialogue. The Link & List Communicator enables meeting administrators to distribute meeting document packs on a mobile-friendly bookmarklet app.
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The Online Meeting Room
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The Live Meeting
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The Online Meeting Room Supports Live Meetings.
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This is where you will find pre-reading and reference documentation. You can add attachments or link to online pages for surveys, presentations etc
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We can also hold poll votes or we can capture and export resolution support as required by the Companies Act.
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A chat box and private message option are available to ensure clarity and where participants can pose questions before and after the meeting.
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A back office is available where a meeting secretary can type minutes which can be displayed in the meeting room. Draft minutes can be downloaded.
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A wide range of meeting and project management templates are available for use by the back office.
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Your choice of Live Chat or video conferencing system is supported.
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All we do when we have the live meeting discussion is we share my online meeting room screen.
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The live chat option selected is used to record the deliberations.
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Typically I use Skype for meetings under 50 people and I use WhatsApp or Google Duo when low bandwidth is all that is available.
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Typically audio and video applications will allow you to share your screen, activate or mute your video or audio link within the group chat, add comments into a typed chatbox, and they may allow you to record the meeting.
Note that audio/video options are real-time communication channels that support "face to face" chat as opposed to the Webo online meeting room that offers online meeting support. Typically a group video call will share the screen that presents the online meeting room. Participants will participate in the live chat while having the online meeting room open on their phones and PC so as to have access to documents, links, voting polls, agendas and live minute taking re resolutions, action plans and more.
My online meeting rooms allow meeting participants to:
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Password gate access to the meeting room
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Setup the main meeting room with multiple breakaway rooms in one "meeting category" that allows free movement between the meeting(s) and breakaway rooms.
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Allow participants to load and share attachments that can be any kind of file such as a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, audio, video, image, Photoshop, InDesign or other files.
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Allow the meeting or communicator administrators to add links to a URL such as to an online survey or questionnaire, an online PowerPoint presentation or magazine, an online sign-up page, video galleries/pages or image galleries/slide shows, interface with social media, visit live online cost estimation pages and more.
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Participate in a chatbox anonymously or with a registered username.
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Send private messages to individual meeting participants.
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See up to six meeting room pages that the website communicator or meeting admin will set up to show introductory comments, listen to audio podcasts, plus show the meeting agenda, resolutions, action plans and more.
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Vote anonymously or the requirement to be logged in may be set as a requirement to vote.
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Record resolution yeas, nays and abstains in line with Companies Act requirements for company directors' resolutions.
The meeting room has a back office where a meeting administrator can type up minutes into standard Webo meeting/project management templates or into your own custom-designed templates. Participants need only refresh their screens to see the updated meeting draft minutes which can be set to be downloadable.
Participants can then find their full meeting documentation pack (pre-reading) in the meeting room or it can as stated above, be delivered by way of a Link & List Communicator App.
The concept of an online meeting room is to support pre-meeting dialogue and in some cases to host the entire meeting without an audio or video hookup.
The purpose of the preferred audio or video plugins is to offer live face to face chat between multiple people.
There are many face-to-face audio/video options, and all of them can be integrated with the Webo online meeting room. Think of it as a physical meeting room that has a roving microphone.
As at May 2020, there are many audio/video options. The following is not an all-inclusive review of the free options available but it offers insight into what you may prefer to integrate with your online meeting room to meet your needs.
Face-to-face "smaller group" chat options.
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Houseparty has a limit of 8 persons on a group chat.
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Google Duo video calls are limited to 12 callers in a group chat. Users will need a Google Account – which doesn't necessarily require a Gmail email address – to take part in a call.
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Facetime has a limit of 32-persons on a group chat. It is limited to Apple devices and recently to Android phones. It is not available for PCs.
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Facebook Messenger Rooms, allow up to 50 people with either Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp or Instagram accounts to video call.
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Skype has increased its user chat limit from 50 to 100. Group video calls are subject to a fair usage limit of 100 hours per month with no more than 10 hours per day and a limit of 4 hours per individual video call. Once these limits have been reached, the video will switch off and the call will convert to an audio call. Video calls work well for around 10 people.
Enterprize level "medium to large" group video conferencing / webinar options.
In this niche, there are many paid options but in the free market niche we suggest the following:
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Zoom has a limit on the Free option of 100 participants in a group with a max duration of 40 minutes for all except schools.
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Ring Central is free up to 100 participants for video, screen sharing, & messaging.
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Free Conference Call (FCC) has over 20 million users, offers worldwide dial-in to a local number plus PC access. The free option limits conference calling or webinars to 1,000 attendees. There is no time limit to any conference or webinar, and there is no limit to the number of times you can use the system per month. Your conference dial-in number and conference ID will be active until you decide to cancel service. Screen sharing, remote desktops, recording & shared playback, Outlook or Google Calendar integration, 1GB of free storage, a mobile app. With more than 2 billion calls made across the globe, this is arguably the most popular free conference call service on the market today.
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