Getting the best video experience
- Use a high definition webcam – 720p or better
- Use a headset with a microphone where possible as they help to eliminate background noise
- Adjust your video bandwidth to suit your connection speed. A good connection should use 768kbps (broadband connection of > 5mbps), a slow connection should use as low as 256kbps (connection < 1mbps)
- Avoid fabrics with complicated patterns such as checks, tight/close stripes, herringbones, tweeds, and loud plaids. Fabrics of this design tend to strobe on camera.
- Avoid extremes of lighting – low light or direct sunlight. These tend to silhouette or washout your displayed video
- If you’re not going to be speaking for a long time, it’s good etiquette to mute your audio to remove any background noises
- Where possible, implement QoS on your local network - the first outbound link is the slowest. If you get video out of this link with top priority, the remaining hops are usually no problem.
Technical jargon – get the knowledge
- WebRTC – this is the technology your browser uses as a video client. It is installed on a computer or mobile device to enable video conferencing
- VMR – a virtual meeting room. Where you and two or more persons can collaborate together
- QoS - Quality of Service. Further info here: https://www.voip-info.org/qos/
- Conference PIN – a four or five digit number used to allow access to a virtual meeting room
- Service Plan – think of it like a mobile phone contract, except for video
- On-net – using the UCi2i network to call other people on the UCi2i network
- Off-net – using the UCi2i network to call people off the UCi2i network, i.e. going over the public internet
- High Definition – a high quality resolution picture
- 720p – the minimum resolution for a video call to be classed as high definition. Also used is 1080p, this is a better resolution than 720p
- Firewall – a hardware device that protects your network from bad people :-)
- Ports – an application specific number that allows internal and external systems or software to talk to each other.
- SIP – a video protocol, typically looks like an email address
- H.323 – a video protocol, usually used on older systems. Can look like a bunch of numbers, e.g. 321@125.222.21.67
- E.164 – is an international numbering plan for public telephone systems. Your own phone number is an E.164 number – did you know that?
- IP address – a unique network address assigned to a computer or video system
