Category Archives: What’s On Your Bench

Zoom Room

Submitted by Edward Brunet Jr, of Stony Brook University

I have a two fold application for this program. First it is a COVID response to teaching large lecture Hall style classes and not having a faculty member feel like they are stuck behind a laptop in their home. In the classroom setup, they are standing, as normal behind a lectern. They have 3 screens to look at, to engage with their class. Far left their class roster, middle is the active speaker (minus the person lecturing), far right is the shared presentation. In the board room style, I have incorporated the three screens again, but the middle screen is the shared presentation, giving the illusion that it still feels like a conference room with the simplicity of Zoom Room organizing the members of the virtual meeting and the active speaker in separate virtual locations.

I like how the program separates those attending the meeting virtual. I also like the idea that the Zoom Room PC can not be utilized by the user expect for using Zoom Rooms. All functions of the Zoom Room are accessible via the touch panel.

Some say there are a lot of up front cost. This I would be happy to discus further if anyone would like to inquire.

Hands on with the Logitech Meetup

We installed this Logitech camera in two of our conference rooms and found it to be generally pretty fantastic. Included are a handful of photos to show its quality, positioning, and capabilities. Of course I can’t show everything with a photo (like its microphone and control options) so I’ll do my best to do it justice with words. The camera can be mounted on the top or bottom of the TV with the simple mounting kit available for it. We placed ours on top of the camera as such:

It gives a complete view of the conference room and records in a 1920×1080 resolution. The image is clear and concise, which can be seen from the following two photos:

Clearly the top photo was taken from my phone, but the second one was a direct screen capture from the camera itself. In the second picture you can see a water bottle in the center of the table, which I’ll use to show the zoom capabilities in the following photo:

So, not only does it have enough zoom to get that much closer to the bottle, the quality doesn’t suffer much, and it has control options to aim the camera where it needs to be, with a full range that could reach nearly every point in the room, all of which is controlled with this remote:

The remote is easy to use and controls every aspect of the camera, including the built in microphone and speakers. The remote allows for camera position presets to be programmed to the two bottom buttons, but can always be returned to its initial position by hitting the Home button. The microphone can pick up speech from at least 25 feet, and the speakers are noise cancelling so there will never be an echo. Frankly I was amazed at two things from this device:

1. The overall quality of every part of it; the sturdiness, the video and sound quality, the peripherals, all of it is top notch.

2. How easy it is to use. Setup is quick and easy, and all of the controls are intuitive and linear. There’s no hassle in making it work with Zoom or Skype.

Roseann Anzalone shares wisdom before final bow.

As you all probably know, Roseann Anzalone of Adirondack Community College is retiring. I wanted to mine one last bit of gold from her before that final bow, so instead of asking what was on her bench, I asked what single piece of technology has had the greatest impact on her job, in her opinion. Her answer surprised me, but what didn’t surprise me was the insight it showed.

Continue reading Roseann Anzalone shares wisdom before final bow.

SUNY Oneonta’s Favorite Document Camera – What’s On Your Bench?

 

I recently was chatting with Mark English from SUNY Oneonta, about document cameras. Since we all know there are many different models, choosing the right one for your campus needs can be daunting. However, after trying many different models at almost every pricepoint, Mark has landed on the Ziggi-HD Plus USB. Continue reading SUNY Oneonta’s Favorite Document Camera – What’s On Your Bench?