We now use this wide-angle camera to get everyone in view, and with a high-quality image.
3) SOFTWARE – ZOOM AND SKYPE
In short, we recommend Zoom and Skype. We need both because indian phone number sometimes one doesn’t work well.
In 2014, we tested Skype, TeamViewer, GoToMeeting, ooVoo and QQ extensively. I mean, we spent many hours in meetings with all of these and recorded progress over time.
The result: GoToMeeting’s China edition (website in Chinese) was by far the best for screen sharing and video conferencing. A key advantage was that the frame-rate kept up with the conversation. Plus, it allows people to call in by phone too. Note that we were using the Chinese edition of GoToMeeting. The US-version shouldn’t provide as high-of-quality in China as we experienced.
Skype is great for textual chat, so we still use it. But video calls are constantly dropped and screen sharing rarely works at all.
As for TeamViewer and QQ, they froze or dropped so much that we didn’t continue using them.
We later added Zoom to the mix. We didn’t test it as rigorously as the others, but over the years it seemed that Zoom worked more consistently than GoToMeeting.
Still, neither Zoom nor Skype work 100% of the time, so we keep them both handy. Note that Zoom does require a VPN still.
4) INDIVIDUAL SOUND – LOGITECH WIRELESS HEADSET OR SONY EARPHONES AND YETI MIC
I’m a big fan of Logitech by the way…
For meetings with individuals, a headset is just going to work a lot better than the default equipment on laptops.
Personally, I used the Logitech H800, which costs about USD 130. Everybody in the company seems to have a different headset, and the difference in audio quality isn’t very great. The jump in quality from simply using a laptop’s default mic and speakers, to using a headset is very noticeable though.
My Logitech was eventually destroyed because my home office has an infestation of, um, children.
I now use a Yeti microphone, which is totally overkill for meetings with clients but sounds great. The only reason I have it is for the occasional live stream. It costs about 130 USD.
And, I use Sony WH-1000MX headphones. At 350 USD, I can’t recommend them. The sound was great, but they developed a clicking sound that thousands of other people on the Internet have complained about. Sony’s support staff just say “it’s physical damage, so not under warranty.”
So, the Logitech wireless headset wins over the Sony + Yeti configuration, even though it’s about 4X cheaper!
5) VIDEO DISPLAY – CHEAP-O WIDESCREEN TV
One of video meetings at our Chinese office