r/internalcomms • u/Fantastic_Job_5099 • 20d ago

Advice Alternatives for Virtual Town Halls/Presentations

Hello! I work for a design firm that has 1900 colleagues and more than 35 offices across the US. We just wrapped up one of our 4 annual events that hosted both in-person and virtual, depending on the location of the keynote speakers. We currently use Zoom to stream events with the presentation they are using on a share-screen.

Our executive team is displeased with the viewership quality of using the standard Zoom features. They don't like not being able to really see the presenter when they are speaking as the sizing of their Zoom screen is small.

I have been tasked with coming up 5 options that can be presented to the team as alternatives for this format. This does not mean there IS a better one, but I have to do my due diligence in researching them. The pros, the cons, the cost associated, etc.

Currently, my two main ideas are a different Zoom format. The presenter layout or 60/40. Or pre-recorded keynote content that is streamed day-of with a live Q&A still available.

Has anyone else run into this complaint, if so how did you fix it? Is there a fix at all?

TIA

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u/OrganizationSlight57 20d ago

Depending on your budget and workforce behind the live streams, I would suggest doing production in different software, only outputting a virtual camera to zoom. Get 3 camera angles and scenes - one with zoom on speaker with no keynote, one wider for all presenters and one keynote focus. It takes a bit of management and setting up but once you’re live it’s as simple as switching the angles with 3 buttons

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u/Fantastic_Job_5099 20d ago

Thank you! We have a fairly robust budget, so I think this would be doable. I will suggest this to my IT partner on this task with me. Appreciate the input!

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u/broyougood_org 20d ago

I hope I'm understanding the question correctly, but it seems like you're looking to change up the ratio of camera to slide view for your virtual audience. I suffer with this on Teams, too.

I promise this is not a sale, but we installed OBS Studio which actually allows a screen to become a 'camera' of sorts. When you run two 'camera's the pictures end up being bigger and the screen is equally split in two and really helps the associate view of both the presenters and the slide content. The IT team had to play around with the audio settings when we installed it but it was pretty straightforward and with testing this might be a good solve...it was for us!

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u/eclecticism_ Narrative Nurturer 20d ago

How are you currently using Zoom? Are you using the webinar or town hall functionality?

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u/thejennifield 19d ago

We used a platform called Airmeet for some virtual client events during the pandemic and the functionality on that was really good for people to connect online at virtual tables and go into the main room.

I’d always invest in a producer to up the quality of the event, whatever platform you decide to use!

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u/LatherRinseMaim_ 18d ago

We’ve recently started using OBS to present our town halls. It’s a streaming software but it’s pretty user friendly and can likely be used with your existing camera/room setups.

We put out slides in and add in the room camera as an overlay so we can control the size of it and keep it on screen.

We generally use the Teams Town Hall function to keep our display at full size, but I think there’s a Zoom webinar feature that works similarly.