During these weeks of social isolation a lot of people are learning quickly how to register for and use online video conference tools. This post is a simple introduction to a few of the options available and their pros and cons.
We encourage you to check them out and use them regularly to stay in touch with your Life Groups, friends and neighbours. It is very encouraging to see each others faces as we talk together in larger groups with this technology.
At Lakeside we have had success with:
Zoom http://zoom.us or Webex http://webex.com
These are two of the larger professional sites for business. Zoom and Webex have a free option that lets you meet for 40 minutes at a time, which could be plenty for your purposes. Paid plans are about $20 a month for unlimited meeting times (and a bunch of other features you probably won’t use)
The advantage of Zoom or Webex is that they are very stable and offer good video quality compared to some other free options, but there could be a cost to you if you need to meet longer than 40 minutes at a time.
Big Blue Button http://bigbluebutton.org
Also has a free tier that allows meeting for an hour. Big Blue Button is a little different in that it was designed for classroom use so has some unique features for collaboration. I have not tried it out yet, but people who have used it say it is very good. It includes some fun tools like a shared whiteboard.
Houseparty http://houseparty.com
Houseparty is free and allows up to 8 people to join a “party” to chatting and to play some simple built in games. I’d expect more games to be added over time, there are only 5 at the moment, but they can be fun. There are knockoffs of Pictionary, Charades, and word association card games, a trivia game, and things like that. Runs on all smart phones and tablets, and also through a Chrome browser (or the new Edge).
Google Meet https://gsuite.google.ca/
Google Meet is part of the Google GSuite of tools for small businesses. You can get GSuite for about $7 a month and use Google Meet for video conferencing up to 25 people. I am not a big Google user, but many people who are already a part of the Google environment with their email and calendar may find this the easiest to get into. Gsuite also provides cloud storage and other office/small business features you may benefit from as well. Video quality in my experience is not as solid as Zoom and Webex, more on par with Jitsi below, but your mileage may vary.
Jitsi http://meet.jit.si
Jitsi is a unique site in that it does not require any registration at all. Just go to the site, type in a unique meeting room name and share the address… boom, anyone can connect. It is free to use for long as you want to meet, however the video and audio quality can struggle more than some of the bigger players mentioned above if you get more than 5 or 6 people in a room. If everyone has solid internet connections though it can do 20, 30 or 50+ people, which is impressive for a completely free service that also has a smartphone app, just like the big boys.
There are literally dozens of other options, this site lists a few others you may want to try out as well and tell others about. Whatever you use, dive in and give video conferencing a try, it’s worth the investment of your time to connect with and encourage other in this way!