Sometimes life gives us lemons, or curveballs, or other unforeseen obstacles and we must do our best to adapt. That is what happened with our team as we approached the 2018 Texas Distance Learning Association conference. A couple of our core team members could not make the trip to Dallas, Texas.  Luckily, the i2i Technologies team is great at making lemonade from lemons, can hit curveballs out of the park, and know how to adjust when obstacles get placed in our intended paths. i2i Technologies specializes in video communication and collaboration. Could we walk our talk? Could we create a blended conference to mix local and virtual presence? What would that look like? Could it really be effective?

Here is the behind the scenes thought process and logistics of how we successfully participated in the 2018 TxDLA conference in a blended conference style with a mix of a local and virtual presence.

Identifying Goals and Objectives

Remember, we always start with what we’re trying to accomplish to keep our focus! Shiny objects and minutiae are the enemies of successful planning and execution. Do your best to keep the proverbial horse before the cart while getting beyond the surface of the big picture.

We really had three objectives for this conference when we realized that two of our team members would not be attending in the flesh.

1. To provide a place for natural, inclusive conversations in our exhibit booth.
2. To present an interactive breakout session.
3. All reasoning should come in threes.

Conversations in the Booth

Ken is our Director of Partnerships and Collaboration. He attended virtually and needed to be able to interact with attendees in the booth. The biggest challenge was the audio. The booths line the perimeter of a large ballroom. In the center of all the booths are round tables for over 300 attendees to have their meals. The video conference connection would also be running over Wi-Fi. Yes, hotel Wi-Fi that is being shared among several hundred people. Good luck with that, right?

We knew the audio would be a challenge.

• How would the microphone handle all of that loud, ambient noise?
• Would Ken be able to actually hear people talking to him?
• Would they be able to hear Ken clearly?

We tested the software video conference client with a Logitech C22 webcam. The audio and video quality from Ken was all right. The video back to him was okay. The audio from the booth was horrible. The microphone was not powerful enough to cover the booth area. It was so awkward to have to walk up to the camera and use a “teacher voice” to have a conversation. Plus the microphone picked up the conference background noise. Overall, fail. Ken would not have been able to interact in a quality way with anyone.

We moved up to a Lifesize Icon 450 system with the Lifesize Phone (built-in microphone and speakers). This was a win! Ken was able to clearly hear the people talking to him. The technology in the Lifesize Phone minimized the background noise. This picture shows our final setup. We put the microphone directly in front of the camera and display so that represented “Ken.” We left the mic open and Ken could see who was in the booth and carry on a conversation with them as if he was standing in the booth.

Interactive Breakout Session

Ken and Elaine presented a session on the Past, Present, & Future of Distance Communication & Collaboration completely via video conference. Ken joined from his laptop in Houston, Texas and Elaine joined from her Polycom system in Sturgis, South Dakota.

We used the Lifesize Icon 450 (that has an embedded PTZ camera) in the hotel breakout room. The microphone and speakers were from the Lifesize Phone and the internet connection was hard-wired.

Roxanne was local in the room and used the Lifesize Phone to control the camera for Ken and Elaine, so they could see the audience. She also controlled the layout of content/content + people/people depending on what would be best for the local audience. Ken shared the presentation slides through the Lifesize Cloud app, so there was no need for an additional computer in the local room.

The conversation was organic and flowed during the session. Ken and Elaine could clearly see and hear the local audience. Roxanne could toggle the layout to display content-heavy slides full screen and then back to the speaker when appropriate.

It is this level of attention to detail that helps make the technology fade into the background so that the conversations and activity can be the focus (as it should be). If you are interested in quality video communications, we are available to help you get things done.