Considerations for Hybrid Meetings (In Person and Microsoft Teams Meetings)

Recommendations

Consider the following when considering and setting up a hybrid meeting.

What is the format and intent of your meeting?

For example:

• Is the meeting intended to be interactive and collaborative?
• Is the meeting more of a presentation/informational?
• How sensitive is the information that will be discussed at the meeting?
• Would it make sense to record the meeting?
  • Refer to Privacy Considerations for Recording Meetings.

How many people are attending in person and how many attending online?

Understanding how many people you’re expecting at the meeting can help you to assess if you need another person to monitor chat and/or presentation. For instance:

• If you are expecting a large group of people and also expecting to having working portions of the meeting, you may consider using discussion/breakout rooms for online participants (and assigning moderators to each if there’s more than one).
• Depending on who and how many are attending and on how sensitive the intended topic is, you may wish to enable the Lobby for the meeting. As well, you may consider changing the meeting settings to mute participants on entry.
  • These settings can be modified when creating your meeting in Teams or by editing an existing Teams meeting.

Where are you holding the meeting?

• Refer to Using Cisco Telepresence Equipment for a list of rooms with telepresence devices installed. This list includes the capacity of each room.
• If the room you need is not in the list, contact AV Services (Burnaby Campus or Downtown Campus) for equipment.

What procedures will be used during the meeting?

Determine these ahead of time and communicate them clearly to participants. The size, formality, and intent of the meeting can influence these. Suggested for consideration include:

• Who will be presenting? If several people are doing presentation, will they be controlling their own presentation or will there be a designated person to do this?
• Does the presentation include more complicated elements, such as an online video? If so, it’s important to ensure that the device being used to present is also set to share audio with the meeting.
• Will online participants be visible in the room in some fashion? Will you be using Spotlighting for online participants?
• When and how can online participants ask questions. For example, should online participants use the Raise Hand feature and wait to be called on by a moderator or simply unmute and start to speak? Will the moderator be keeping track of questions in Chat or another medium?
• If online participants are automatically muted, can they unmute themselves?
  • Note: We recommend that online participants have their audio muted unless they are the moderator, presenter, or current active speaker.
• If you are intended to gather information from participants, how can you best gather it? Do you need to use polling tools? Do you need a designated note taker to record the information gathered?
• Are online participants required/recommended to have their video on during the meeting?

How will both in person and online participants accessibility needs be addressed?

For example:

• Will there be an ASL (American Sign Language) translator at the meeting and if so, how will they attend?
  • If the ASL translator is attending online, it’s important to spotlight them so that they are always visible to online participants, and to project a view of the participants .
  • If the ASL translator will be present in the room, you will need to set up another laptop with an external camera. This can be sourced from AV Services.
    • Use the external camera source for the ASL Interpreter (note that using an extender to connect the camera to the laptop may cause flickering of the video).
    • Ensure all audio is off on the laptop to prevent feedback and audio problems. This means that the ASL interpreter laptop should be muted in the meeting and the laptop should have its audio output muted as well – no sound out and no sound in.
• Will automatic captioning be used?
• How will any meeting materials be distributed to all participants and will they be sent to online participants in advance?

Important

IT Services is not able to assist with on-site support for hybrid meetings.  Special support accommodations can be made for Institute-wide meetings or events, subject to availability.  

If you are unfamiliar with conducting hybrid meetings, or with the equipment in the room you intend to use, we strongly recommend doing a short practice and troubleshooting session with the room and equipment ahead of time, and involve both an in person and online tester. Consider having co-host with an additional computer.

Note: Town Square A & B do not have built-in conferencing equipment.

If you are considering using Town Square C or D

Refer to Using Cisco Telepresence Devices for instructions to connect to your meeting.

This room has three cameras. There are two cameras by the two main monitors and a third camera on the opposite wall across. Determine where your speaker is presenting.