How To Enhance Your Hybrid Meetings

Video conferencing has revolutionized businesses worldwide. People are no longer restricted to audio-only communications, such as teleconferencing or bridged phone calls. Asynchronous communications such as email don’t work well for meetings when you want a live back-and-forth discussion between participants. And it’s not always possible to have everyone physically in the same space.

Enter hybrid meetings.

Combining in-person and virtual attendees, a hybrid meeting is easy to set up and makes gathering everyone in the same “space” a breeze. All you need, at a bare minimum, is a laptop running Zoom or Microsoft Teams and a larger screen — such as a TV or projector screen — to share the meeting on. Of course, there are many ways to upgrade your gear to improve the functionality and enjoyability of your hybrid meeting.

Great Sound, Great Picture

When looking for premium, cutting-edge hardware, consider Neat which offers incredible solutions for hybrid meetings with its patented Neat Symmetry technology. There are options for digital whiteboards, tablets, and other high-definition, gorgeously designed screens to enhance any meeting space.
With video being such an important component in your hybrid meeting — you want your speakers to be easily seen and able to see other participants — it’s good practice to regularly assess your cameras. Many laptops have built-in webcams, but an external camera offers much more control and better image quality.

Look for cameras that at minimum support 1080p resolution — though you can absolutely upgrade to 2k, 4k, or even 8k video if desired. 1920x1080p is a standard 16:9 format resolution and will give you excellent video quality while not hogging the bandwidth on your network. While the higher resolution will directly use up more bandwidth — you don’t need 4k definition for general meetings.

Hearing every participant in a meeting is crucial, too, so it’s worth investing in external microphones rather than relying strictly on a laptop’s built-in mic. The good news is you can get high-quality microphones — wired or wireless — without breaking the bank.

Hybrid meetings are now a normal part of business life. Whereas before the boom of video conferencing, most businesses had to rely on teleconferencing through phone lines — which often made it difficult for some parties to hear or understand what was going on. Video conferencing allows meeting participants to see each other, which can enhance communication and understanding. Plus, with improved AI technology to auto-caption meetings, people who are Hard of Hearing or Deaf can participate along with their hearing colleagues.

Investing in high-quality equipment for your hybrid meetings makes it more enjoyable for everyone — whether in the room or across the globe.