Just a quick check-in about tonight's Compline service using Google Hangouts. I didn't get the invitation out as early as I would have liked (and sent it only to a select group of folks who had expressed interest last time around), but luckily Matt was able to join us anyway. Daniel and I were in the same place this time around, so it was us on one screen and Matt on the other.
A few changes we made from last time:
All of us wore earbuds, to minimize any feedback through the computer's speakers and right back into the microphones. This seemed to work well!
Matt muted his audio during the hymns (and Daniel and I should have done the same thing on our end).
I selected one screen to be the main screen, so the video didn't try to jump back and forth depending on who was speaking.
A few struggles:
The lag that occurs over the audio and video feeds is a little distracting and obnoxious, especially when we sing in unison. Matt solved this, in a sense, by muting his audio during the hymns. What's lost is the sense that we're singing in community, but it really is difficult to sing with the lag. (My suggestion to Daniel was to sing a hymn meant to be sung in a round and get the timing just so, and it will sound right. He was skeptical of this idea. Luckily, I was half-kidding.) We determined that this is just a limitation of the technology, and not specifically a limitation of Google Hangouts.
While I was able to make a template of the Compline liturgy in Word thanks to Sundays and Seasons, the screen-sharing feature in Google Hangouts was giving me trouble. I was able to share the document, but it flickered intermittently to the point that it was unusable. The flickering happened whether or not I was moving my cursor, and whether or not I was speaking. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any ideas on this one?
I looked into using a different video chat service called ooVoo, and I still may experiment with the whole group next time. It is a separate program that needs to be downloaded (Daniel tried accessing via Facebook, but was not able to connect), so that makes the experience a little less accessible. Screen sharing seemed to work better, which is a plus. One downside, other than needing to install the program, was the presence of ads. I could exit out of the ad that showed up alongside the various video feeds within the call itself, but there was a 20 second video that played after I left the call. Of course, the program is free, so I can't complain too much.
Overall, simply having everyone use earbuds made this experience better than the last time. I will give more notice on my invitation next time around, and look forward to experiencing a service with 10 people, which is the upper limit of participants for Google Hangouts.
Any suggestions for how this might work better are much appreciated!
A few changes we made from last time:
All of us wore earbuds, to minimize any feedback through the computer's speakers and right back into the microphones. This seemed to work well!
Matt muted his audio during the hymns (and Daniel and I should have done the same thing on our end).
I selected one screen to be the main screen, so the video didn't try to jump back and forth depending on who was speaking.
A few struggles:
The lag that occurs over the audio and video feeds is a little distracting and obnoxious, especially when we sing in unison. Matt solved this, in a sense, by muting his audio during the hymns. What's lost is the sense that we're singing in community, but it really is difficult to sing with the lag. (My suggestion to Daniel was to sing a hymn meant to be sung in a round and get the timing just so, and it will sound right. He was skeptical of this idea. Luckily, I was half-kidding.) We determined that this is just a limitation of the technology, and not specifically a limitation of Google Hangouts.
While I was able to make a template of the Compline liturgy in Word thanks to Sundays and Seasons, the screen-sharing feature in Google Hangouts was giving me trouble. I was able to share the document, but it flickered intermittently to the point that it was unusable. The flickering happened whether or not I was moving my cursor, and whether or not I was speaking. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any ideas on this one?
I looked into using a different video chat service called ooVoo, and I still may experiment with the whole group next time. It is a separate program that needs to be downloaded (Daniel tried accessing via Facebook, but was not able to connect), so that makes the experience a little less accessible. Screen sharing seemed to work better, which is a plus. One downside, other than needing to install the program, was the presence of ads. I could exit out of the ad that showed up alongside the various video feeds within the call itself, but there was a 20 second video that played after I left the call. Of course, the program is free, so I can't complain too much.
Overall, simply having everyone use earbuds made this experience better than the last time. I will give more notice on my invitation next time around, and look forward to experiencing a service with 10 people, which is the upper limit of participants for Google Hangouts.
Any suggestions for how this might work better are much appreciated!
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