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Facilities for Video Conferencing are now primarily based on the use of Microsoft Teams & Teams Live for Webinars, we also support Zoom and Zoom Webinar. Our traditional VC facilities are under review
The use of Virtual Meetings are now preferred to Video conferencing?
UCL has a video collaboration suite, however since the pandemic and with the rise in the use of MS Teams and Zoom, we have moved away from the traditional style of Video Conference where staff (and students) have become more familar with the use of these applications and can set up and mange a video call themselves.
ISD staff offer support on choosing the best application or method for video calling and are more than happy to advise and assit you.
The benefits of using a video collaboration tool
Microsoft Teams is a premium video collaboration tool and can be used to:
- Offer Distance Learning and allowing up to 300 participants
- Sharing ideas with staff and students at other universities
- Job Interviews
- Giving and receiving presentations to and from sites from around the world
- Conducting meetings between research groups and academics based at different universities.
- Reduces travel expenses
- Saves time
- Increases productivity
- Improves communication
- Allows multi-point meetings across time zones & international boundaries.
The application Zoom has similar facilites to Microsoft Teams, however Microsoft Teams is better integrated to UCL's other Office applications. Zoom is best used where there is a need for a Webinar and where connectivity for live streaming to systems such as YouTube is a requirement .
UCL Video collaboration facilities
We currently have one centrally operated Video Collaboration facility on the Bloomsbury campus located on the 1st Floor, South Wing. The room holds up to 4 people comfortably and 6 at a squeeze in a panel style of arrangement. It can be used for either Teams or Zoom meetings where a specialist setup is required. This must be booked at least 5 working days in advance of use, and is only available during normal office working hours Monday to Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm.
Booking the facility
The Video Collaboration suite is primarily now used for media production purposes via our Mediapod service managed by the ISD Educational Media team. The Mediapod is available in time slots which are currently 10:00am to 12:30pm and 1:30pm to 4:00pm, Monday to Friday. Outside of these times is by appointment only, please note that we cannot guarantee availability for either Mediapod or Colobbration meetings.
For further information on the facility and availability, in the first instance please contact ISD.Mediapod for details. Once you have decided if you wish to use the facility and it is available at the time you require, we will send you an Outlook Diary appointment.
For us to complete the booking please provide the following information:
- Date/Time you require?
- What service you require (MS Teams, Zoom) Charges may apply for some services where a connection is required or where an out of hours service is requested.
- Tell us who will be hosting the video call i.e. who is calling who?
- Organise an IDT (or Purchase Order) for covering the costs if the VC service is required outside of the normal UCL working day (9.00am to 5.00pm)
Alternatively we offer a webinar service
- If you wish to host a webinar meeting, please contact the team via email, (video at ucl.ac.uk). We will advise but if you have a preference please let us know which system you would prefer to use Microsoft Teams Town Hall or Zoom Webinar?
- If you wish to stream your webinar then we reccomment that Zoom is the preferred platform to use.