More Control In the Conference Room

It’s not any surprise that everyone is looking for more streaming options right now. Our team at Lambda wants to help you get the best stream you can during these changing times. A small change can make a big difference in quality and connections, just as it did for the District 20 Board of Education.

As School district 20 began their remote learning programs, they also needed to find a remote option for their board meetings too. They were meeting through Microsoft Teams, but were looking for a way to make the system more dynamic and add ability to mix in content and additional sources. The screen share option isn’t always the easiest, especially when switching from one item of content to another.

We immediately knew a product they would love, that would be easy to use, set up and add expanded capacity for more innovative meetings. We leveraged a favorite new piece of technology the ATEM Mini. With most video conferencing solutions, everything comes through either a screen share or a webcam built into a computer. This does not give much flexibility in how content can be shared with the group and leaves room for the ever-awkward possibility of sharing your personal info over a single screen share. The ATEM Mini is a unique video switcher as it has a USB output that shows up as a webcam to any video conferencing software. It also allows the mixing of HDMI based sources.

What does that mean? It means it was simple for D20 to plug in a camera in the USB port and multiple computers on the HDMI ports. Each HDMI port could be running its own PowerPoint presentation or video playback software, or documents. The operator could then decide which content to share and control it in a curated, streamlined fashion. The Board was easily able to allow members of the conference group to see the content presented continuously as they would in a professional in-person group setting.  ​

The District 20 Board of Education was happy to be able to move forward using streamed and recorded content for distance viewing and participation. They are also excited to have a piece of technology they can look forward to using even when groups can meet in person again.