Zoom Rooms

Overview

With the university constantly changing and upgrading to keep up with the newest technologies available, USU has embraced Zoom and its respective technologies. Some of our classrooms have been upgraded to Zoom Rooms, which is a specialty program that allows rooms to connect to a zoom meeting as a zoom participant with a quick to learn and easy to use program. This page will inform you of the features available to a Zoom Rooms classroom and will help you understand how to control certain aspects of the room.

Video

Here is a short clip explaining the functionalities of the Zoom Rooms Touch Panel:

Introduction

The Zoom Room controls are usually found on a touch panel within the room. These controls are not bound to a certain brand of touch panel, nor does any of the classroom equipment used (such as cameras, microphones, etc.) matter. So, the controls that you will learn about on this page will transfer over no matter what equipment you find in the room. When you first enter the room, if the system is connected to the Zoom Rooms program, your room will be disconnected from a meeting and your panel will on the home page of Zoom Rooms. Here, you can either start a new meeting, join an already existing meeting, or share content within the room without connecting to a call at all.

Once you have joined a Zoom meeting, the interface will change accordingly, and you will be taken to where you can control certain features of your classroom.

Camera Controls

To control the cameras in this room, there are two separate pages: "Switch Camera" and "Camera Control." The "Switch Camera" page is where you can select either the student or instructor camera to present to participants in the Zoom call. There are other options available, but we mainly focus on either showing the professor in the front of the classroom or the students attending the class. 

Once the correct camera is selected, you can then go into the "Camera Controls" page. Here, you will find the manual camera controls to move the selected camera's position. There are also other features available within the "Camera Controls" page. 

1. Camera Controls. Use the directional pad with the arrows located in the middle of the window. These control which direction the camera will moved. The plus and minus buttons to the left of the directional pad control the zoom function.
2. Switch between Manual, Auto-Framing, and Multi-Stream. Click the respective option to select which type of camera control you would like. Manual is simply manual control, auto-framing moves the camera to automatically frame everyone in the picture, and Multi-Stream will focus on each individual and try to separate them into their own individual participant window (this feature only works with up to 8 people). 
3. Mirror Effect. This applies a reflection effect on the self view locally. However, this function makes the camera controls inverted as well, meaning left will move it right, and right will move it left. We suggest keeping this feature turned off for the meeting.

Sharing Content

Content sharing in Zoom Rooms is simple. To begin, click on the "Share" button located on the home screen. Once you have selected it, the "Share Content" window will appear. Here, you will see multiple options for you to connect an external device to share content. There are instructions for the Zoom app as well as using an internet browser. Follow the instructions and enter in the appropriate sharing key to begin sharing. There are also instructions for sharing an iPhone or iPad, as well as sharing a second camera. However, if the instructor wants to use the instructor computer located at the front of the room, simply press the "Share to Meeting" button under the "Use Instructor PC" option. 

After sharing content, you can return to the home page and utilize the touch pad as needed. Your Share Screen button will change to show a red version that signifies that you are sharing content. To stop sharing, simply open the Share Content window again and select "Stop Sharing" where the original "Share to Meeting" was located. 

Layouts/Views

To change the site layouts on the monitors in the room, click on the "View" button to pull up the Change View page. Speaker mode singles out the last person who spoke and shows their camera. Gallery mode shows all participants with their videos enabled on the screens as an equally sized view. Finally, there is Content Only, which shows solely the presentation being shared. 

Participants

Because this is directly linked to Zoom meetings, you can view the participants in the call by selecting the "Participants" button.

Here, you can find controls to mute participants, see who has their camera and microphones enabled, as well as some additional options found in the "More..." menu, such as hiding and showing non-video participants. 

More Button

On the home screen of the Zoom Rooms panel, you will see a button labeled "More." If you select it, it will bring you into the More Features page. Here, you can find other options available to you as you participate in the zoom meeting.

First off, there is the Chat feature. This works just like it does in a normal Zoom meeting taking place on a computer. You will have access to read and chat with participants in the call via messaging. You can also select and choose how you want to receive these messages by selecting the settings cog in the upper right-hand corner of the chat window. 

Next, there are Breakout Rooms.  Ideally,  we prefer you join as a co-host on the facilitator computer to manage the breakout rooms. But if needed, and if panel is dialed to the call as a host, you can create and manage breakout rooms there. Choose the number of rooms and assign participants manually or automatically. After creating the meeting, open the rooms for participants to join.  

Finally, there is the Focus Mode option. Focus mode is a brand-new feature that Zoom has just created to allow more security and safety to those participating in the call. When enabled, Focus Mode allows the professor to see all participants' videos, but the participants are only able to see the instructor’s video and content. This provides a safer environment for those cautious to enable their cameras when in the Zoom call.

Misc.

There are many individual options and capabilities incorporated into the Zoom Rooms system. We will go over each of these features now.

First, you can hard mute both your microphone and your video. If you do, your microphone and camera icons on the home page will turn gray and have a slash through them, indicating that they are no longer being shared. Simply press the button again if you want to unmute these features. There is also a volume control slider along the bottom right-hand side that controls the incoming volume to the room. Adjust these levels as needed for your course. 

Next, you can locate the security options by selecting the "Security" button on the homepage. This will allow you to restrict certain access in a Zoom call if you are the host of the meeting. 

You can also find the Meeting information by selecting the green shield icon in the upper left-hand corner of the home page. Here, you will find the Meeting ID, the Passcode, as well as other useful information for those joining through a separate device. 

As a facilitator, you will have the responsibility of learning how to control, manage, and operate these Zoom Rooms. As they become more frequently used throughout the university, we hope that this page will help you get started and answer any potential questions you may have about how to control certain features in the room. As always, if you have any questions about these Zoom Rooms or about the system in general, please reach out to us via PureChat or Slack and we will help walk you through the information.