Material to choose for a successful Hybrid GA
The Covid period has brought lasting changes in the world of coproperty. General assemblies were held remotely and in the era of teleworking, many co-owners no longer wish to go back.
For the syndicates, who used systems such as agconnect, 65% of assemblies were held during the day, with shorter durations thanks to the automatic entry of votes in particular, and a higher participation rate, which is also considerable progress.
Today, even if sanitary constraints are no longer the same, videoconference general assemblies continue. But we have gradually moved from 100% video meetings to hybrid assemblies, mixing in-person and distance participation, in addition to postal voting and procurations.
And agconnect happens to be managing all these different participation modes in one single tool!
We saw in a previous article the technical criteria to consider to ensure the success of your hybrid GA. Now, what equipment should be provided to ensure the success of your hybrid GA?
1) The choice of the camera
- Choice number 1: The Owl Labs 360° camera, tested and approved!
The OWL camera from OWL Labs is surely the best technical choice. This camera allows you to film a room at 360°, while capturing the sound far enough away while maintaining a constant sound level, and broadcasts the sound of your computer (and therefore of distant people) in the room also at 360°. Its installation is very simple, it connects to your computer in bluetooth and its few settings are managed thanks to an application that you install on your smartphone (here is the video of its installation).
The big advantage of this camera, in addition to capturing the sound quite far away, is to broadcast 2 parts on the same image: the entire room at 360° in the upper part, and an automatic focus on the speakers in the lower part, as soon as a person speaks for more than 3 seconds. If 2 people intervene, the lower part will then be cut off to broadcast these 2 people, zooming in on them, even if they are not side by side in the room.
This camera weighs only 2 kg and it can be used both in a meeting-type assembly (in the middle of the table for example) and in a conference-type assembly. The ease of use and technical performance, however, has a price: around 1,000 to 1,200 € (including tax) on Amazon, but it is really worth it, and can also be used for your "classic" corporate zoom meetings.
- Choice number 2: no investment
If you are a newbie with hybrid GAs and/or have a small budget, you can also film the room by pointing the webcam of a laptop, tablet or smartphone at the audience, or a webcam connected on a machine with a USB. All you will have to do is define this machine as a co-host in agconnect (or put it as a visitor) to broadcast the image and sound to people who participate remotely.
In a fairly deep room, however, you will need to test the sound beforehand (depending on the sensitivity of your machine's microphone) to see at what level to place your machine to capture it well.
2) The material related to the broadcast of the video (remote participation)
Several options are possible. In a large room, you will need to connect a video projector to your computer, while in a smaller room, a TV screen or even a computer monitor will be sufficient. It may be a good idea to connect a computer that is not the manager's computer to this projector. Indeed, this one will, in general, already need a monitor in addition to his laptop screen, as we will see later.
With these different types of configuration, most of which are without any particular investment, you can be sure that everyone can see and hear each other, wherever they are.
Of course, do not forget to ensure the quality of the internet connection beforehand. This can be in Wifi or wired connection to a box (ideally fiber, or good quality ADSL) or in 4G/5G, but what matters above all is the stability of the connection. Test it beforehand on site with a free application such as Speedtest.net which is installed on the smartphone.
3) What about the sound
In a large room, you usually have a sound system. In this case, you can connect this sound system to the input/output port of your computer to capture the sound of the microphone which passes from co-owner to co-owner and broadcast it to people who participate remotely, but also to recover the sound from the computer output (that of remote participants) to play it on the speakers in the room. Everyone can talk to each other, in front of the screen or not.
4) For comfort: the little extras
- The second screen: To facilitate your work, we advise you to add an external monitor to your laptop. On agconnect you will indeed have a window with the management of the votes, the participants and all the "management tasks" part, but also a second window with the video, the chat, the participants' speaking management. Having each window on a separate screen is more comfortable, unless you have a co-host on your assembly who will take care of one of these two elements on his own machine (he can be on site or elsewhere).
- The tablet: The digital attendance sheet includes the signatures of all remote people, physically present, in postal voting or by procuration (power of attorney). Those physically present must therefore sign the digital attendance sheet on their arrival, which can be done either on their own smartphone, or on the manager's computer, or even better, on a tactile tablet which will be connected as a co-host and that can allow participants to enter the digital room. Note that this same tablet can also be used as a camera to film the room as indicated above. By the way, you will have understood that even a 100% in-person meeting can be held by saving time with agconnect, if each co-owner votes on his smartphone to avoid the rental of voting boxes (and for those who do not have one not, the manager can still enter their votes).
- The headset: Think carefully about the return of sound if you are in a room with sound, the speakers in the room will broadcast in a loop in your microphone and come back via the distant co-owners who would leave their microphone on. Therefore, the best would be to provide a smartphone type helmet for more comfort. It is also a directive to be transmitted to those who are participating remotely, especially since the microphone of some people may be far away or poorly adjusted and therefore easier to hear with headphones.
You now have the right material to hold your hybrid GA! And to find out all about the manager's role in a hybrid GA, click here.
A question about your hybrid GA, the equipment or the organization? Do not hesitate to contact us for more information: info@ag-connect.com
