How to Setup a Zoom Room

Zoom Rooms

Now more than ever, the ability to connect remotely is an integral part of many businesses. With a push to work from home, companies have turned to options like Zoom, a cloud-based video conference software that provides a virtual meeting space. Users can invite employees working remotely to connect across any distance or meet with international clients.

In 2019, more than half of the Fortune 500 companies used Zoom. Safety requirements related to COVID-19 have increased the number of Zoom users even more. While many people continue to work from home, businesses can use a special conference software called Zoom Room to keep their whole team connected from afar.

What is Zoom?

Zoom lets people meet virtually through video chats, or with audio alone. There are two categories of Zoom conferences: Zoom Meetings and Zoom Rooms. A Zoom Meeting is a virtual video meeting that Zoom hosts. Attendees join in by using a webcam or the camera on their smartphone. Anyone can set up a Zoom Meeting free of charge by signing up for Zoom Free.

Although Zoom Meetings are great for personal use or small meetings with several individuals, bigger companies and groups will have more flexibility for remote conferencing with Zoom Rooms. This option brings any type of meeting space to life for virtual participants, whether it's a classroom, a training room, or an office space. Zoom Rooms need a separate subscription, but are worth it for those who plan to host regular in-person conferences with remote attendees.

The Different Tiers of Zoom

Zoom offers several levels of subscription, including a free option. In this no-cost tier you can make use of unlimited one-on-one Zoom Meetings and 40-minute group meetings. For $14.99 per month and license, you can upgrade to Zoom Pro, which lets you record your meetings, and allows hosts to personalize their meeting IDs for recurring Zoom Meetings.

Another $5 a month for each meeting host will give you Zoom Business, which provides the option to brand your Zoom Meetings with a personalized URL and company branding. This plan also provides transcriptions of each recorded meeting, and its own level of customer service.

Zoom Enterprise costs the same as Zoom Business but is made for large companies with over 1,000 employees. With this tier, you get unlimited cloud storage for meeting recordings, your own, dedicated customer success manager, recording transcriptions, and discounts on Zoom Rooms.

What is a Zoom Room?

A Zoom Room is a software accompanied by a hardware setup that turns your meeting space into a virtual conference room, complete with high-quality audio and video. With Zoom Room, you can invite remote attendees to join your in-person meeting from anywhere with internet access. Zoom Room lets you set up audio conferences, video conferences, or use wireless screen sharing, so you can include anyone in each part of your meeting.

How to Setup a Zoom Room

In order to set up a successful Zoom Room, you will need special hardware, as well as a Zoom Room License. The license is available as a free 30-day trial, after which it runs $49 a month. Some hardware packages, like the Yealink video solution CP960-UVC Zoom Rooms Kits, include the license as well.

Zoom Rooms require a camera, microphone, and speaker, plus a computer that can run the Zoom software. You'll also need to have an HDTV screen where you can display the remote attendees, as well as the cables necessary to connect computer screens and the internet.

Yealink provides a Zoom Rooms package that includes all of the essential items for a Zoom Room. It comes with a mini PC, a UVC camera that pans, tilts, and zooms, and a conference phone and console that has microphones and speakers built-in.

The Yealink system is easy to set up and put into action. Its included conference phone simplifies the configuration by combining mics, speakers, and the meeting console into one device. The three built-in microphones use Yealink Noise Proof Technology to provide clear audio during virtual conferences and guarantees a 360-degree voice pickup range in a radius of up to 20-feet. For meetings in bigger spaces, it's helpful to add on the Yealink wireless expansion microphones, which can double the voice pickup range without needing any extra cables.

How To Get The Most Out of a Zoom Room

Knowing how to arrange your Zoom Room is essential for seamless operation. The Yealink UVC optical PTZ camera has a deep focus field and a wide-angle that provides a broad view of the room. You'll want to mount your camera on top of the HDTV where you plan to display the remote participants. Make sure this monitor is right next to any other monitors you may be using to display screen sharing or interactive whiteboard or touchscreens.

Screen sharing and touchscreens are options that can really enhance your group's Zoom Room experience. Share high-resolution content from one screen to the others via Wi-Fi with proximity detection AirPlay mirroring, or an HDMI cable. This lets you make presentations with trusted tools like PowerPoint, or video clips with audio.

You can also host brainstorming sessions with your remote participants by using Zoom Room with touch screens. Manage any meeting from the touch screen and invite three present participants and all remote participants to write on the white board. When the meeting is finished, you can choose to save what you and your team did in the session and send it off as an image to participants for future references.

Once display screens and screen share options are all set up, you'll use the Yealink one-cable technology to connect the PC to the conference phone and console. This is where you'll control each of your Zoom Room meetings, using the five-inch touch screen display to add participants to the meeting, adjust the volume, and control the pan, tilt, and zoom of the camera.

Setting up your meeting space for Zoom Rooms is a simple and effective way to include clients and employees from all over the world in your in-person meetings. If you need any help making the most of Zoom Rooms, trust Citi-Telecom Solution to support your transition into virtual conference spaces.