Hey everyone,
Our leadership is looking to start an online LIFE Group (read: sunday school) and is wanting to test Adobe Connect as a solution. Adobe’s bandwidth requirements are 500 Kbps per attendee. Does anyone know of other platforms that we could use to accomplish this task that may be less bandwidth heavy?
Alternatively, I could use Connect as a replacement for webex an not just utilize it for a LIFE Group session.
Anyone have any thoughts?
The Adobe bandwidth recommendation is based on doing video for each user (and if you’ve watched a 500kbps video stream, you’d realize it’s pretty low). I’ve used it, WebEx, Skype and GoToMeeting extensively, and I’d say WebEx is the best at making the best out of the available bandwidth but depending on the number of participants you’re still going to need some decent bandwidth. For a lifegroup of 6, I’d recommend 3 Mbps down and 768kbps up as a bare minimum for attendees regardless of the solution used if you want to do full motion video.
As a side note, you should check out appear.in which is super slick and easy to use if you have a supported browser.
Depending on the size of the “small” group, I’m planning to start a group in the new year using ZOOM (https://zoom.us). I use it almost daily for team meetings and ad hoc meetings with churches. I also use it to visit with friends from back east every month. If you have any questions or would like to check it out (I can set up a session for us), let me know.
Good Luck,
DC
@DavidCoons I like what I’m seeing with Zoom. I saw the SIP connectivity, do you know if they can connect with Mitel phones as that is what we currently have in our conference room. I’d also love to demo it sometime if you wouldn’t mind.
Jonathan,
I don’t believe there is a specific requirement that would keep any conference phone from being used. They are dialing in for the audio only (I assume) so any conference phone should be fine. They also have the option of running audio through the computer (Mic & speakers) if they’d rather do that than the phone.
What day and time(s) next week would work for a demonstration? I can set up a session and send you an invite.
DC