Dear Margot,

If money allows, the Logitech MeetUp may fit the bill. It's a combined soundbar and camera. The camera has a very wide angle and gives quite a bright picture, and the soundbar features inbuilt microphones with a good pick-up range for medium-sized meeting rooms (optional range extenders can be bought at extra cost) and good quality speakers. The unit can be put onto a table, with the help of its stand, or be attached to a wall-mounting bracket. I have seen it being used in various other Quaker places, including some of the smaller meeting rooms at the Quaker Centre Leeds and Friends House London. In Leeds and London, they were securely attached to the wall, which obviously doesn't make them portable anymore, but here in Bradford on Avon, we always lock it away in a cupboard when it's not in use. We have also offered it to other Meetings in our Area Meeting for use at Area Meetings in session, although this offer hasn't yet been taken up. The Logitech MeetUp is very easy to use, it plugs into any laptop (Windows or Mac) via USB and then hooks up to the TV with an HDMI cable. It's ready to go without having to install any software (although if you want it to do clever things such as automatically panning/zooming onto someone who speaks, this will require installing something - which we haven't bothered with). We paid about 700 pounds for this piece of kit back in late 2021. There are also some similar units out there at other prices, always worth reading customer reviews to get an idea of what will be best suited to your needs and budget.

Best wishes,

Klaus Huber

Resident Warden, Bradford on Avon