Hi Margot,
I have been investigating this for our AM. We have a good set-up in Saffron Walden but that is with a wide-angle data projector as we have plain white walls in our large meeting room, and not everyone has that benefit or someone adept at setting up equipment.
There are two stand-out bits of equipment that make things work and, and depending on the size of the room you might be able to get away with just the first.
- The camera
This is a really great camera that people joining by Zoom at area meeting said was a massive improvement on the standard ones.
It describes itself as a 180 degree camera but in reality it is about 170 degrees (it does this by having three cameras pointing in different directions and stitches the picture together). That means you can pick up the whole room from a screen sat where a member of the meeting would be. Though it gives this panorama you can also choose sections of the panorama to zoom in on, for instance zooming in on the clerk's table. You should encourage viewers to set their Zoom display to Speaker rather than display as it is all too small otherwise.
It is not cheap (about £250), but is a quality device and allows you to do the job properly.
Innex Conference Cam C830 - FunTech Innovation
It has a decent but not brilliant microphone, so OK for small meetings but if you have a larger room you should go for a separate microphone, such as. - The microphone
Optional, if the microphone on the camera isn't good enough then get a Blu Yeti Microphone and a cable long enough to put it in the middle of the room. Unless you are a sound engineer don't even think about anything else.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Recording-Streaming-Condenser-Adjustable/dp/B00N1YPXW2/
My father has stopped going to his local meeting because they insist on ministry being delivered by going and standing in front of a microphone in a fixed position. As someone with mobility issues he feels excluded and so has excluded himself. The Blu Yeti is good enough to pick up speech from anywhere in the room. In fact it is too good at picking up sound. We have ours stood on two different types of foam pad as otherwise it will pick up structure-borne sound as people walk in or shuffle! - Visual display
You have choices, but almost certainly the easiest will be a TV of an appropriate size for the room. The Camera can then sit on it (it is designed with a built-in hinge stand for exactly this) and the speakers of the TV give you the sound for the people in the room. We got a 32" TV for just under £100 that is fine for both picture and sound.
Your other choice is for data projection and a set of external speakers. If you do go for this option (you almost certainly shouldn't because of the technical skills as well as the room needs) then go for a wide-angle projector, as normal ones need to be put into the middle of the room and trail cables. With a wide-angle one projecting from 2 feet would give you about a 5ft screen, also make sure it has decent power (lumens) as we tend to need to use them in daylight rather than in cinema conditions. - Laptop
Use a laptop that capable of Zoom and is either Windows or Apple as the software for the Funtech C830 won't run on ChromeOS or Linux. Any laptop should be capable of picking up wifi (either normal or hotspot). If you don't have such a device, ask around in your meeting if anyone has an old one. If you still can't find one can I suggest you support
Home - Community Computers as it is a great project. I have had three laptops from their ebay shop, which have all been exactly as described and very attractively priced, see
Items for sale by community-computers | eBay
I hope this is helpful to some Friends.
In Friendship,
Karl
Saffron Walden
p.s. Brighton, please change your microphone. You might find a few Friends return!