New job...but can't follow the video conference conversation

AmIBlue

AmIBlue

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Hi! I'm HOH, with some hearing and some lip reading. Between the two (plus hearing aids), I get by, mostly, if I can see the speaker's face. I don't know ASL.

I just started a new job, working from home, with a company that has about 30 employees. They have a number of meetings via Join.Me, where you can supposedly see the speaker and hear them. As a practical matter, if they have more than a handful of people on the conference, the video tends to disappear for some of them. Even when everyone's visible, the little bubbles with the person's face are so small that lip reading is kind of impossible (I have a 27" screen, and each person is the size of a quarter).

They've told me they're open to suggestions in terms of alternate video conference platforms, but I don't really know much about this (I've worked alone at home for a long time, so it's been years since I attended meetings of any kind). Are there any you've tried where the attendees can be clearly seen? They've been really nice about trying to accommodate me (which, we all know, is not always the case), but I don't know what to suggest.
 
I have never heard of join me.. hmm.. there are many other kinds of platforms that allow for video conference (and I think some also have text capabilities built in). My mind is kind of blank right now (other than Skype) as I have an interview in about 20 minutes (a conference call no less... but I'll be calling through VRS lol- this should be fun..).

Will be back to this.
 
DeafDucky said:
I have never heard of join me.. hmm.. there are many other kinds of platforms that allow for video conference (and I think some also have text capabilities built in). My mind is kind of blank right now (other than Skype) as I have an interview in about 20 minutes (a conference call no less... but I'll be calling through VRS lol- this should be fun..).

Will be back to this.
Click to expand...

Good luck with the interview!
 
There's one possibility that might work for you is to use AVA on your phone. It's a voice to text conversion and it will be great for your remote meeting. Each co-worker can either hold the phone close to his/her mouth to speak or use the headphone jack with mic, that way they don't have to hold the phone. Then you can read all their conversations. Each person will have initials to indicate who is speaking. I use it at work since it's very difficult to request an interpreter in the very last minutes. And often that we cancelled the meeting in last minutes as well. So this Ava is a great tools to communicate with anyone. You can watch the video below and more information about it.

https://www.ava.me/
 
SneakerNet said:
There's one possibility that might work for you is to use AVA on your phone. It's a voice to text conversion and it will be great for your remote meeting. Each co-worker can either hold the phone close to his/her mouth to speak or use the headphone jack with mic, that way they don't have to hold the phone. Then you can read all their conversations. Each person will have initials to indicate who is speaking. I use it at work since it's very difficult to request an interpreter in the very last minutes. And often that we cancelled the meeting in last minutes as well. So this Ava is a great tools to communicate with anyone. You can watch the video below and more information about it.

https://www.ava.me/
Click to expand...

I can see how that would work when all the people have company issued phones and thus no question about each person having downloaded AVA etc.
 
If you look at the accessories on the Ava site, there is a cable you can order that plugs into your computer headphone jack on one end and your phone on the other. It does not require that each person have the app installed. Only you need the app installed. You don't get the individual identification of who is talking that you get with each person having the app but you get all of what it can caption. I have used it a lot. It isn't perfect but sometimes it is better than nothing. It isn't great with a lot of technical jargon but sometimes even with mistakes you can still make out what was said - filling in the blanks.
 
Jane B. said:
I can see how that would work when all the people have company issued phones and thus no question about each person having downloaded AVA etc.
Click to expand...

zephren said:
If you look at the accessories on the Ava site, there is a cable you can order that plugs into your computer headphone jack on one end and your phone on the other. It does not require that each person have the app installed. Only you need the app installed. You don't get the individual identification of who is talking that you get with each person having the app but you get all of what it can caption. I have used it a lot. It isn't perfect but sometimes it is better than nothing. It isn't great with a lot of technical jargon but sometimes even with mistakes you can still make out what was said - filling in the blanks.
Click to expand...

Everyone needing the app for individual identification is what I was referring to. Thinking that some may object to adding yet another app (that they wouldn't have otherwise) if using their personal phone.

I had not looked far enough to have remembered the computer cable as I would be using it just for personal conversations. I have no desire to carry a computer out to lunch with friends. And far as getting them to do a download there are some that don't have smartphones in the group.
 
Jane B. said:
Everyone needing the app for individual identification is what I was referring to. Thinking that some may object to adding yet another app (that they wouldn't have otherwise) if using their personal phone.

I had not looked far enough to have remembered the computer cable as I would be using it just for personal conversations. I have no desire to carry a computer out to lunch with friends. And far as getting them to do a download there are some that don't have smartphones in the group.
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This thread is about work conference calls, not lunch out with friends.

My work involves lots of conference calls on just the phone. I can't tell who's talking most of the time, because I don't know many of the voices, but that doesn't stop me from getting the info I need to know. If I do need to know who said something, I ask.
 
LoveBlue said:
This thread is about work conference calls, not lunch out with friends.

My work involves lots of conference calls on just the phone. I can't tell who's talking most of the time, because I don't know many of the voices, but that doesn't stop me from getting the info I need to know. If I do need to know who said something, I ask.
Click to expand...

Grrrr It feels like you make it a point to object to something in all my posts when we are in the same thread.

I know it is about work use. I added thee part about out to lunch with friends to make clear why I had not investigated the use with a computer further. Just a side comment that I hope helps some understand where I am coming from.
 
Jane B. said:
Grrrr It feels like you make it a point to object to something in all my posts when we are in the same thread.

I know it is about work use. I added thee part about out to lunch with friends to make clear why I had not investigated the use with a computer further. Just a side comment that I hope helps some understand where I am coming from.
Click to expand...
And you seem to make it a point to interject things that have nothing to do with the conversation. In other threads you tend to make it look like you don't think we're smart enough to think for ourselves. That's where I'm coming from.
 
My comment was for the OP. From his scenario, he says he uses Join Me which is similar to Skype where he can see the people on screen (assuming he is using a personal computer for these calls since he mentioned monitor size) and audio is coming through the computer speakers. He can use the cable to hook up his phone to the headphone jack and route the audio to Ava captioning.
 
There are a couple of other speech to text apps out there- I've tried several- including AVA and none work that well-if at all- for me at family dinners. Probably because there are 3 different conversations going at the same time; I'd be afraid to even try it at a restaurant with even just ONE person. It probably would work better for a conference call in general as USUALLY only one person is talking at a time (like the interview I recently had via VRS + VCO; I'll leave out all the gory details though). The info about the cable is an interesting tidbit as I wondered if there were other ways to deal with a conference call other than Video Relay or Captioned calls/captioned relay. VRS still is better for me what with the rotten experience I had years ago (and the "no, not another phone number!" part lol).
 
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