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I work in a school in the UK, and we are struggling through Zoom meetings on a range of devices, and looking to buy some hardware that will give better quality calls.

We have approx 6 rooms that will need video and audio equipment. Each room is equipped with a PC and has a monitor and TV attached.

My first look was on Amazon, but there were a lot of brands that I didn’t recognise. Then I looked on Currys and found a few in stock ranging from £50-120.

My question is though whether any of these will be suitable for rooms with 3-4 people in (spaced out) and at a distance from the cameras. Or, whether the cameras and mics in those are purely designed for someone to attached to the top of their monitor for just 1 person to use at a time close up?

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/computer-accessories/webcams/318_3696_31384_xx_ba00003210-bv00262735/1_10/price-asc/xx-criteria.html

8 Spice ups
2

Those cams aren’t that great and the mics aren’t suitable for a room. But there’s a glimmer of hope. Since its difficult to find these things due to the health issues,
I put a cam in a room but then added this mic. I really helps.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TGTDFM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2 Spice ups
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They are designed for 1 on 1 not group conferencing. Group conferencing costs a lot more and usually involves a video switcher i.e. Open Broadcaster (OBS)

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4

Take your pick: AVer USB Video Conferencing - Cloud Solutions for Any Meeting Room | AVer Global

Or maybe do a comparison: Comparison - Conference Camera

1 Spice up
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Logitech does a decent job with their solutions. We have been using their line for Google Meet hardware for years

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6

This is a case of you get what you pay for.

£2.5k and above - logitech, polycom, cisco, etc all offer great room systems (check compatibility with your service e.g. zoom).
£1-2.5K The logitech room kits are good and I’ve not seen much else similar at this cost.
below 1K there is not much except this little gem Logitech BCC950 All-In-One Webcam and Speakerphone at about £250 if you can get hold of one. The advantage is that it can be put on a table and it will detect who is speaking and focus on them etc. It is very good for the price and is USB so works with any video conference client software.
Standard webcams are generally not good because they are intended for 1 person, but a good one mounted at the front may work. For audio you could then buy a USB speakerphone and place it in the centre of the table.
The difference between a webcam and a room system is that the later are designed to detect everyone in the room, zoom in on a speaker etc which makes a big difference. But even a good HD webcam with seperate audio in the centre of the table will make a lot of difference to everyone trying to shout at a laptop etc.
A really good tip for video conference setup if using a tv/monitor on the wall etc is to place this starting at desk height or about 800mm of the floor. Camera just on top, or just below (but make sure it does not point up and show mainly the presenter’s chin!).
I have not personally used/tested these but from specifications look good because they support auto zoom and focus.
Poly | Video Conferencing Solutions & Systems | HP® United Kingdom £650-999

Poly | Video Conferencing Solutions & Systems | HP® United Kingdom approx £650

2 Spice ups
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I think the solution is going to be that we have one room where we go for one of the professional video conference set-ups, and the links above are REALLY helpful. And then for individual classrooms, we are going to go for a cheaper webcam (and put up with the video quality) alongside a microphone capable of detecting the whole room.

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Depending on room size, you might get away with Jabra 410 or 510 Mic/Speaker pods. We have found these to be good quality at $80-$150 or so price range

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Also get a USB extension cable too. Very helpful to have.

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Something like this would work:

Or, just Logitech C900 series then have an external microphone.

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C920 or C922 are both wonderful webcams and their mics work fantastic.