By Samantha Calimbahin
Yes, the peeps at Fort Worth Magazine are working from home, still writing and working hard to cover our city in the midst of a global pandemic.
Let me start off by saying this: I’m grateful to be working right now.
Yes, the peeps at Fort Worth Magazine are working from home, still writing and working hard to cover our city in the midst of a global pandemic. I’m sure many of y’all are like me — office workers consigned to work from home in accordance with social distancing guidelines, likely ranting over first-world problems that are nothing compared to what those outside our doors are going through.
Still, there are days I find myself grumbling over the trivial. In my case, it’s conference calls.
Now, if you’re working from home like me, you’ve probably had to utilize a video calling system of some sort, whether it be Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, or anything else.
While I haven’t used any of the aforementioned, I have had to use several others in this attempt to connect with coworkers, story sources, and other human beings with whom I normally keep in contact. I’ve used Zoom. I’ve used FaceTime. Even ventured out to GoToMeeting and Cisco Webex. In some ways, it feels like I’ve downloaded the world when it comes to video calling applications.
Okay, I’ve downloaded, like, five. But still. So many apps are now connected to my laptop camera, and that kind of scares me.
Nonetheless, here’s a little taste of my experience with every video call application I’ve had to use since we started social distancing. Along with a lament for each one.
Zoom: I assume Zoom is among the most popular of the apps judging from the number of posts I see on social media, with folks sharing their grids of 20 or so people, all happy and smiling with their customized backgrounds and what not — but no. I don’t like Zoom. Zoom is terrible. The video quality is terrible. The sound is choppy. And perhaps the worst thing is the slight delay between the time movement and sound meet video and audio. Say a word, and it takes a second or so before the person on the other side of the screen hears it.
Funny story: So my church’s Wednesday prayer service has moved to Zoom, the free version that caps meeting time at 40 minutes. We typically begin each prayer service with a song, led by me. Theoretically, it shouldn’t be so hard for me to grab my guitar and have everyone sing joyfully together in unison like nothing ever changed.
But alas, the delay.
I literally had to close my eyes and just listen to myself or else erupt in irreverent giggles. I could not imagine what it must have sounded like from the other side of the camera. “God God God God is is is is so so so so good good good good…”
Needless to say, we are not singing on Zoom services anymore. *Grinning Face With Sweat Emoji*
GoToMeeting: GoToMeeting was one I’ve had to learn on the fly, as it’s the one my interviewee uses for their company. For the most part, it was pretty seamless. I appreciated that my interviewee could share their screen and keep their face in the video at the same time. Thing is, I couldn’t readily figure out how to turn my own camera on — and realized I put on makeup for a meeting in which the other party couldn’t see my face.
FaceTime: FaceTime, at least to me, is the most user friendly and arguably the best quality in terms of video and sound. Wouldn’t recommend it for business though. It’s mostly built for family and friends. Still, it remains a nice way to keep in touch with loved ones while social distancing.
Cisco Webex: I don’t even know what to say about this. All I know is we were supposed to have a meeting on it, but it didn’t happen. Had a difficult time finding it on the App Store, for one. Somehow I was able to download via a direct link, but even so, it didn’t work, so we switched the meeting to Slack. *shrug*
Slack: Now, personally, among all the apps I mention here on this post, Slack has to be my favorite. Granted, it’s a system built for business — messaging, file sharing, the works. But its conference calling capabilities are also pretty great. Video quality’s good. Sound quality’s good. The main downsides are the fact you can only call up to 15 people, and since it’s made for just you and your coworkers, you can’t make calls to anyone outside your workspace. The Fort Worth Magazine crew was able to find a rhythm with it though, and I’ve got to say, our publisher’s consistent reminders of how much he spends for us to use this system make me think it might just be worth it.
