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Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

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Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#171

Post by rayval »

bongodongobob wrote: post #72
nevir wrote: post #5

Meet, to me, is the perfect balance of functionality and simplicity (as an end user). And features like this only make that more apparent. Zoom and Teams always frustrate me, even though they're what I use far more often. It's too bad that video conferencing is largely a game of who has the most boxes checked - IT admins and A/V folk are the ones that need to be convinced, and Meet just doesn't ...meet... their needs

As an "IT admin", it's not that I need convincing. It's that the rest of Googles "office" products are absolute amateur hour and support is non-existent.

I have used Microsoft Office for 20 years and Google Docs/Workspace for 15 years. I much prefer the Google suite over the Microsoft one. I prioritize quality of user experience, ease of use, performance, platform portability, freedom from constant intrusive software updates, and not messing with the built-in Emacs key bindings built into every Mac (Various MS Office programs inconsistently disable those key bindings). YMMV, esp with UI and UX, but for me there's no contest.

Regarding support, that is not an issue I have never needed it for Google, but occasionally have needed for MS Office. So I can see why if you are using Office you would value that.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#172

Post by sbrother »

varispeed wrote: post #103
nevir wrote: post #5

Meet, to me, is the perfect balance of functionality and simplicity (as an end user). And features like this only make that more apparent. Zoom and Teams always frustrate me, even though they're what I use far more often. It's too bad that video conferencing is largely a game of who has the most boxes checked - IT admins and A/V folk are the ones that need to be convinced, and Meet just doesn't ...meet... their needs

The organisation I worked at used Meet until someone from Microsoft convinced them to use Teams. Such a nightmare. Quality of meetings went downhill and employees were penalised for secretly using Meet for ad hoc meetings.

I think we are technically supposed to use Zoom at my employer, but almost everyone (at least in eng) just uses Meet instead. The UX is so much better, and it's rarer that something isn't working with someone's setup.

Also I swear the audio latency is worse with Zoom -- I find myself accidentally interrupting people more often.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#173

Post by GeneralMaximus »

emptysongglass wrote: post #62
unixhero wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not complicate matters.

It does in ways you likely don't understand. At large enterprises with satellite offices, most of us don't want to sit at our desks and annoy our coworkers who are also in-office by taking calls at our desks. That leaves meeting rooms, which are at a premium. Full single device for everyone would mean either everyone loudly shouting at their desks from within their noise canceling headphones or the company giving eve…

I sometimes work out of a WeWork here in Bangalore, and they have these tiny one-person soundproof cubicles for taking calls. All they have inside is a cushioned bench to sit on and a table large enough to hold a 15" laptop.

It's a great idea, IMO. You can fit 10-12 of these in the same space as a regular conference room. This solves exactly the problem you're describing.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#174

Post by [deleted] »

dgellow wrote: post #76
nevir wrote: post #5

Meet, to me, is the perfect balance of functionality and simplicity (as an end user). And features like this only make that more apparent. Zoom and Teams always frustrate me, even though they're what I use far more often. It's too bad that video conferencing is largely a game of who has the most boxes checked - IT admins and A/V folk are the ones that need to be convinced, and Meet just doesn't ...meet... their needs

My Meet calls always end up pixelated, where Zoom looks perfect. That’s basically the only thing I care about after the audio quality, I often cannot read someone’s screen when shared via Meet. Zoom also feels lower latency but I never checked if that’s the case. Note sure if that’s because I’m not in the US.

[deleted]

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#175

Post by GeneralMaximus »

sirjaz wrote: post #156

But when will Google roll out a stand alone app for meet on Windows and MacOS? It couldn't be that hard and it would have better performance then running in the browser.

What makes you think it'll have better performance if it was rewritten as a native app? All the underlying code that handles audio and network communication is already built using fast C++/Rust code. This includes things like WebRTC, audio and video capture, compression, the WebAudio API, etc.

In products like Meet, JavaScript just acts as a glue language that sticks all these APIs together. All the heavy lifting is actually done by the browser, and modern browsers are some of the most efficient language runtimes humanity has ever built.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#177

Post by nomel »

YZF wrote: post #165
dathery wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see this happening. Zoom for example already uses ultrasonic sound to detect what conference room a laptop is in for one-click screen sharing.

I wasn't aware audio hardware on laptops can emit ultrasound. Aren't those filtered to be below 22KHz?

Most adults can’t hear > 18kHz.

Related, there are devices you can buy to repel teenagers: https://www.today.com/news/controversial-mosquito-sonic-devi...

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#178

Post by pants2 »

nevir wrote: post #5

Meet, to me, is the perfect balance of functionality and simplicity (as an end user). And features like this only make that more apparent. Zoom and Teams always frustrate me, even though they're what I use far more often. It's too bad that video conferencing is largely a game of who has the most boxes checked - IT admins and A/V folk are the ones that need to be convinced, and Meet just doesn't ...meet... their needs

With Meet, time from opening the meeting link to joining the meeting is often <1 sec, whereas others (especially Teams) have painfully slow loading screens.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#179

Post by Kwpolska »

rav wrote: post #25

Meet is nice and nicer than Teams and Zoom in my opinion, but for 1-on-1 pair programming I think Facebook Messenger actually has the best experience - when you're on the same screen resolution, the screen sharing is 100% zoom (unlike Meet which has padding around the edges), and you can move seamlessly between mobile and desktop (i.e. answer a video call on mobile, the other party sets up screen sharing, and you go…

You can convince your company to switch to Workplace, a corporate version of Facebook.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#180

Post by stavros »

nomel wrote: post #177
YZF wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't aware audio hardware on laptops can emit ultrasound. Aren't those filtered to be below 22KHz?

Most adults can’t hear > 18kHz. Related, there are devices you can buy to repel teenagers: https://www.today.com/news/controversial-mosquito-sonic-devi...

I can hear whatever my PC can output, but I can't hear anything in our Zoom meeting rooms. Maybe it's low volume, though.
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