The ‘Zoom Room’ entered the popular vernacular during the pandemic, becoming synonymous with remote work. So what is a Zoom Room, exactly?
Remote work is on the rise, with an estimated 1 in 4 Americans working remotely. There are plenty of benefits to remote work — including a better work-life balance for workers and lower overhead costs for companies.
However, remote work and limited in-person meetings can make it harder for teams to collaborate. Software like Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, and GoTo Meetings are helpful, but are often clunky to use and can be plagued with technical issues.
The good news is, there is a better solution. High-quality video conferencing is now easier than ever with Zoom Rooms, which keep your teams connecting and collaborating – whether in person at the office or working from home.
InGenius Solutions is a Zoom Room-certified installer. Find out how we can help your team work more efficiently with custom AV solution design, installation, and support.
What are Zoom Rooms?
Zoom Rooms are a scalable video conferencing system that uses a specialized Zoom software subscription and integrated physical hardware system to schedule and launch Zoom Meetings right from a conference room, hot seat, or huddle room.
Unlike standard Zoom, which uses a software program to run Zoom Meetings from any number of devices, Zoom Rooms uses integrated, wireless hardware including touch boards, computers, and tablets to launch meetings with the touch of a button.
This makes it easier than ever for teams to host meetings and collaborate with team members from around the world.
Benefits of Zoom Rooms
Why should organizations consider Zoom Rooms? If your team is looking to return to the office or improve collaboration, Zoom Rooms can help. Let’s explore the benefits of using Zoom Rooms.
- Choose Hardware That Fits Your Needs: With Zoom Rooms, organizations can choose customized hardware based on their needs. For example, you might select a touch screen device for a small huddle room and a smart whiteboard for a conference room. This allows businesses to create the exact solution they need to be more productive.
- Integrates With Your AV Installation: All the required audio and video hardware is integrated, making it easier to start meetings, collaborate, and switch rooms as needed. No more plugging in your laptop or trying to learn a new system.
- Improves Collaboration: Remote work is here to stay. With Zoom Rooms, organizations can improve collaboration with remote workers and teams worldwide.
- Get More Control: Zoom Rooms are getting smarter, with features like in-room people counting, integration with touch boards, and additional settings, such as the ability to lock meetings, show non-video participants, and rename cameras.
Zoom Room features
Zoom Room offers many of the same features as Zoom, but it’s even more convenient and easy to use — especially for larger organizations. Here are a few features you’ll enjoy with Zoom Rooms.
- Breakout Rooms: Split the main call into smaller groups for individual meetings. This is ideal for classes, training, and collaboration in smaller groups.
- Closed Captioning: Display closed captioning for all meetings, plus adjust the font sizes, manually type captions, or use live transcription.
- Customized Hardware: With Zoom Rooms, you can use most hardware systems, allowing teams to build a customized AV solution. This enables organizations to build conference rooms, huddle rooms, hot seats, and more.
- In-Meeting Chat: Send private messages to an individual or the whole group during a meeting.
- Meeting Recording: Record your meetings manually or automatically to share later, record meeting minutes, or even use for training.
- Personal Meeting ID: (for Pro accounts or higher) Increase meeting security and make it easier for colleagues to connect to meetings.
- Raise Your Hand: Allow participants to virtually “raise their hand,” which notifies the meeting organizer they have a question or point to share without disrupting the flow of the meeting. This is an ideal feature for larger conferences or training.
- Remote Support: Take control of another participant’s screen. This is helpful for training, collaboration, or providing technical support.
- Screen-Sharing: Easily share your computer screen with everyone in the meeting. This is ideal for classes, training, and collaborating with coworkers.
- Virtual Backgrounds: Virtual backgrounds display an image or even a video behind you, rather than the room you’re working in.
- Waiting Room: Control when participants join a meeting by creating a virtual waiting room before they enter the call.
- Immersive View: Recreate the in-person feel by placing up to 25 participants on a single (virtual) background. This feature is ideal for webinars, board meetings, or any time you want attendees to view all participants in one panel.
Zoom Room hardware
One of the best things about Zoom Rooms is the hardware can be completely customized to fit any room. For example, a small room could use a tablet and bar, whereas a larger conference room might use additional cameras and speakers to provide clear audio and video.
This means you can enjoy the same clear, crisp meeting experience in both a small huddle room for two people and a large 13-person conference room. Here’s our complete guide to Zoom Rooms setup.
Zoom Room FAQs
Not sure if Zoom Rooms are the right solution for your business or organization? Here are answers to frequently asked questions about Zoom Rooms to help you decide.
What’s the difference between regular Zoom and Zoom Rooms?
Essentially Zoom is software, while Zoom Rooms are an integrated software and hardware solution offering audio conferencing, wireless screen sharing, and video conferencing.
With just Zoom, organizers have to learn how to use a new setup every time they switch rooms.
With Zoom Rooms, all conference rooms use the same setup and work together, allowing for you to easily switch rooms, grab a hot seat, or launch a meeting in seconds.
It also offers additional features, such as cameras that focus on the speaker, even in a room with several attendees, people counting, integration with touch tools, and enhanced room capabilities.
Are Zoom Rooms better than Google Meets?
Zoom Rooms provides an integrated solution with AV hardware, making it easier to use for most organizations. Google Meets tends to offer fewer features and less support.
Google Meets software accommodates up to 250 participants, while Zoom can support up to 1,000 attendees and 10,000 webinar attendees. Zoom also provides more support, integrations, longer meeting times, and additional security features.
Smaller teams may find Google Meets fits their needs, but Zoom Rooms provides a slight edge for larger organizations due to the increased security features, such as AES encryption and the App Lock Code that helps keep meets secure.
Are Zoom Rooms better than Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a popular meeting software for internal teams, but is it better than Zoom?
Both Zoom Rooms and Teams offer online meetings, chat, calls, file sharing, device management, and the ability to use touch devices. However, Zoom Rooms also offers people counting. Another advantage to Zoom is the ability to work with certified integrators to handle the hardware and software, where Teams only certifies hardware — leaving you on your own for support.
What’s the difference between Zoom Rooms and standard conferencing endpoints like Polycom, Cisco, or Lifesize?
Both the Zoom and standard conferencing systems use the internet to connect for video calls, they use different protocols, which can significantly improve the experience.
Standards-based endpoints use H.323 and SIP protocols and connect to hardware built with the same protocols by dialing their IP address or SIP address. Zoom’s software application utilizes the same digital protocols that devices like desktops, laptops, and smartphones use, making it easier to use and easier to connect with any number of devices.
How much do Zoom Rooms cost?
Zoom Rooms offers several software plans, starting at $499 per month for up to 49 rooms. Hardware options are completely customizable, so organizations can choose the solutions that fit their needs.
However, hardware options, like cameras and tablets, are separate from the software subscription costs.
Are Zoom Rooms compatible with my current hardware?
Zoom Room is compatible with many hardware solutions, including H.323/SIP systems, Polycom, Cisco, Lifesize, Apple, Crestron, and other hardware solutions. The software works with all Mac, Android, and Ubuntu operating systems.
For example, you can use smart-framing cameras that automatically frame all participants, speaker-tracking cameras, and all-in-one appliances that make it easier to install and maintain Zoom Rooms.
What tools do Zoom Rooms integrate with?
Zoom Rooms integrate with a variety of software and hardware solutions. Zoom Rooms are cloud-based and hardware agnostic, which means they can work with nearly any type of hardware. You can also connect Zoom Rooms to most Google tools, including Gmail and Google Calendar.
Zoom Apps improve functionality and collaboration by connecting platforms like Asana, Dropbox, Slack, Hubspot, and more.
Getting started with Zoom Rooms
InGenius Solutions is your Zoom-certified installation partner. Our expert AV integrators design and install custom collaboration solutions to help your organization work more efficiently.