Meeting App Complaints Thread

[deanwebb]

1. When I share a screen or app, I have to manually reopen any participant or chat windows I had going. This is pretty much true for the three main ones I use, Teams, Zoom, and WebEx.

2. This one is WebEx-specific: I have a soundbar and a hand-held microphone. When I'm on WebEx, the sound from the soundbar is fed from the mic to the WebEx session. Teams and Zoom figure out it's meeting noise and leave that out. WebEx is dumb and pipes it back in. My resolution now is to call in to every WebEx and sound like I'm in a bucket on the freeway, but at least I won't be causing an echo by being unmuted while everyone else is talking.

More will follow, I'm sure. 

[Dieselboy]

1. tested this with webex teams
result:
a) if you share a 2nd screen that does not have any webex teams windows open then the windows remain open on the 1st screen and do not move or minimise
b) if you stop, then share the 1st screen then those webex teams windows get minimised

However, c) if you had previously popped out one of the chats into its own separate window (ie double click the chat on the left pane OR right click the chat and then "open in new window" - then this chat box is not minimised, although the other webex windows are minimised the same as b.

I think c is a bug. I think a and b happens to prevent sharing your conversations to the meeting in case of privacy concerns.

2. A few years ago I tried to build us a conference unit and had the same experience as you. My set up was a Windows 10 PC connected to a room sound system (ceiling speakers), usb conference microphone and projector over HDMI. I got echo for days because of the same reason. The sound output was using the onboard sound card and the usb microphone is basically a usb sound card itself, resulting in two separate sound cards in one system.

The only solution I could find was to source a single sound card that had both audio out and audio in (mic) and then use the Windows built in noise cancelling software (on by default). This was eventually abandoned and we bought webex boards for that purpose.
So if you can have the audio in and out being run by the same sound card then you may be able to resolve this echo on your side.

What is annoying and highlights that webex is still lagging behind others is that MS Teams and Zoom can deal with this echo issue - what is the actual experience that you have on Teams and Zoom with this setup? Do they cancel out the noise and let you speak normally and have a normal and useful meeting? Or do they mute your mic for you?

When you have a meeting and start to speak the LAST thing you want is to be interrupted and told you cannot be heard. Meetings will be cut short and productivity lost and people will go away from the meeting having not said what they intended or needed to. Meetings need to be as seamless as if you're physically walking into the room with the other people. 

[wintermute000]

Why is there Webex vs Webex Teams, and did they REALLY have to 'steal' the name Teams??

[Otanx]

Why is there Webex vs Webex Teams, and did they REALLY have to 'steal' the name Teams??

I will second this. Also don't get me started on all the "9000" boxes.

I have not really had any issues with WebEx. I usually don't use the chat so I have not noticed the issue you guys are mentioning. My main issue is just the number of apps out there. WebEx, Skype, Zoom, etc. I even had one partner that is using Bluejeans. I will usually just offer to setup the meeting myself so I can use our WebEx setup that I know works. Instead of trying to connect to a random app, and find out it does not work on my system.

-Otanx

[deanwebb]

For Teams and Zoom, I get true noise cancelation on sound coming out of my speakers that's meeting related. If I play background music through the same speakers, that will come across.

I don't even want to try that on the WebEx... ugh...

[wintermute000]

Why is there Webex vs Webex Teams, and did they REALLY have to 'steal' the name Teams? ?

I will second this. Also don't get me started on all the "9000" boxes.

Wait till you see the new ISRs. They're called Catalysts. 

[Otanx]

I saw someone mention that recently. I think Cisco was told that all the product lines were confusing, and they needed to consolidate. Then instead of actually consolidating they just started naming everything the same. Wait till they announce their new conferencing software the Catalyst WebEx 9000 Teams.

-Otanx

[Dieselboy]

I saw someone mention that recently. I think Cisco was told that all the product lines were confusing, and they needed to consolidate. Then instead of actually consolidating they just started naming everything the same. Wait till they announce their new conferencing software the Catalyst WebEx 9000 Teams.

-Otanx

... is there a competition to use all the trademarks? 

Why is there Webex vs Webex Teams, and did they REALLY have to 'steal' the name Teams??

There was Cisco Webex (the meetings app.). Then Cisco bought Spark (the chat app. like Slack).
Then they renamed Spark to Webex Teams and begun integrating and making Meetings and Teams one thing.

Recently they announced that webex meetings and webex teams are no more! It is simply "Webex". Which suggests that the integration is complete but alas it is not. You will have data loss if you use Teams to connect to a meeting and others (say external participants) connect to the same meeting through the traditional Webex. Confirmed tested yesterday, SR #690640482

The data loss refers to when the external participants use the "Chat" in the webex meetings side to send messages to "All" or directly to another user on Webex Teams and these on Webex Teams do not receive this. So if there are just 2 people in the meeting, corp and external then there is no way of knowing about these lost messages unless the external person mentions it verbally, however often the external people cannot connect to the audio and so are unable to verbally say this; and so they try to use the chat to communicate to explain that their audio is not working. I did not test out the sending of files but I expect it to be broken in the same way. Knowing Cisco, they'll raise a bug ID, fix the chat and not bother with the files because it had not been specifically reported. I mention this because this exact scenario occurred recently for another SR, relating to the mute buttons not working intermittently in Teams. The BU focussed on the audio mute button, released the fix and didnt bother with the video mute button. When I queried it and reported that the video mute was still breaking intermittently I was told to raise a new SR and do recreate and send logs... LOL - as if I'm going to work for Cisco for free.

This way of running a platform is painful for me as a customer. I have a meeting next week to finalise MS Teams. Can you imagine what it's like working for such a company. It must be really frustrating. Frustrating enough to leave the company and then sabotage their operations.

For Teams and Zoom, I get true noise cancelation on sound coming out of my speakers that's meeting related. If I play background music through the same speakers, that will come across.

I don't even want to try that on the WebEx... ugh...

This is really great. To do this, they have to analyse the audio and buffer some of it to work out if it's a repeat (echo). I'm surprised that Zoom does this, but all this says to me is that the income that Zoom earned has gone back into improving the service. That's a great way of running a platform and business.

[deanwebb]

One thing that bugs me in Zoom: I can have my video settings set locally to require approval before starting camera, but that setting can be overridden by the meeting host, so there are times I've had to be quick on shutting down my camera at the start if I didn't feel like sharing my space with the rest of the world.

[wintermute000]

O man that is an epic link. You have to wonder what happened that drove him to such extremes, esp. as his residency is now in jeopardy.

My dream is for windows hello to work properly when both the onboard and an external camera may be present. Its janky AF right now, sometimes it works, sometimes no, basically its only reliable if you only use the onboard. If you cold boot with the camera attached sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Seems to work fine once you're in the OS.
Its shit like this that makes people go to Mac, good thing I can't stand Macs (the marketing, the smarmy users, blech)
I think between Zoom and Teams its game over for everyone else. Zoom because recognition + its the clear massive winner in the casuals space, Teams because MS integration / traditional MS give out free crack tactics. You have O365 already amirite why bother with Webex or Bluejeans. Slack has its own niche, and its not really a UC offering anyway even if it is being beefed up.

[deanwebb]

^ Exactly. Why pay for a commercial Slack license when you already got O365, my brother?