New Alternatives to Zoom
New alternatives to Zoom are emerging as virtual live presentation needs expand and post-pandemic hybrid event expectations increase.
You will know when that moment comes to consider options to Zoom for yourself.
If you’re in a Toastmasters club, for example, think of all the hoops you’ve jumped through since Zoom does not offer a timer or a lights system to warn speakers how far along they are in their presentations.
If you record your sessions, you’ll spend hours trying to figure out how to doctor your audio and hundreds of dollars buying new web cams to try to improve the video resolution.
Then there is the concept of higher-end virtual live conferences, where the audience expects the highest possible quality in every part of the show.
One of my clients shown here has one answer. He delivers his conferences using Zoom, but by traveling to another state to use a high-end production studio to make sure everything is of the highest quality for his audience.
But, paying thousands of dollars for a high-end virtual live studio is not within the budget of most Zoom users. So, why would any owner of a small business need an alternative to Zoom and why is the demand increasing for options? To answer this question, let’s take a closer look…from a user’s perspective.
The Rise of Zoom
In my childhood days, the word “Zoom” meant a weekly fun television show for kids. Today, Zoom means video conferencing as much as “Xerox copy” is synonymous with the word photocopy.
Although Zoom officially launched in April, 2011, its popularity did not begin to increase until September of 2016.
I remember the day I heard about Zoom. It was late July, 2016. The word Zoom itself made me hopeful that there would finally be an alternative to GoTo Meeting and WebEx. All are good and stable systems, of course. But, for whatever reason, whenever I was a guest speaker, where the host was using GoToMeeting or WebEx, the host would spend most of the time on the cell phone trying to help guests login or deal with screen lockups.
Many professional speakers in my network simply refused to offer their speaking services in a virtual live setting for fear of a technical glitch occurring (again) in the middle of their keynote presentation or corporate training sessions.
When Zoom’s Presence Emerged
Zoom’s industry presence started to evolve in the summer and fall of 2016 just as some other critical pieces were coming together in the computer, internet and video industry, including:
- Most people had high speed internet access by that time.
- Windows 10 released in 2015, which incentivized people with PCs to upgrade to more robust computers.
- Orders for new Mac computers soared because, well, if you intended to produce video at all, you got a Mac.
- Smartphones were in a continuing upward sales trend and more people wanted to access virtual meetings on their phone instead of only by computer.
Technology was ripe for virtual live to rock…even if the web-based platforms were not quite ready for the influx.
Virtual Live Presentation Skills Needed to Improve Too
A small group of my clients and connections were forward-thinking enough to see the rise of virtual live coming. So, in August of 2016, they joined me in getting Zoom accounts. We spent the next five months meeting once a week to develop our online speaking skills. We were very surprised to discover how many speaking skills on the stage did not transfer to speaking on a virtual platform. From that experience evolved a list of virtual live presentation skills best practices.
Zoom Saved the Day…and Many Businesses
I bring all of this up because we honestly owe a lot of gratitude to the Zoom platform for being there when all of us needed an immediate transition to a virtual meeting place.
When Covid-19 forced lockdowns throughout most of the world, the speaking world was devastated overnight just as much as you hear about restaurants, retail and the travel industry taking the hit. Live venues closed. Conferences were cancelled. Bankruptcies were declared. I don’t have to remind you of that tragic period. You lived it.
Zoom had already been emerging for a few years by that time. Many Zoom meeting facilitators were ready for the transition to use Zoom as their only means of communicating one-to-many in a live setting.
Some transitions were a bit rockier than others.
How I Realized Zoom was Not Always the Best Fit for Every Situation
In February, 2020, I was set to serve once again as technical director for the 7th annual Medical Legal Consulting Conference. Physicians would be flying-in from all over the country to Denver, Colorado, to attend just like the same number the year before as shown in the photo below.
From a technical perspective, we would rinse and repeat just like the year before. We (in the back of the room) had conducted this conference for enough years by that time, we had every system in place to wow even the most discerning attendee.
When the U.S. went on lockdown our conference venue closed. We were literally hung out to dry in the wind.
With pretty much every hotel around the world shutting off their venues for conferences overnight due to the pandemic, we were faced with the decision of pulling the plug on the 2020 conference or turning to virtual live.
We moved to virtual with only a few weeks to pull it all together. Even though I was a long-time Zoom advocate and evangelist, it became apparent that Zoom would not be a good fit for this virtual conference. Here are a few reasons why:
- Zoom displays names and faces for everyone; presenters, hosts, and audience. You can adjust settings, of course, to have a featured speaker. But, you have probably experienced how one person unmuting themselves at the wrong time can easily lead to that person’s face showing in the presenters window, if only for a brief second. We needed to facilitate a small panel of experts in one screen as presenters. But, other than that single hour of the conference, we needed to prevent audience members’ faces from being shown.
- Zoom’s video imagery is based on horizontal dimensions, as if you’re watching a video on YouTube. Our presenters needed more height so that they would not need to stand so far back from the camera for the audience to see hand gestures.
- Zoom does not allow for multiple cameras and easy switching from one camera to the next. To keep the audience engaged for a full two-day conference we needed five different inputs consisting of three camera angles, a PowerPoint input, and another feed which we used for video-based intros, outros, and recorded video to play during breaks.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am about to make a few product suggestions for you to consider trying through a free trial and then, ultimately, paying for to continue using if you like the product(s). Know that if you sign-up for the free trial for any video conferencing tool through the links provided, and then decide to continue using one or more of the following products, I will receive a referral reward in the form of monetary compensation. My hope is that you might see my attempt at providing unbiased, highly detailed, analysis of each product as being worthy of your support of my small financial reward. If you DO sign-up for any of these three, let me know and I will send a special *Getting Started* document that the developers don’t even know they should be telling you in the getting started process. You’ll look like a pro even as a first-time user.
The Alternative to Zoom We Chose for the Conference
After testing numerous potential solutions, StreamYard was the clear choice for the occasion. We used the client’s home for the venue. Instead of bringing the speakers to a production studio, we created a make-shift production studio in the client’s living room!
Register Now for StreamYard’s Free Trial >>
Community was KING in Fall of 2020
With six months under our belts living in the new pandemic world, virtual live had become *the only* way to have a live meeting or event where all audience members could equally interact with each other in real-time.
By Fall of 2020, people were missing people. Mastermind groups began to surge. Zoom had become the dominant vehicle for remote learning and gathering. Small meeting groups and masterminds relished at the easy ability to record sessions and see everyone’s thumbnail videos on the same screen throughout each meeting. Toastmasters clubs around the world allowed for experimentation of all Zoom features including screen sharing, use of virtual backgrounds and ways to engage the audience.
When People Began to Have Goals Again
As rumors of the vaccine started to lift our spirits, we started to think about what we would do post Covid-19. Vacations, road trips, dine at restaurants, and simply to hug elderly loved ones again, were all part of discussions in small virtual group settings.
Week after week, we would meet in our groups discussing goals and strategies and how our businesses would grow as a result. Meeting after meeting, we would forget what we talked about the week prior.
Our spontaneously-made goals vanished into vapor by the week’s end. Why? In part, because Zoom has no feature to help us log our goals and progress to attain those goals.
An alternative to Zoom has surfaced that combines the most important aspects of virtual live meetings and community with goal setting and monitoring. It’s called NUCLEUS.
Here are some special features you need to know about Nucleus:
Private Label Branding
Nucleus allows you to private label your small group meetings. One of the mastermind groups I participate in meets on the Nucleus platform under the private label of Awesome Institute. Unlike other systems, there is no additional charge for private label branding. Nucleus will even assign a custom URL for you so that you can have consistent branding throughout the use of the system (something we all wished for Zoom to offer).
Built-in TIMER!
I feel like writing the word TIMER 100 times! Way back in August of 2016, while using Zoom for the first few times, I suggested to one of the Zoom developers that they could take over the world of virtual live if they would just add a timer! They ignored me. Now, there are at least two systems I know of with built-in timers. Nucleus and another I’ll get to in a moment.
In this system, the timing device is a countdown. You set the timer for each presenter throughout your mastermind group session. This is a great feature to make sure no individual person has the floor for longer than any other person in the group.
Integrated Goals System
The final, and most important feature to point out related to Nucleus, is the ability to document, track, and recall your goals list.
In the screen shot below, you’ll see how I have one main goal, where I’ve assigned 3 milestones. Since I just added this goal for the demonstration purposes, I have a 0% completion so far toward that goal.
This one feature is worth using Nucleus for every coach who offers one-on-one or small group coaching or consulting sessions. Mastermind leaders should absolutely give Nucleus a try so that goals can be added during and after each mastermind meeting. Progress reports can be provided by each member at every meeting while keeping goals and milestones organized!
The absence of goal documenting and archiving is a spot Zoom could have easily filled. Nucleus is the dominant choice for up to 20 participants in each meeting. Of course, if you have multiple meetings with assigned members to each group, you would only invite those assigned to each meeting. But, you can allow all members to have access to everyone’s goals in the account if you desire. True accountability at its finest!
Pricing
One other point that stands out about Nucleus is its pricing structure. Sure, they have free trials for any level. But, notice the $7/month. If you start a mastermind group, each of your mastermind members would need to subscribe to the system for the $7 monthly rate.
But, I have another suggestion for you that I will be personally offering in an upcoming professional speaking practice group I’ll be launching soon. My intention is to make this system FREE for anyone who registers for my program.
It’s only $7, so it’s not a lot to ask for a group member to pay. But, yet, it’s low enough of a cost that you can easily absorb it into your offer price. Just think about that for a moment: being able to provide the meeting location for your members + a goal setting and monitoring system for accountability!
Register Now for Nucleus’ Free Trial >>
All Great Things Evolve Over Time…Even Video Conferencing Systems
First there was WebEx and Cisco. Then, there was GoToMeeting and Citrix. Zoom assembled the best of both worlds with a lighter and easier to connect to product at just the right time. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We all have gratitude to give to Zoom for being at the right place at the right time.
As we virtual live conferencing users have gained user experience, particularly owners or services businesses, coaches, and virtual live event hosts, our user needs have expanded too.
Zoom has either slowed down in their willingness to meet those needs, or, they’ve identified other needs to meet that they feel are more worth investing in development to provide. Some have suggested to me that Zoom decided to focus their growth on the schools market, serving colleges and public school remote learning, while paying less attention to the commercial market. I’m not sure of the correct answer there, but any of those seem like logical possibilities.
Instead of sounding like I’m bashing Zoom, which I really hope you understand I’m not trying to do, I will point out some very strong and needed features of a new product gaining recognition in the virtual presentation space. It’s called MEETN…as in “Good meetn’ ya!”
Only Rick Raddatz could come up with a software product name like MEETN! Rick is an ‘ol Microsoft guy who became an internet systems pioneer serving the internet marketing space…for business owners.
In the early 2000’s, he created a widely used web-based software called Instant Audio Generator. If you clicked on an audio play button on a business website during those years, it was probably Instant Audio Generator powering the audio. So, he’s been in the game of software and internet audio and video for a very long time.
Rick’s dedication to the small and medium sized business industry can be seen in every pore of the MEETN system from the point you click around on the MEETN website to the strong emphasis on providing live support during your meetings and events.
MEETN has been in development for the past two years. Not many people know about it yet. So, you might be hearing it here for the first time. But, you can rest assured you will hear about it a lot more in future months.
Here are some of the key offerings MEETN has over other comparable video conferencing systems:
Better Video Image and Sound Quality
The first thing I noticed when sitting in on a live demonstration yesterday, April 15, 2021, was the shocking difference in video quality delivery and sound. I’m not sure this quarter-screen-size screenshot does justice to demonstrate the difference. But, it’s there.
If you’ve been participating in the hot new drop-in audio conferencing system, Clubhouse, you know how amazing the audio quality is, considering people are connecting through cell phones and, even worse, speaker phones of their cell phones. I don’t have any information as to why, yet, but something similar to what Clubhouse has done has been factored in to the audio filtering for MEETN. The visual is crisp. The sound is remarkably clear.
Visitor Capacity for the Same Low Price
The advertised price for MEETN is as follows:
Now, you might be thinking, “Zoom has better pricing than that! I can have a 40-minute meeting room for free with up to 100 people!”
Well, that is true. But, one of the most important (and differentiating features) of Zoom is its “record to cloud” capability. You have to have a paid account to use Zoom’s record to cloud functionality. The only other alternative is to record to your computer.
Personally, I never record video direct to my computer. I’m always using the record to cloud feature on Zoom so that I can easily share the recordings with attendees. So, when I was introduced to MEETN, my first question was, “What about cloud recording?”
THIS is where price turns to MEETN’s favor.
With Zoom, I can store up to 1Gb of video (and audio) as part of my business account where I pay $19.99 per month. For the 1–3 hour sessions I record, that’s about five or six meetings. The problem is that I always have more like 10 to 12 videos in storage for sharing to attendees at any given time.
Every month, my actual billing for Zoom is more than $30/month!
MEETN’s monthly rate is also $19.99/month…but offers “100” Gb of storage space. I am not likely to come anywhere near that storage level.
If you conduct meetings, events and coaching programs where storage and sharing of recordings to the cloud is important, MEETN is going to be very competitively priced for you!
Even BETTER Timing and Lights System
Now let’s be clear! MEETN does NOT yet have a lights and timing system in place.
It is a feature they are aggressively working on and I was assured by Rick Raddatz himself, yesterday during the demo, that this request is top priority in the development queue. I will come back to this post an update it once this feature is live.
Perfect for Virtual and Hybrid Toastmasters Clubs
Toastmasters officers will rejoice when they see MEETN with a built-in timer with customizable coloring to show time periods. I have delivered specific timing system requirements to development so that the new timing system will work for club, area, division, district and International Championship level contests. I’ve been a Toastmasters member since 1990 and have served the role of Area and Division Governor (before changing the name to Directors) as well as five years as district webmaster. So, I am fully aware of the timing problems Zoom poses for Toastmasters clubs and am actively involved in helping to provide a solution there.
Register Now for MEETN’s Free Trial >>
My Prediction for the Future of Virtual Live Alternatives to Zoom
I honestly believe MEETN is going to quickly become the gold standard for professional events and Toastmasters club meetings around the world to use as their virtual and hybrid meeting software.
Zoom evangelists (like me) are going to have a surprisingly positive first-time experience when they use MEETN for the first time that they will start thinking of new potential for their virtual live events meetings.
Mastermind leaders are going to start seeing the importance of their members actually accomplishing goals they set during meetings. And they will wonder how they go along before having the combined goal setting/monitoring feature integrated with their meeting platform using Nucleus.
Complex streaming and virtual multi-camera venues will continue to push the limits of combined systems using StreamYard as their visual and audio backbone.
One thing we can all agree on for sure is that virtual presentation is here to stay and will evolve over time to offer even more functionality, speed, and quality, all while keeping operations simple and easy.
Zoom will continue to evolve as well. In no way am I suggesting in this post that Zoom is slowing their own features development. In fact, Zoom is probably in the best position of any video conferencing tools provider to react to customer requests and include new product features on a timely basis.
Time will tell which virtual live system will continue or emerge as the dominant player in the video conferencing arena over the coming year. It will be fun…and engaging…to watch.
Marty Dickinson works with business owners to increase their rates, scale faster and get red hot leads to contact THEM. Get notified of Marty’s future Medium posts by following him @MartyDickinson and be sure to connect with him on Clubhouse (@MartyDickinson) where he co-moderates a club room every Monday with Lois Creamer called “Make Money Speaking.” You can reach Marty directly through his 25-year marketing agency HereNextYear.com or book development company ProduceMyBook.com.
