Today we’re going to be talking about Zoom extras.
Seamus
What I am going to talk about today is the other programmes and software and apps that work with Zoom to make things just more efficient and I think one of the things that’s happened is, we’re probably not going to go back totally to the same way we used to work before and video communication is probably going to become a really big time of part of most people’s jobs, and life now.
They’ve got a marketplace where there are all sorts of other apps that work with them to make things easier for you. So that’s just marketplace.zoom.us. And there’s quite a few in there all sorts of categories of collaboration, customer service, learning and development, productivity, recordings, transcriptions. So I thought I’d just pick a few of those. And, and one of the first ones that I’ve looked at is one called krisp.ai . What that does is mute the background noise in any communication app so whenever you’re doing any sort of anything on the computer Krisp will intervene and cut out all the background noises so kids dogs you know people mowing their lawns and all these noises that people are getting because they work from home, this Krisp app can cut down to a great degree.
Mark
So how does that work?
Seamus
Somehow, and I don’t fully understand how, what it says is it sort of inserts a set of virtual headphones or listening devices, and then cuts out the extraneous noise from between your voice and the computer before it hits other people. So, I haven’t actually tried it yet but it’s apparently very, very good. And, you know, if you’ve seen a few of the funny zooms around with you know noises and kids running in and all sorts of things.
Well, it’s something that’s really going to be quite valuable and because I don’t think we’re going to go back to normal we’re gonna do a lot more video conferencing, it’s, it’s a very good app to know about I think
Mark
So if my bull terrier is trying to eat the hose outside the front door, it’ll cut down on that noise
Seamus
it will Yes,
Mark
OK, that’s sounds really great. Also a lot of people who are doing home entertainment and things like that, with their funny videos would like that one.
Seamus
I think so yeah I think it’s got a lot of uses for a lot of people now
Mark
OK, so you’ve got one called Voice Transcription, so as you talk it types out what you’re saying on the bottom of the screen?
Seamus
Well, sometimes. The first one we’re going to talk about is called rev.com and what that does is, that doesn’t do it real-time, but you can send them any audio or video recording, and they will transcribe it almost 100% accurately because they actually use people to do the transcription.
But they charge $US1.25 per minute, which, you know, if you’re only doing a 10-minute talk, that’s not that bad. It does take 24 hours to come back to you so that’s the most accurate voice transcription around at the moment.
About that there’s another one called otter.ai and all these people are coming out with all these wonderful names. That one does transcribe real-time, and that’s actually what I use to transcribe these talks to put them on my website when I finished here. That one gives you actually 600 minutes per month free. Now that’s an awful lot for most people. So, that’s really good but it’s not 100% accurate because it’s totally machine done but it’s done real-time so you can do it, then go back and listen to it and just tidy up the text
Mark
So if you’ve got people on Skype, no not a Skype, a Zoom call, and they’re hearing-impaired then that would be very very good
Seamus
I’m not sure whether it displays on their screen while you’re talking, there is a captions option on the pro version of zoom, which will do the same thing. And probably the other big boys will get that fairly soon because obviously that’s a fairly important area to get into
Mark
OK, what else have we got their, mate? These are add ons to Zoom, that will actually be compatible with Zoom?
Seamus
Yes, and one’s like, oh, in fact, all of these are compatible with any voice recording actually, it’s just because everyone’s using zoom so much. Another one, just come out is called fireflies.ai. And all of these links will be up on my blog post later this morning. That records, transcribes and then allows you to search across all your voice conversations. So I think voice conversations are going to be a huge thing so being able to find stuff again after you, you know you’ve spoken on six zooms last week and you remember talking about something to someone. Well, you need a way to be able to search through all your conversations.
Mark
You type in an enquiry or you speak in an enquiry?
Seamus
I haven’t fully checked this out but as far as I’m aware you type it in, but I think it actually searches your voice, your audio recordings so it doesn’t need a transcription it searches through your voice recordings.
Mark
So that’s Fireflies. And also if you’re an administrator of a zoom, you’re the one who has to hit the mute button and everything else like that to allow other to talk – is there any way to simplify that task?
Seamus
Probably not at the moment. Because it’s still relatively complicated to sort of do. But talking about simplification of things. Zoom still, you know, you still have to download the app. But there’s another one if you’re just doing a really quick video conversation with someone, and you’ve got less than four people you’re talking to. There’s one called whereby.com. And that’s just a link in your browser. So you send the link to someone they click on it and immediately they are listening, and seeing you real-time in their browser. So if you’ve got someone who’s not really happy doing computer stuff, that’s the easiest and quickest way to have a conversation, a video conversation. It’s not as powerful as zoom, or the other, the big boys but it’s still a handy little one to do if you just want a quick conversation.
Mark
We’re running out of time I’d like to talk, because Zoom is the one who has all of the market at the moment. I think is the Google, Microsoft even Facebook, are trying to scramble to catch up to them, I wouldn’t mind next time talking about some of the programs they’ve got
Seamus
Yeah, that’d be really good on it because, yeah, they are really scrambling to catch up they can see that voice, video communication is going to be the way of the future so they just want to get into this market.
Mark
Everything like the Spanish flu, and then we had all sorts of other things going on. There have been great changes in society after an event. I think we’re going to do that with computers and video calling and working from home.
Seamus
I really think so yeah I think a lot of big companies will try and claw back to the way we were but, you know, there’s an awful lot of people who found that working from home is really lovely and they don’t want to drive and it’s also good, the less we drive it’s better for the planet so there’s a whole lot of reasons that remote work or working from home is a really sensible way to go.
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