Teams calling - audio only

Teams calling - audio only

What changes would you like to see in Session 6? Using audio only in Teams calls, because much less data needs to be transmitted, saves as much as 25 times the electricity of video calls. Use audio calling whenever possible to save energy and therefore reduce carbon emissions. How can this help reduce the Parliament’s environmental impact and embrace sustainability? It reduces our carbon footprint.

Points

I personally prefer to see faces to voices - it helps to read expressions etc. Some of us are already feeling very isolated at home and seeing faces helps with our wellbeing and a feeling of being included. SG started to use only audio but they have now changed to using faces as well. I think it is too impersonal to not see people - if there was a meeting at work then you would see everyone. I think just audio only would be difficult for large meetings.

It is a good point. Do we really need to see everyone's faces all of the time? Perhaps the first 5 mins could be camera on, just to set the scene and do intros. But if it is regular meeting, like a daily project stand-up, where everyone knows each other pretty well there is probably no need to have the camera on

Scottish Government staff rarely if ever use video in Teams meetings ( i have an SG IT account/pc) to reduce pressure on their network and it works perfectly well. We don't seem to lose anything by not seeing each other.

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