Use Zoom for large video meetings or webinars at IU

On this page:

Overview
- Live streaming
Large meetings
Webinars
Feature comparison
Get help

Overview

Zoom is a web collaboration tool available to all Indiana University students, faculty, and staff. Zoom provides high-quality audio and video, breakout rooms, whiteboarding tools, the ability to easily add content to meetings "on the fly", and the option to download meeting recordings as MP4 files.

Standard Zoom meetings support up to 300 simultaneous participants. Licenses for large meetings (up to 500 participants) and webinars in two sizes (up to 1,000 or 3,000 participants) are available to faculty and staff; to request a license, email UITS Videoconferencing Support.

For details about live streaming a large meeting or webinar, see Live Streaming Meetings or Webinars Using a Custom Service.
Before hosting or joining a meeting, join a test meeting to test your internet connection, audio, and video. Be sure to test your Zoom meeting with the device you intend to connect or host from (such as videoconferencing equipment). If you wish to test connecting to a meeting from videoconferencing equipment, you will need to create and host a meeting to join first, as meetings cannot be hosted from videoconferencing equipment.

Important:

Zoom requires you to update your software if it's more than nine months behind the current version. If your version of Zoom software is older than nine months, you will be blocked from joining meetings until you upgrade. For help, see Upgrading Zoom to the latest version. Upgrading your Zoom software lets you take advantage of all available features and avoid potential issues. For more, see Zoom Software Quarterly Lifecycle Policy.

Large meetings

To host Zoom video meetings with between 301 and 500 participants, Indiana University faculty and staff can contact UITS Videoconferencing Support to request a "large meeting" license.

Large meetings have the same functionality as standard Zoom meetings; for more, see this document's Feature comparison section.

As host, you control which functions and features are available to meeting participants; for more, see the Zoom Help Center's What are the host controls?

Note:

Due to the limited number of "large meeting" licenses available, IU Zoom administrators perform monthly audits and, based on demand, may re-assign licenses that have not been used for more than 90 days.

Webinars

To host Zoom webinars, IU faculty and staff can contact UITS Videoconferencing Support to request a "webinar" license.

Webinars differ from meetings in the following ways:

IU webinar owners can assign additional hosts and panelists.
Host must specifically turn on audio/video for attendees
Attendees cannot share their screens
No breakout rooms
Question & Answer (Q&A) tool
Integration with your CRM and marketing automation tools

For more, see this document's Feature comparison section.

Webinar attendees receive video and audio content by default but cannot share their video or audio unless the host promotes them to "Panelist"; for more, see the Zoom Help Center's Managing Participants in Webinar.

Note:

Due to the limited number of "webinar" licenses available, IU Zoom administrators must consider requests on a case-by-case basis. If your school or department plans to schedule many webinars using multiple hosts, you may request to have your "webinar" license associated with an IU group account. Submit your request at least 48 hours in advance.

Feature comparison

Feature	Standard meeting	Large meeting	Webinar
Maximum capacity	300	500	1,000 or 3,000
Registration	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Join a meeting from an H.323/SIP room system	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Recording	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
One time or Recurring	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Designate alternative hosts	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Option to mute attendees upon entry	✔Yes	✔Yes	Automatic (attendees can't be heard unless host turns on their audio)
Mute/unmute individual or all participants	✔Yes	✔Yes	Automatic
Lock mute/unmute	✔Yes	✔Yes	Automatic
Turn off participants' video	✔Yes	✔Yes	Automatic (attendees can't be seen unless host turns on their video)
Lock screen sharing	✔Yes	✔Yes	Automatic
Put attendees on hold or remove them	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Polling to facilitate organized discussions	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Video breakout rooms	✔Yes	✔Yes	No
Group and one-on-one chat	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
Q&A	No	No	✔Yes
Annotation	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
File Transfer	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes
End-to-end encryption	✔Yes^*	✔Yes^*	✔Yes^*
Reporting of registrants, attendees, and chat	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes (includes Q&A)
Live stream via Facebook Live/YouTube	✔Yes (~20 second time lag)	✔Yes (~20 second time lag)	✔Yes (~20 second time lag)
Post-meeting survey	✔Yes	✔Yes	✔Yes

* File sharing will automatically be disabled when end-to-end encryption is enabled.

Get help

For more about scheduling and hosting Zoom meetings and webinars, see the Zoom Help Center's Meetings & Webinars menu.