Zoom Meeting Testing: Improve Connectivity for Better Video
We’re Putting Speedify Streaming Mode to the Test. Will It Eliminate Zoom Dropped Calls?
Ah – Zoom! The wonderful communication tool that enables you to keep close to your loved ones, coworkers and business partners. As long as you have stable and fast connectivity, that is. If not, you need some Zoom meeting tricks up your sleeve.
The Internet is not always as you’d like it to be: fast and reliable. When this happens, we all know the symptoms: stuttering, choppy and blurry video, buffering and, to top it off – Zoom calls dropping.
Many people work from home nowadays. The Internet is used more, which results in lower available bandwidth and reliability. So, being tired of all this, we created the Streaming Mode for Speedify. It recognizes audio and video streams, and prioritizes those streams over other network traffic and dynamically changes traffic patterns between bonding (dividing network packets among multiple connections) and redundant (sending the same network packets through multiple connections). This results in the best quality of service you can get with the Internet connections you have available.
But exactly how good is Streaming Mode? And more specifically how good is it when it comes to Zoom? We decided to put it to test – and this article will show exactly what we got.
Testing Zoom Performance Over Slow and Unstable Internet Connections Offers Valuable Zoom Meeting Tricks
We all know Zoom performs well when you’re backed by a fast and stable Internet. But what about the real world, where most likely you don’t get that luxury?
The testing procedure consists of 2 series of tests for Zoom video calls:
- Without Speedify;
- Speedify on with Streaming Mode enabled.
In terms of devices and operating systems, we tested it on an Android smartphone and a macOS laptop. We combined Wi-Fi and cellular on the smartphone / Wi-Fi and the USB tethered phone connection on the Mac.
The evaluation is done both subjectively and objectively as follows:
- We screen capture and analyze the Zoom stream video quality;
- We walk towards the edge of the Wi-Fi network. This helps us simulate:
- insufficient bandwidth conditions, as we get away from the Wi-Fi router;
- unreliable connectivity at the edge of Wi-Fi with dead spots and packet loss;
- disconnecting Wi-Fi internet and how quick it switches to cellular.
For the Speedify tests, we looked at the bandwidth, latency and packet loss. And, of course, how they are affected by our “course” away from Wi-Fi.
Zoom Meeting Tricks: Improving Zoom Video Calls Quality with Speedify’s Streaming Mode
First off – we have the test with no Speedify running. As you can imagine, once we get near the edge of Wi-Fi, the image starts stuttering. And finally buffering takes over. At some point, after 15+ seconds of freezing image, it does switch to cellular.
Video was very similar on both tested platforms – macOS and Android.
Testing Streaming Mode with Zoom on Mac
Next, we have testing on a Macbook. The video itself didn’t even stutter for one bit. Here’s how the bandwidth distribution looks like:
First of all, Speedify makes it possible to use both Wi-Fi and cellular at the same time. That’s why you see both connections being used together at times on the graph above. When Wi-Fi starts failing, you notice that with the help of Speedify cellular takes over. The general bandwidth is constant at around 1 Mbps. And that steady streaming rate is good for Zoom video calls and any streaming platform actually.
The little red x-es above symbolize the moments when packet loss over the Wi-Fi connection was very high – over 5%. If Speedify would not have been running, then you would have ended up like in the first case – buffering and maybe even being dropped from the call.
Android Testing for Streaming Mode with Zoom
The Android test with Speedify Streaming Mode was similar to the Mac one – video was perfect in the sense that quality was good and it didn’t break.
As you can see, when Wi-Fi is good and strong enough, cellular stops being used. However, cellular kicks back in as soon as Speedify detects that Wi-Fi is flaky. And again – notice the steady bandwidth around 1.80 Mbps that’s being preserved by Speedify. Again – the red x-es symbolize the high Wi-Fi packet loss rate.
Here are the average values for all tests with Speedify Streaming Mode on:
|
macOS |
Android |
|||||
|
Bandwidth (Mbps) |
Average |
Minimum |
Maximum |
Average |
Minimum |
Maximum |
|
Overall |
1.09 |
0.45 |
1.73 |
1.80 |
0.77 |
2.31 |
After looking at this table, we can conclude that Speedify was able to keep the average Zoom video call bandwidth on both macOS and Android in good range around the target bandwidth of 1 Mbps and 1.80 Mbps respectively. And this happened both in situations where the connections were good and when one of them went bad.
Test Conclusion: Speedify Streaming Mode Eliminates Gaps and Zoom Call Disconnects
There you have it – one of the best Zoom meeting tricks for you is to use Speedify. Speedify’s Streaming Mode makes a huge difference to Zoom calls.
To put it in context, here’s what happens under the hood of Streaming Mode. Speedify monitors statistics in real-time about how each of your Internet connections is performing. As connections change, and other apps start or stop sending data, Speedify adjusts its strategies on the fly. So, now you’re not chained to a chair near your Wi-Fi router, hoping to get a good signal, while on Zoom calls. You can walk around, and even leave the house without dropping the call. You don’t need to worry about it. Just make your Zoom call: if there’s any way to get it through, Speedify will make it happen.
To learn more about Streaming Mode and how to enable it check out the Speedify Knowledge Base article.
Zoom Meeting Tricks: update to the latest Speedify version and switch to Streaming Mode if you’re tired of connectivity issues in Zoom calls!
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