Zoom Security Best Practices for Producing Your Media Project Remotely

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As travel restrictions continue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the video conferencing platform Zoom has become a huge factor in allowing Producers to oversee their media projects remotely. After security issues were exposed, Zoom responded with numerous enhanced features designed to effectively prevent disruptions and provide secure communication across their platform.

Here is what you can do to ensure secure management of your project via Zoom:

Secure Your Connection Before It Begins

Follow these steps to make sure your call is as secure as possible. If you are using Global Media Desk for your media services, these steps will be automatically provided.

  1. Enable the Waiting Room Feature

    The Waiting Room feature allows you to control when participants join the call. You can admit attendees one by one or hold all attendees in the waiting room and admit them all at once. Licensed users can customize the waiting room screen with their own logo, title, and description. Once admitted, attendees can easily be pushed back to the Waiting Room or removed them from the meeting all together.  Instructions: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000332726-Waiting-Room

  2. Use a Randomly Generated Meeting ID

    You should always schedule new calls with randomly generated meeting IDs. That way, only invited attendees will be able to join.

  3. Require a Password to Join

    As an added layer of security, require a password to enter your call. Instructions: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360033559832-Meeting-and-Webinar-Passwords-

  4. Only Allow Registered or Domain Verified Users to Join

    When scheduling your call, you can require attendees to register with their e-mail, name, and custom questions. This means that only participants who are logged into Zoom can join, and you can even restrict it to Zoom users who’s email address uses a certain domain. Instructions: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/211579443-Registration-for-Meetings?zcid=1231

In-Call Features to Keep You Secure

Once your call is off and running these options can be easily utilized to keep everything safe and secure. If you are using a Global Media Desk technician, they will monitor your call and use these features as needed.

Locking the Call

Once all attendees have arrived, you can easily lock your call to prevent any additional attendees from joining.

Controlling Screen Sharing

You can turn screen sharing on or off for each participant.

Disabling Private Chat

You can disable and enable chat throughout the call.

Turning Off Annotation

You and your attendees can doodle and mark up content together using annotations during screen share. You can disable the annotation feature in your Zoom settings to prevent people from writing all over the screens.

Muting Participants

You can mute all participants and even disable their ability to unmute themselves. When you’re ready to make the call interactive again, you can simply hit the “Unmute All” button or allow participants to unmute themselves.

Removing Participants

At any point, you can easily remove an attendee from the call. For additional security, you can also choose to not allow participants to rejoin once they’ve been removed.

You can find detailed instructions on how to access the in-meeting security options here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360041848151-In-meeting-security-options

Additional Resources

Zoom Blog – https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/
Zoom Help Center – https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
Zoom How to Videos – https://zoom.us/resources

About Global Media Desk

Global Media Desk has been providing producers and video production companies with the best videographers, crews, photographers, and drone services around the globe since 2000. Please contact us  with any questions you may have about producing your media project remotely or shooting in another country. We are here to help.