video conference for band comunication & practice

[Stuart Legg]

The band is spread out over an 80 mile area and would like to practice and communicate by phone video.
any ideas for a good inexpensive way to do this?

[Wiz Feinberg]

You might experiment with Facebook Messenger, which allows for at least 2-way audio-video conferencing. It does allow for group calls, but I find the results borderline at times (with just one person).

Skype offers audio-video conferencing with up to 25 participants.

GoToMeeting is definitely designed for online collaboration. You can pay by the month as needed. They offer plans starting at just $19 per month, which allows for up to 10 participants.

No matter which online service you choose, the group members will be limited by their own ISP as regards up and down stream speeds. Cable ISPs share local bandwidth among groups of homes, trailers, or apartments. This means that audio and/or video quality may change a lot if there are fewer or more people streaming at the same time of day or night as the group rehearsal.

DSL quality is usually guaranteed per line, but is much slower than Cable Inet.

Smartphone plans are iffy regarding data speed and quantity and will slow down data rates, or may halt data completely after a predetermined limit is reached by a customer. Or, they may hit members with high overage rates for excess streaming.

Forget about serious streaming via satellite ISPs or dial-up.