What's the difference between a zoom meeting and a zoom room

[pizzalover28]

Are zoom meetings and zoom rooms the same? What are the differences?

[Rupert]

Hi @pizzalover28 

There can sometimes be some confusion around the Room terminology.

A Zoom Meeting can have Breakout Rooms - and also a Waiting Room.

Breakout Rooms are sub-sessions within a main Zoom Meeting. 

A "Waiting Room" is an area for participants to wait before being admitted to the meeting - if so configured - but it does not have meeting-features.

A "Zoom Room" is something different. It is a separate hardware/software solution (typically intended for use in physical conference rooms) that is used to attend or Host a Zoom Meeting. This is a separate licensed product from Zoom .

Zoom "For Home" devices (also known as personal collaboration devices) can effectively be used as "Zoom Room" - which means they can be used as a place to join or Host a Zoom Meeting.

Confusingly, there is now also another variation:  "Room for Zoom". This is a modular personal meeting space made by Room.com with an integrated Zoom Room.

Hope this helps clarify the Room terminology. 

Rupert

[yakp]

no it doesn't clarify anything. Can you use zoom room with a zoom meeting? microsoft will not allow me to download zoom to my computer the only thing they have is zoom room. so can i use zoom room from a link that send me in an email?

[Magness]

I agree with yakp. I have a letter to join a zoom meeting. When I got on my Windows based computer to learn how to do it there is no mention of zoom meetings in the learning tools. Instead, it's all about rooms. Rupert, above, did nothing but add to the confusion, but not his fault. In order to have a conversation about anything, you need basic agreed upon definitions. If a definition is changing and morphing then there is no basis upon which to agree, especially if they can all exist at once. The fault is with the Zoom development team or management. It's really, really, simple stuff: make it understandable so there can be agreement so something can be done. So, what IS a Zoom Room and What IS a Zoom Meeting, and how are they different?

[Magness]

Here is a comment on my own rather pedantic reply regarding the difference between a Zoom Room and a Zoom Meeting. I now see that Rupert actually did a pretty good job in describing it. What was hard to understand is that a Zoom Room is an ACTUAL PHYSICAL ROOM meant more as a corporate solution. It would have, for instance, a conference table around which everyone sat and then special equipment so that everyone at the table could be seen by another group of people anywhere in the U.S. or the world in their Zoom Room. There is probably other special equipment. My understanding now is that a plain old free Zoom Meeting has a Waiting Room, as Rupert mentioned, where you're in a sort of limbo until admitted by whoever is running the show, if that's how he set it up. The Zoom Room can  be little or large, and I guess there is a version for someone in his home to have a special place set aside just for that purpose. Unfortunately for me, I'm someone who has to have things made really, really plain and simple, like drawing a picture for a child, to come to a good understanding. Not always, but often. I apologize to Rupert.