The situation
A session live online is a session. It has a beginning, an end, someone in the chair and a purpose, like any meeting on site. The difference is that the technology is part of the room. Microphone, camera and light do what acoustics, eye contact and seating do on site. Once they are set up properly, you soon stop noticing them.
What holds
Sound first. A blurred picture does little harm; poor sound ruins the conversation. People who keep having to ask again or guess at syllables tire quickly and eventually stop listening. A good external microphone or headset is therefore worth more than any camera. Headphones also prevent echo and feedback. A quiet room without reverberation helps more than any filtering software.
Picture size depends on the purpose. In a one-to-one conversation or a difficult negotiation, faces should be large, because expression matters. In a talk or when working on a document together, small pictures at the edge are enough, since the material is at the centre. In a larger group, gallery view helps you see who wants to speak.
Camera at eye level, light from the front. A camera filming from below makes anyone look condescending; one from above makes them look small. At eye level, something like eye contact becomes possible. Light is best from the front, from a window or a lamp behind the screen. Backlighting turns a face into a silhouette.
Roles. In any session with more than two people, it is settled who chairs, who keeps time and who takes notes. The chair gives the floor and sums up. The timekeeper gives notice well before the end. The notes record results and tasks, not the course of the discussion. In small groups one person can take two roles. In important sessions the chair does nothing else.
Check-in and closing round. A short round at the start, in which everyone says in one sentence where they have just come from, brings people into the shared space and tests sound and picture along the way. A closing round, in which everyone names the next step they will take on, keeps the session from simply breaking off. With six people, both take a few minutes.
Test the technology beforehand. Microphone, camera, connection and battery are tested before the session, not during it. Whoever chairs joins a few minutes early. There is an agreed fallback if the connection drops, such as a phone number or the understanding that everyone rejoins through the same link.
Why
All these rules serve one thing: that the participants can perceive and respond to each other. Sound is the condition for understanding each other, picture for seeing each other, roles for not everyone speaking at once. Check-in and closing round mark the edges of the shared space. On site, the door does that job. Online, you say it.
The common mistake
A lot of effort for the picture, little for the sound: a new camera, a tidy background, and the laptop’s built-in microphone next to a whirring fan. The second common mistake is the session without a chair, in which everyone waits for someone to begin and nobody knows when it will end.
Law
A session live online is recorded only if everyone taking part has consented. Under German law, recording another person’s privately spoken words without authorisation is a criminal offence (Section 201(1) no. 1 German Criminal Code, StGB). Recording picture and sound is also processing of personal data, which requires a legal basis under the GDPR (Data and rights). Courts have a rule of their own: participants and third parties may not record a video hearing (Section 128a(6) German Code of Civil Procedure, ZPO). For resolutions and meetings live online, see Decisions and meetings.
Read on: Good practice for working together online · Synchronous and asynchronous · Meeting online regularly