During 2020, we all learned what it is like to stay bound to your home. Some liked it, some didn’t. However, life had to go on, no matter what your profession or occupation is. This, of course, also goes for musicians. So, today’s article is on why Zoom camera stops working…
One of the first “saviors” to come to the rescue was Zoom. The video chatting platform became really popular, literally changing the world overnight. Students, teachers, musicians, administrative workers, and pretty much anyone – they all found Zoom to be the most useful thing at that moment. And how wouldn’t they? Everyone was on Zoom!
But things aren’t that simple. Various issues popped up along the way. The biggest concern was the safety of users. It wasn’t that hard to barge uninvited into random college course classes. Not to mention that the company itself had many other omissions in security procedures. Well, that’s what happens when your popularity explores overnight!
Here, we’ll tackle some of the security issues, as well as camera troubleshooting. Additionally, we’ll also mention a great solution for musicians and music teachers. Now, let’s get into it!
Advantages of Zoom
Of course, it’s obvious that Zoom helped a lot. Without such a convenient platform, people would be having trouble communicating. Skype is almost useless these days and it can take up a lot of your RAM memory.
There are two biggest advantages of Zoom. The first one is simplicity. This is something it has been and still is, praised for. You just need to install the simple app and you’re ready to go. Additionally, you can also use it through a browser. Just make your account and you’ll be ready to use it all.
The second advantage of Zoom is that everyone is using it. It’s become a standard. Sure, it may not seem like a big thing when we say it like this. However, the service is so popular that you can rely on it for anything, no matter your background and computer skills.
Disadvantages of Zoom
We don’t feel like being completely dismissive of Zoom. However, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Well, it’s actually an understatement. Why? The biggest issues come down to security risks.
Honestly, in our perspective, this is a huge dealbreaker. And, the worst thing here is that we don’t know where to start. A publication like TidBITS went into a more detailed analysis back in 2020, revealing a very lengthy list of privacy and security issues within Zoom.
Aside from unsecured rooms and a very simple way to barge into someone’s meeting, there have been other, more serious issues. For instance, there was a tiny web server that’s installed automatically without the user’s knowledge. This posed a lot of security risks.
In fact, even when you uninstall Zoom from your computer, Zoom’s web server stays on your computer and runs freely. But what does this mean for an average user? Well, if someone, hypothetically, wanted to spy on you, they could turn on your computer’s camera and microphone. This is made possible if your default settings were to start audio and video upon joining a Zoom call automatically.
Just imagine – you could have your camera turned on and off randomly even if you don’t have Zoom on your computer anymore. This issue on its own is enough of a dealbreaker for us.
The worst part is that this is just one of the downsides. It’s not the only security risk and far from being the only general issue with the app. The end-to-end encryption was an issue as well. Zoom stated that they have end-to-end encryption, but this turned out not to be true. Instead, they used a simpler security option which wasn’t as safe as it was supposed to be.
Zoom tried to defend themselves here, stating that the term “end-to-end” that they used didn’t refer to the actual end-to-end encryption model. Now, this is pretty misleading, isn’t it?
We could go on for days to no end about these problems. And although they changed a lot of stuff, we’re not very confident about using such an app. If it’s made the wrong way from the beginning, there’s no chance it will ever be as safe and private as we prefer it to be.
Why Zoom Camera Stops Working
Another one of the issues is that the camera randomly stops working on Zoom. You join a meeting and your camera stops. And then it just goes back on at random moments. It’s not like everyone has this issue, but it’s not uncommon.
Zoom offers little to no help to this issue. It literally comes down to “have you tried turning it off and back on again” solutions. But instead, this could easily be a serious security and privacy issue. If someone abused Zoom’s faulty security procedures, you might be hacked and someone might be turning it on and off at will.
Other than that, it might just be a connection issue. It’s proven to cause problems even with minor fluctuations in internet connection qualities. It’s pretty bad to have this issue along with other problems as well.
And, above all, it’s sad to see Zoom not caring about these issues. Instead, they just offer some random solutions that aren’t really solutions to anything. It’s just one of the things that they failed to sort out since the platform’s rise in popularity.
The Solution for Musicians? Rock Out Loud Live
If you’re a music student or a music teacher, you might want to check out Rock Out Loud Live. The platform is not only more secure than Zoom, it’s also much simpler to use and, above all, comes with a lot of useful tools for practicing musicians.
You can create a private room, keep pristine audio qualities, and even use different tools for writing music notation. Giving assignments and creating notes and even sending them as PDF files has never been easier.
If you aren’t convinced, we say check out RockOutLoud.Live here and see for yourself. Stay safe, guys!
