Upgrade online meeting audio
the easiest way to improve meetings when working remote 2024-12-24 #remote #productivity
When I first worked remote, I hated the hybrid meetings. The meeting room’s table-top microphone barely worked, and half of the people couldn’t tell (or didn’t care) that they’d failed to connect it. Unsurprisingly, laptop microphones don’t work for a room full of people.
Online meetings
Following a discussion takes more effort when you have low-quality audio, much like listening to speech with a strong accent (or not in your native language). Online meetings in tech typically feature both, for most attendees.
Most people don’t make the effort to use effective meeting techniques. By comparison, improving online meeting audio has a big impact for little effort. After all, what you can hear defines the meeting experience more than what you can see.
Hybrid meetings
Hybrid meetings exacerbate audio problems, by combining remote attendees with participants who share a speaker and microphone. Fixing this requires expensive equipment. This article focuses on fully-remote meetings, in which all participants connect individually.
Wear headphones
Wear headphones so your microphone doesn’t pick up meeting audio. Online meeting software filters out meeting audio from your microphone, but at a cost to how clear you sound. And it sometimes fails, causing echo or audio feedback that disrupts the meeting.
Use a headset
In my first remote job, I had an online meeting with a customer who had clearer audio than any of my colleagues. After the meeting, I asked what equipment he used, and he replied that he only had a cheap headset – a Sennheiser PC-8 (now Epos). I immediately ordered my own.
You drastically improve your audio by positioning your microphone a few centimetres from your mouth. Headsets use a microphone boom (arm) to position the microphone near the corner of your mouth. And for less than €30, everyone on your team should have audio at least this good.
Avoid wireless
When I got my own headset, I discovered unexpected benefits:
- its lightweight construction make it comfortable in long meetings, and not too hot in summer
- the wired USB connection meant that I never had Bluetooth issues
- the headset didn’t use batteries that could run out.
I enjoy Bluetooth’s convenience on the move, but always-connected audio at my desk felt like a revelation. I never worried about connection issues or dead batteries when joining a meeting. For regular online meetings at your desk, use wired headphones and microphone.
Bluetooth audio quality drops when you switch from the profile for listing to music, to using a microphone, and occasional interference makes it worse. Bluetooth headphones also degrade audio by positioning microphone too far from your mouth.
Express empathy and inclusion
Using a bad microphone in online meetings degrades other people’s experience. Upgrading your audio in meetings shows empathy for your colleagues, and makes your team more effective. You should all do it.
If your employer doesn’t give everyone a basic headset, start bottom-up, in your own team. And if you have a home office budget and care about each other you can go further, like the fully-remote team with two love languages: reaction emoji and excellent audio. 🎙️
