How you sound during online meetings impacts your credibility. Studies on audio quality and credibility have made a link between how clearly you are heard and the degree to which others believe or are influenced by what you’re saying.* Credibility isn’t just about trustworthiness, it’s about people’s perception of your trustworthiness.
Last month I tried to convince you to use your camera during online meetings for several reasons, but mainly because it’s the next best thing to meeting in person. I deferred talking about audio in detail, but it’s even more important. If you’re trying to talk and people can’t hear you very well, that’s no good. In such cases, video doesn’t help. Quality audio is more important.
Sound quality is impacted by many things; hardware, location, position, volume, and awareness. Understanding how to make the best use of your audio situation can improve your credibility, ability to influence, and effectiveness in online meetings.
Muting and Visibility of Audio
Always mute yourself when not talking. If you take away anything from this post, it’s to see the value in managing your mute. Muting yourself eliminates the opportunity for unwanted noise during a meeting and shows respect to other participants. Microphones are very sensitive and can pick up typing, tapping of pens, etc., all heard by everyone on a call. In open work places, background noise can be significant.
When muting yourself, use whatever means is most visible to others in the meeting. Some devices have their own mute, and while convenient, it means your mute status isn’t visible to others. For a meeting organizer, or others trying to determine the source of unintentional sound (noise), seeing who is already muted is helpful.
Another advantage of toggling your mute is using it as a signal in place of raising your hand. When hosting a meeting, I continuously watch the participants list and video thumbnails. I’ve seen attendees unmute themselves before offering a comment or feedback and I’ve taken to looking for it as a signal someone wants to talk.
Sound Quality and Equipment
How you sound depends on the equipment you use. Knowing what sounds best and how to control input and output settings for your rig is critical to being heard clearly.
A key aspect to sounding good is speaking close to the microphone you’re using. The most effective way to do this is to use a headset that positions a microphone on the end of a wire or boom placing it within inches of your mouth. This is optimal and allows for your voice to be clear and for you to talk at a normal volume.
Wireless or Bluetooth headphone audio quality can vary by brand and purpose. Some are designed to be used for online meetings and some are designed for convenience or listening to music. Bluetooth or wireless headphones not designed specifically for meetings, don’t sound as good due to proximity of the microphone to the mouth and latency during back and forth conversation. I’ve demonstrated by switching between microphones and headsets to illustrate the difference to people. It can be eye opening.
Speakerphones make sense to use in conference rooms where headsets would be weird. It’s easy to tell who on a call is using a phone, speakerphone, or headset. “A poor-quality speakerphone causes anguish for everyone else on the call. They’ll struggle to hear you well, even as they suffer through hearing every keystroke and pen tap like thunderclaps.”(**)
Location, Volume, and Position
Position and location are as important as the microphone you use. Location refers to where you are physically. Position refers to where the microphone is relative to the speaker. In an office or in a cube, there will almost always be background noises to contend with. When talking, the microphone picks up and amplifies your voice and the sounds around you. Too close and we hear breathing. Too far away and you sound distant.
The volume of your voice and how loud others hear you can be controlled and adjusted. I often do a quick soundcheck to assess volume settings before meetings and (unsurprisingly) let others know (privately) when they’re hard to hear or too loud.
Headphones with a microphone attached to a headphone wire are common. I often see people holding the microphone part close to their mouth when talking. It doesn’t help much and you can actually cover the microphone making you harder to hear. Be careful about moving around as the sound of the microphone rubbing against clothes is significant.
Speakerphones don’t sound as good due to the distance of the speaker from the microphone. When others on a call are using headsets with microphones close to their mouths, they sound like they’re sitting right next to you and those on speakerphones sound like they’re sitting on the other side of the room. They also pick up background noises more easily.
Summary and Closing
The ability to hear and interpret non-verbal information from someone’s voice is fundamental to effective communication and connecting with others. Beyond what we’re saying, how we sound conveys a lot more than words through tone, pace, intensity, and using sound to convey feeling and nuance.
Paying attention to sound quality, testing out volume controls and how different hardware sounds with your friends and coworkers, is important to developing an understanding of what makes you sound the best. Sounding as good as you can is important to your credibility.
For open offices, cubes, etc., a dedicated headset with a microphone held near your mouth offers the best audio quality. Quality microphones for broadcasting type purposes can be used effectively in offices and quiet places but their location relative to speakers matters; you risk echo and feedback.
Through personal testing with different hardware, headsets, and speaker configurations, I’ve compiled the following recommendations from best to worst.
- USB or wireless headset with a boom style microphone
- Positionable microphone, output close to your ear
- Microphone positioned 3 to 4 fingers from mouth (avoids breathing sounds)
- A quality microphone with careful placement of speakers
- Use headphones for output and a USB microphone for input
- Cardioid microphones allow control of direction of input
- Mobile phone with wired headset
- Minimize your movement
- Don’t hold the microphone close to your mouth
- Speakerphone or speaker with integrated microphone
- Location and situation dependent
- Effective in conference rooms or quiet places
- Use as a last resort
- Laptop or machine based microphone and speakers
- Super important to manage your mute
- Feedback and echo is common
- Can be effective for presentations where you’re doing the talking
- Bluetooth headphones not designed for conference calls
- Microphones are lesser quality
- May not work as well for back-and-forth communication
- Can be effective for listening to calls