Sound Better on Video Calls with These 5 Best Practices (Episode 132)

Welcome to the Video Made Simple Podcast where we refashion the perception of video by presenting tangible outcomes that will change the direction of your business. I'm your host, Chris Schwager, and if you want people to watch and listen to your video calls, then the easiest way to do that is with a clear and clear crystal clear sound like you're getting right now.

[00:00:24] For those who are constantly on video conferences and video calls, you're familiar that meeting fatigue is at an all-time high. Nearly half of workers report feelings of isolation when working remotely. And here's a stat, 61% stated video meeting fatigue has increased. 90% of survey respondents experience collaboration issues when working from home.

[00:00:51] And that's part of the tech, but it's also that part of the isolation. But there's more to that fatigue than being on camera. For a lot of people, it's all about the sound or the lack of clarity with the sound. Okay, here are tips. You can optimize your workspace so you can sound better.

[00:01:08] Number one. Use an external microphone. Mics built into computers aren't designed for high quality audio recording and will make your voice sound tinny and distant. It'll pick up a lot of ambient room sound and generally make communicating more difficult.

[00:01:24] A Lavia mic, which is that little tiny mic you might see clipped on people's tie or their shirt or their blouse. Lavia mics may seem like a great alternative because it's easy to attach on clothes and easy to position, but you run the risk of scratchy noises when you are moving.

[00:01:45] Also, they can be Bluetooth. Now I count on many hands . How many times people have been gotten it wrong with Bluetooth tech. You know, it is just, it's not that stable, right? I've just heard so many problems with people, you know, dialing in a bloody truck, going past, or, uh, things dropping out, batteries going flat, those types of things, you definitely wanna avoid.

[00:02:09] Finally, the audio from external mics though is generally richer, and it's generally clearer because the proximity of the microphone to the mouth is closer, therefore, blocking out a lot of that distracting ambient room noise.

[00:02:22] So, number two, choose a good recording space. Not all rooms are fantastic and will just work, right? Rooms with reflective surfaces such as hardwood, concrete floors, high ceilings, produce echo. Echo's no good. Soft surfaces like carpets, curtains, bookshelves are perfect because all that sound will dampen into those areas. It'll be patted down so that echo reverberation will reduce.

[00:02:50] Number three, use headphones. Headphones isolate any reverb, okay? And that's on a zoom call, for instance, allows you to hear the person or people on the other end clearly, which will help keep the conversation flowing. Now, if you both have headphones, that means you've got separate devices, your headphones and your mic, doing different things, right? So it makes the conversation more fluid because Zoom has a noise reduction gating type thing. So if you ever get caught talking over each other when you don't have that, it's very hard. It kind of negates both of the conversations and it just kind of blocks it both out.

[00:03:30] Now when you've got headphones on, that you avoid that and you can fluidly pretty much talk over the top of each other, which is really, really great. And that's exactly what we do when we are interviewing people in our podcast, . Actually, I'm reminded by someone that didn't do it recently in the last two episodes, and that situation happened. We were both trying to talk over at top of each other and pretty much nothing. You couldn't really hear anything.

[00:03:53] So number five, set your microphone level correctly. Access the level control either in your computer audio settings, or in your conference app settings. Now most of these apps are pretty good. You can pretty much get it straight sorted, straight away, um, but you may want to dial those up, depending on how those settings are at default, right?

[00:04:12] So if you do have a really noisy room, you might wanna really crunch down on that noise reduction and make sure it's as high as it can go, but honestly. everything works pretty bloody good. When you are as close as you possible possibly can to your microphone. Check your volume before you jump on a call to make sure it isn't too high or low.

[00:04:31] If you're close to your microphone when talking, uh, and in a relatively quiet room, you shouldn't need to adjust it at all. Mute your microphone when you're not talking. That's particularly good when you're in a situation of multiple people in the meeting. Everybody should know this process by now, but just do it. Mute to talk best thing, because you know, it's just a lot clearer for everybody involved.

[00:04:55] People love it when they hear you loud and clear. By removing audio distractions, the messaging becomes easier and people can understand you better. If you can't bear life any longer with the equipment that you've got and you're throwing your hands up in the air, you want to upgrade your current system, but you're not sure how.

[00:05:14] Check out the DIY Video Program that comes with your own DIY Desktop Studio, camera lights, sound, teleprompter, the whole bit. You'll look as good as you're seeing me if you're on YouTube watching this right now. And you'll also get training and support and a professional cinematographer to assemble this for you. So the next time you make that vital call, it's gonna be as simple as a flick of a switch.

[00:05:36] Don't forget to subscribe to this channel. You'll also see the link to the DIY Video Program in the show notes. That's ridgefilms.com.au/diy where you'll be able to learn more about the DIY Video Program, and be sure to subscribe to the Video Made Simple podcast where you'll get ideas to present your videos like a pro.

[00:05:55] That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening and see next week.