Acoustics at online meetings: “Do you u hear me?”

Due to poor acoustics and sound quality, many people experience online meetings as tiring and strenuous. Annoying reverberation, noise or noise also causes irritation. Whether you're using Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, or another online meetings program, a lot of people run into this. Due to the corona crisis, we now have more online meetings than offline meetings and that will remain the case for a while.

Annoying reverberation during online meetings

‍Annoying reverberation is a common problem in online meetings. This causes poor audibility and an uncomfortable, restless feeling. Many homes and offices are built with hard materials, such as tiles, concrete, glass and stucco walls. Now that we are increasingly working remotely, it is nice to have a comfortable acoustics to be created at home or in the office.

How do you ensure a comfortable and understandable situation during an online meeting? We give you four tips.

Tip 1:
‍The sound quality of your laptop can often be a lot better. Sometimes you can fix this by changing the settings, but usually a better external speaker a good investment. This makes for a much more comfortable way to call and measure online. If you have a lot of ambient noise or people around you might be bothered by your phone calls and online meetings, a good headset is recommended with noise cancelling into the microphone (note: this is different from a noise cancelling headphones). This way, you are very easy to understand for the others in the meeting.

Tip 2:
‍Work outside when the weather is nice. Sound waves go in all directions. If you work indoors, for example in your living room, the sound will reflect and may cause reverberation. If you work outside, the noise will go away and you will be less bothered by annoying noises. Make sure that your conversations can be heard unintentionally by the environment and make sure you do not cause any inconvenience and, of course, it should be a bit quiet outside...

Tip 3:
‍Make sure you have a good acoustic solution at home too. If you suffer from reverberation during online meetings, you will (consciously or unconsciously) also experience an annoying noise during 'normal' conversations or during visits. There are also movable acoustic elements that you can take with you and use where you work and fold and store after use. These are often nice additions to your interior and also effectively solve acoustic problems, even during online meetings. And they provide acoustic comfort in your home.

Tip 4:
‍Having a Teams of Zoom meeting in an office garden is not recommended. The sound goes in all directions and concentrating during your meeting is really difficult and you're causing inconvenience to others yourself. Do you suffer from bad sound during online meetings in the office? Are there meeting rooms with good acoustic properties available? Then reserve it for the online meeting. Or see what you could add to your current office if there are too few such places. Also, make sure that your office workspace is in a room with sufficient absorbent materials or joints acoustic wall panels toe. These materials absorb sound so that your colleagues can hear you better.

By following the tips above, you will notice that spending a day in (online) meetings is a lot less tiring!

Offices must comply with building decree as far as reverberation times are concerned. These determine the absorption in a room. Research shows that more than 50% of the offices do not comply with this

Does the acoustics also leave much to be desired in the meeting rooms? Then consider a acoustic measurement to do. Based on an acoustic measurement, we can determine whether there is indeed a noise problem and how we can best solve it. With the measurement results, we can recommend the right acoustic products that will reduce reverberation during online meetings and meetings.

Want to know more?
‍Would you like to know more about optimal acoustics and intelligibility during online meetings? We are happy to help you with the acoustics at your (home) workplace. Let us know.

Also read about the new office environment after corona and the multi-space approach? We'd love to have a coffee with you (online or offline). Take contact with us.

Check out our sustainable acoustic solutions for sustainable office furnishings or read here more about the changing office environment after corona.