Zoom Meeting Tips

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been been working from home. This has forced many of us to be creative with our “work from home” setups. Anyone who has been on a video call knows that some participants have better video and audio quality than others. In this article, ill go over some tips that can help you look and sound your best in your next meeting. Note that most of these tips don’t apply exclusively to Zoom and can be used on WebEx, Skype, Hangouts, or any other video conferencing tool.

Tip #1 Always wear headphones. 

Even if you’re using your laptop’s built-in mic, you always want to wear headphones.  If you don’t, the software you’re using (Zoom, for example) will have to do a lot of echo cancellation which will compromise your audio quality.

Tip #2 Always mute your mic when you’re not talking.

There are two reasons why you want to do this: 

One - you’d be surprised at how loud “quiet” rooms can be.  You don’t want to add any background noise to the call.

Two - If the app you’re using picks up background noise, it might switch to your video even if you aren’t speaking.

Tip #3 Lighting

You want to make sure that you’re lit from the front (where your webcam is) and not from behind.  You’ve probably seen this before - someone is sitting in front of a window, the window is lighting them from behind, and they have what I like to call the “witness protection” look.  The good news is that you don’t necessarily need to purchase special equipment. A lamp behind (or next to) your webcam should do the trick. 

Tip #4 Enable High Quality Video

Some video conferencing tools (Zoom and Hangouts, for example) have a high quality setting which is often disabled by default. In Zoom it’s listed as “Enable HD”. Hangouts has this listed under “Bandwidth —> Outgoing Video.” If you have the bandwidth to spare, enable it to make sure that you look your best.

Tip #5 Speak into the mic

This may seem obvious, but it’s always important to speak into the mic to achieve good audio quality. If you’re using a headset, make sure that the mic is close to your mouth. If you’re using your laptop’s mic, get as close to the laptop as you can without compromising how your video is framed.