Picture this:
You’ve dialed into a conference call, one of several
other remote participants brought into a meeting occurring onsite for
10 other folks gathered around a speakerphone in the middle of a
conference room. You’d love to hear what is being said, but between
the scooting of the speakerphone, the unwrapping of the muffin you
AREN’T eating, and the five or six simultaneous sidebar conversations
occurring, you can’t hear the speaker!
Does this sound familiar? After
enough of these meetings, I decided to be the host who
prevents this type of meeting. I’ve started
considering the room where I’m speaking, and
not just the content or agenda.
* The first thing I do is use *31 to record a
conference introduction that lets my phone audience know that we
are gathering in the conference room and will start shortly. This
way, I am free to leave the speakerphone in the conference room on
mute as people filter in to the room, get coffee, and have the
ancillary conversations that feed noise into the conference. To
learn more about how to record a custom conference introduction,
check out this tutorial.
* I always head to the conference room about 15 minutes
prior to the start time of the meeting to check on the positioning
of the speakerphone and all of the little sub microphones. I make
sure the speakerphone is closest to the main speaker, and that the
smaller microphones are positioned strategically between
participants. I make sure that if I’m going to have a projector
running, it’s nowhere NEAR any speakerphone. I don’t want to feed
white noise into my conference.
* When possible, I dial into the conference and
perform an audio test with someone I’ve asked to dial in from
their desk. This way, I can test the main speakerphone and walk
around to the smaller microphones to test for audio quality.
* Once people start arriving, I ask that they get
seated and prepare to work. If a speakerphone must be moved, I make sure it’s
muted so we don’t feed that dreaded sound into the ears of the
phone participants.
It’s all about organization and preparation. Ensuring audio quality is simple but important when you have
a mix of people in a conference room and over phonelines. To learn more about using star controls to mute noisy lines and ensure the best audio quality on a conference, take a look at this topic.
Now.. if someone could help me figure out how to push muffins through
the phone line to my remote participants, I’ll bet I would have the most highly attended meetings in my company!
Happy Conferencing!
