With everyone going to work from home, video conferencing is going to be utilized more than ever.
With that being said, there's helpful tips you can learn from to make your video conference experience more productive.
By now we've all heard about Zoom, but if you want a few more options to compare, you can see the best video conferencing software for business and make the best decision for yourself.
Benefits to video conferencing
- Rather than meeting face to face and taking your time to drive or fly, you can quickly jump on a video call to see another person face to face over video. This saves you time on travel and allows you to be on more meetings from the comfort of your home, office or anywhere you can bring a laptop and have Wifi.
- Time is our greatest asset. The time you would have spent to travel or drive to meetings, you can use that time in other areas.
- You'll more easily be able to stay connected with friends, family, customers and coworkers, no matter where you're living at the time.
Tip 1- Audio
Invest in your audio. Don't use your computer speakers or mobile speakerphone. For a personal video meeting, it doesn't matter but if you're on a conference call with coworkers or presenting your product, you don't want the audio your computer or mobile phone offers.
You'll have an annoying echo, your words wont be heard as clear the first time and anything going on around you will be heard.
Invest in a professional grade headset like the Discover D722U so you can zone in and have a microphone to be heard great. If you don't like a headset that covers both ears or goes over the head, get the D713U.
If you don't prefer a headset but want to improve your audio, then get a microphone that sits on your desk like the Shure MV5
Tip 2- Video
Most laptops these days have a built in webcam which are decent but if you want to up your game, then invest in an HD webcam for video conferencing like the HD100. You'll be seen in HD 1080P and you can even use a tripod if preferred.
When placing your webcam, you don't want the camera mounted above you looking down or below looking up at you. Unless you don't mind people looking at your double chin :). You want the webcam centered so you're seen at eye level!
Tip 3- Lighting!
Don't set yourself up to look like you live in a dungeon! Setup your video meeting area near where there's natural light or invest in lighting so the person on the other side can clearly see you. You want it to be as close to meeting in person as possible.
Tip 4- Ergonomics
Your kitchen table may seem like a cost effective option to set your workstation for video conferencing. Until... your back, neck and shoulders start killing you. Then you'll have to spend time and money visiting the Chiropractor and doing physical therapy to fix the problem.
Get in touch with the team at ErgoRX (image is one example of a customer they helped. Plenty more examples on their website) who know about bad ergonomics, how to fix it and what equipment to get.
Tip 5- Block out the noise
As working from home becomes the norm that creates a new problem. The noise! Babies crying, dogs barking, leaf blowers and lawn mowers going off outside causes a big distraction for callers on the other end.
The best way to combat the noise is by getting a headset with a noise canceling microphone as mentioned in tip 1 and adding noise canceling software like Krisp.ai. Those two together is as good as it gets to cancel out the background noise.
See how Krisp.ai works
Summary
Video conferencing is our new future and will be used for many different types of applications. Do yourself a favor and invest in the best video conferencing tools to have better and more productive meetings.