Current issues in sound quality assurance

Good sound quality is crucial for online meetings. It helps to keep your audience engaged and focused. And if your conference involves remote simultaneous interpretation, good sound quality is the main factor for top-notch interpretation.

If not appropriately managed, poor sound quality can disturb the flow of the meeting. And did we mention that it can go as far as to harm your well-being? That’s right – zoom fatigue is real.

And we’re not going to lie – there are problems in sound assurance for video conferencing. However, being aware of them is a big step toward improvement. 

Are you wondering what kind of issues we’re talking about? Let us dive deeper into the current participant and platform side issues in sound quality assurance!

Common participant side issues

Participant side issues are usually unrelated to the platforms people are connecting to. However, they can still affect the event and sound experience. So, let’s look at common participant side issues that can negatively impact your online event!

Hardware issues 

Some of the most common hardware problems involve choppy, muffled sound and audio, hearing echoes, and having microphones on but hearing no sound. What causes these issues?

Simply put, the equipment choice can significantly impact sound quality. That’s right – even if you have a stable internet connection, it doesn’t guarantee a seamless event experience.

Since our hardware is responsible for receiving and transmitting audio, microphones, headphones, or headsets are three main equipment pieces that can cause sound issues. And the same applies to interpreters if the wrong equipment is involved in the process. 

Internet connection issues 

Another commonly noticed audio issue involves the internet connection. This particular one makes the audio irregular.

So, in case of poor internet connection, people either experience delays in transmission during some talks or unexpected loss of sound. That indeed sounds like an issue! 

Many factors worsen the internet connection. In some cases, the participants are connecting from far-away intercontinental places. Other times, it’s due to a wrong choice between connection types: mobile, Wi-Fi, or wired. 

Participant’s environmental issues 

No matter how good of the equipment and internet connection you have, there’s always a human factor you also have to consider. Simply put, some problems occur because of our environment and surroundings.

External factors can occur during an online event, such as static sound, humming, or sound interruptions. And many times, they happen because of a poor choice of workplace. 

For example, if an interpreter works in an open space, they might experience a poor sound delivery. Other related examples involve forgetting to turn off your notifications or even keeping the door open to your workplace! 

Participant’s behavior issues 

Sometimes sound issues happen because of participant behavior. We mean that online event participants can perform specific actions that might turn your otherwise seamless online event experience around. How can it happen?

Some common examples of poor video-conferencing practices are participants checking in from moving cars, forgetting to turn their microphones off after finishing their speech, or simply never muting themselves. And did we mention that speaking too fast can also affect the sound quality? 

Platform side issues

Now that we looked at participant issues, let’s look at platform side ones and their impact on the overall sound experience for remote conferencing.

Varying sound levels

We’ve observed that some of the most common sound issues during an event were related to varying sound levels. In this case, remote speakers would usually have a much louder sound than on-site speakers. And interpreters would also report volume variations between different booths. What’s the cause?

Let’s just say that online conferencing platforms might receive various inputs and make the sound different in hybrid meetings. That might happen because these platforms use incorrect sound processing algorithms or have flaws in their internal volume mixers. Whatever the cause may be, it surely disrupts the audio quality.

Sound processing issues

Sound processing is usually responsible for reducing echoes, removing background noise, or, depending on the situation, fixing audio and video delays. However, not all video platforms use this technology. And this is where problems can come in.

Some video platforms either don’t use sound processing technologies or misuse them. So, if you’re in a meeting where everyone has low sound quality and hears continuous jittering noise and any other kind of distortion, there is a high chance that the platform lacks digital sound processing.

Yet it’s also important to note that this technology is not encouraged by everyone. In fact, the experts are still to decide if sound processing is beneficial in every case. 

What’s the solution?

There are a lot of sound issues for remote conferencing. These problems pose a unique threat to the overall online event experience. So, is there a solution for each of them?

Interactio is a remote simultaneous interpretation platform, meaning that we also encounter issues related to sound quality. Since high industry standards and improvement is our priority, we’ve recently conducted a research project on the same sound-related problems. Here, we provide solutions to each of the issues. 

And did we mention that we’ve made our research report on sound complaints available to download for free?

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