UPDATE: With COVID-19 still at play, video conferencing solutions are still a must for any business with remote workers. Not only does it help to maintain productivity levels, but it ensures your remote and in office employees can continue to work together effortlessly.
Introduction
Video conferencing can save travel time, increase productivity and has been significantly changing the business world recently. Video conferencing technology can range from free social software, to professional cloud-based video conferencing, and dedicated on premise solutions.
No matter which software or hardware is utilised, it is imperative to make use of video conference best practices in order to experience a productive and frictionless video conference. We’ve put together our top tips, based on our experience delivering video conferencing solutions.
Choose the right video conferencing platform for you and your business
The first step is having a combination of the most suitable software and the right equipment for your business. When it comes to technology, it’s best practice to choose a provider that is reliable, has a support team and a robust offering that can meet your needs. There are multiple different solutions available, so you get the peace of mind and confidence your meeting or event is in the best hands and will run seamlessly. Remark Group are proud to have an un-bias opinion when choosing a video conferencing provider and hardware. We work with your business to choose the best solution for the job; we recongise that there is no one-size fits all when it comes to a video conferencing solution and each company and office space has its own unique requirements.
Make sure you update your software
Much like any other software, video conferencing software requires regular updates to ensure that they are running as smooth as possible. Ensuring that your systems are up to date prior to your call will provide a smoother conference with no technical glitches.
Get familiar with the conferencing equipment
It’s all well and good having a top of the range conferencing facility, but do your employees know how to use the equipment? Ensuring your teams are familiar with the conferencing set up ensures that everyone can experience the best of what the system can offer.
Following our installations, Remark Group provide follow up training on your solution to ensure that you are not left in the dark and your employees have the knowledge to be able to use their conferencing equipment with no issues.
Be respectful of those talking
Similar to a face-to-face encounter, you wouldn’t talk over your colleague or customer, so why do this in a video conference? It can become challenging when there are multiple participants in the same conference. You need to practice patience and refrain from speaking while others are expressing themselves. For the larger conference calls, you can mute your microphone when you’re not speaking to avoid adding any additional noise.
One of the most important features of any conference call, video and audio, is the ability for everyone to be heard. When it is your turn to talk, ensure that you are projecting your voice into the microphone and giving the system the best chance of you being heard. Things like ensuring that your mouth is not covered, avoiding slouching, and not talking into the table or your sleeve are only small behavioural changes, but can make a huge difference to the quality of your meeting.
Get rid of any distractions
Distraction can cause problems in both conversations and engagement. Clear lines of sight from the positioning of your VC camera without interference are essential for all attendees. Similarly, so are unwanted sounds: make sure your phone is on silent to reduce any interruptions.
Clear audio
There’s nothing more frustrating when video conferencing has poor audio quality; you can easily have an audio conference without video, but the same can’t be said for a video conference without any audio. The aim is to have participants hear you clearly, without crackling or dropouts. Our Technical Engineers are highly skilled in commissioning a room for sound quality and recognising the equipment your room requires to provide clear and natural conversations. For a conferencing room, there are multiple solutions to achieve the perfect audio; beam forming microphones are a great solution to pick up speech in the room and to cancel out any background noise. If your office surroundings are noisy, then sound masking is great solution – you can read our advice on the importance of audio in video conferencing here.
For those working from home, a good quality pair of headsets are ideal, which can help reduce background noise and echoes.
Choose a suitable venue room
There are a few things to consider when selecting a suitable room, which can all be resolved from a site visit or at least seeing images of the room prior to the event. Ensure that the room has adequate lighting: natural light has its advantages but can have its own set of issues. A combination of natural and artificial lighting is the best solution to provide the conference call with ideal lighting.
What’s next?
Remark Group can work with you to design and install the perfect solution for your business. Whether you are looking for a Microsoft Teams Room System, Zoom Room or a completely different solution, we have an agnostic approach to working with the most well-known and trusted platforms in the industry, so you can rest assured you will receive the best solution for your business requirements.
