Poor Audio Quality the Biggest Frustration for Virtual Meeting Participants

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Published: November 23, 2020

George Malim

 In a recent survey of 400 US enterprises pre-COVID, professional audio manufacturer Shure revealed that, while 70% of meetings are already virtual and 90% of employees regard them as ‘vital ‘to the success of their organisation, a huge 96% of professionals are frustrated with the format.

Richard Knott
Richard Knott

Now, while the economic world continues to embrace the ‘new normal,’ virtual meetings are commonplace and part of an organisation’s day-to-day proceedings, resulting in an even greater need for clear, concise audio and hassle-free communication and collaboration.

However, away from the boardrooms of large companies, it’s clear that insufficient investment has been made in video conferencing systems and experiences are beset by stilted audio, background noise and unintelligible speech. The survey emphasised that 81% of virtual meeting attendees regard flawless audio as a key requirement for holding successful meetings.

“Research suggests that the typical larger boardroom meetings with 20 people or more in the room at the same time is unlikely to happen, at least the foreseeable future,” said Richard Knott, Market Development Manager at Shure. “With companies currently cutting back on travel requirements, there will be a far greater need for virtual meetings. And, even when staff return to offices, they will likely be a mix of home and office working.”

This rising trend within organisations will not only increase the number of virtual meetings but also change the characteristics of the new meeting environment. Larger meetings of employees traditionally held in conferencing or boardrooms are likely to shift to meetings involving smaller numbers of people in meeting rooms or collaboration spaces.

“Our new Microflex Advance™ MXA710 Linear Array microphone is ideal for this,” added Knott. “It provides the same award-winning coverage and clarity as our larger conference room systems, but without the associated costs of a larger system, making it ideal for smaller meeting spaces”

Consequently, audio clarity is becoming a key requirement for organisations, with employees increasingly depending on good, clear audio in order to carry out productive interactions with colleagues and customers. Most participants acknowledge that if the video fails, they can still continue to have a valuable meeting. But if the audio fails, the meeting has to end or be rescheduled – in either case resulting in a bad user experience. This was reflected within Shure’s research, which found that 15% of meetings were forced to end early because of disruption due to technology issues. The survey results also showed that 40% of business professionals were escalating these issues to IT staff on a weekly basis – enough to damage a business and create unnecessary disenchantment because of a bad audio experience.

Consider a legal firm billing clients on an hourly rate, and the frustration and reputational damage that technical delays could create to that relationship, and it’s clear that this is a substantial issue, with IT support for the relatively mundane conferencing issues causing unnecessary costs that could be swiftly outweighed by investing in higher quality equipment.

“Companies have to understand that there really is no excuse for poor audio,” concluded Knott.

“The technology is now available to greatly improve the meeting experience, regardless of the size of meeting room and the number of people involved”

 

 

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