Why can't people ever get their mics to work before a remote meeting?

[jnojr]

Originally Posted by vision33r

Most software engineers are pretty good at jumping on webex, Teams, etc. It's these sales people and non-technical roles that are the problem makers. I've had a guy who is a Technical Lead of a consulting company couldn't get his mic to stop echoing and caused a 8min delay on the meeting.

One mic won't create a reverb or echo. That comes from two mics... people who dial in and connect on the web page, or who have a laptop mic and a mic on an external webcam, for example.

It wasn't only him but his other team mates have also struggled with their mics often being too low. Our company is very focused on remote team meetings we have an AV company come in to sort out all of the AV setups in every conference room to allow for seamless remote meetings with webcams and good audio equipment.

With at least 4 speakers in each room it is very annoying to have someone connecting with an echo microphone. Very frustrating to see technical people struggle with minor technical tasks.

I'm in a technical role, but honestly, the nuances of desktop hardware and AV aren't in my swim lane. I think I'm pretty good about conferences... my mic is automatically muted unless I manually unmute it, for example. But if someone told me my mic was causing a problem, I don't have a troubleshooting chart to walk through... I could try disconnecting/re-connecting, a different browser, or give up and dial in.

I think all web conference sites have a test feature where you can play with all of these settings outside of a live meeting. That can help prevent most problems. But nothing can help the guy who chooses to sit there with the crinkliest bag of the crunchiest chips and chew away, ignoring pleas for everyone to mute.

[ShanIAmVA]

Although I am an optional attendee, I purposely join one call every week just for the entertainment. It's a group of 8-10 employees all with wanna-be alpha personalities. Male and female, young and not-so-young. One guy doesn't know how to use his inside voice and mumbles obscenities about others on the call. He must not think anyone can hear him or he doesn't care enough to mute himself before the verbal diarrhea takes hold. If I were to keep my phone unmuted I'd be asked what I was munching on.

Popcorn. It's popcorn. Keep going.

I love the calls where people dial in but then also choose to be called and then their voicemail kicks in... "Thank you for calling MyCompany. You have reached the voicemail box of a complete idiot....".

[vision33r]

I think this could be a generational problem. The mic and video problems are usually with certain generations. The millennial and Gen Z usually have it covered.

Some people get panicky when they can't work the mic. I often see a group of old tech sales guy show up and they can't get the video or sound to play. They give up easily.

That's why we have those mic echoing problems. Some folks don't realize the webcam they are using has a built in mic and they proceed to call into work on a separate device.

[Florida2014]

I was on a call several years back that had close to 50 people on it. For whatever reason the moderator did not mute all lines and asked everyone to mute their line individually. One gal did not and not only was she clearly not listening, she also started mocking the woman who was speaking in a very condescending way. We even heard her quip "Oh she's such an idiot!"

They never did find out who that person was, but I suspect if they did she'd no longer have a job. I always double/triple check my line is muted unless I'm supposed to be speaking. And yes, I agree.....how the same people can never seem to figure it out is truly amazing.