The Missing Guide to Troubleshooting Audio & Video Conferencing Problems

The Goal: Get as close to in-person quality as possible.

Experts recommend using video conferencing when you can’t meet in person because it allows everyone to see all the non-verbal communication going on. We fully agree that this aspect of a face-to-face meeting is valuable, important, and worth trying to emulate online.

The other big benefit of meeting in person:
You don’t waste ANY time futzing with the audio/video conferencing software!

So yes, you’ll want to use video if you can. Video conferencing supports a level of nuance in a conversation that you can’t achieve with audio alone. However, video doesn’t always work well, isn’t an option for many groups, and completely ruins a meeting when it freezes or jumps.

Even more important in our book for emulating that in-person experience:
Spend no more than 1 minute troubleshooting audio problems during a meeting.

The Challenges

So what makes it so hard to find a rock-solid conferencing service?

1. You can’t trust the Internet.

For most of us working remotely, the Internet works pretty darn well – but it’s still not  fully reliable. Anything that requires the internet to work for voice or video transmission may fail at any moment. This means that no matter how awesome a conferencing service might be – and lots of them are extremely awesome – they’ll still fail when your internet connection gets shaky.

2. Audio quality and connectivity is fundamentally inconsistent.

Beyond internet stability, we also know that what works with this network and with this phone or device, won’t necessarily work from a different network or device.

What works today may not work tomorrow.

One of our engineers loves to use Skype – except when she works from home, because Skype doesn’t work there unless she sits in the living room. A client that uses Lucid to conduct interviews can always connect to the conference number using his home phone, but never with his cell phone. One group wrote to say how much they love using web-based audio, while another complained about web-audio creating an unbearable echo.

Then you say “But my team uses (Hangouts, Skype, GoTo, UberConference….) and it works great!”

Excellent news! But I’d wager that this wasn’t always the case. That perhaps the first few times you had to experiment a bit. Now, though, you know exactly which buttons to push, how to position your microphone, and most importantly, when and how to mute your line to avoid junking up the call for other people. It’s even pretty easy for you to add one or two new people to your team, because now you know so much about how to work that call that you can quickly help them through all those problems you’ve already solved.

Which leads to…

The Recommended Approach

1. Stick with what works.

If you can find a video solution that works for your internal team, use that most.

We have video conferencing services we like and use regularly. Everyone on the team knows how they work, and what to try when the connection gets rough. It isn’t always perfect, but it’s familiar enough that when we do have problems, we know how to quickly troubleshoot them and get back on track.

Sometimes video isn’t appropriate (odd hours of the day, when we travel, etc) and video fails often enough that we’re always ready to switch to an audio-only option. Our team can start with video because we can recover quickly – quickly enough that it doesn’t wreck our meeting if we need to jump to another service.

For us, the easiest to use and most reliable fall-back option is the integrated TurboBridge number.

2. Be prepared with at least 3 conferencing alternatives.

You can only save a call by switching to another service if you have one at the ready.

Every professional running online meetings should have and know how to use:

• A videoconferencing service
• A real conference calling service, with options for computer audio, international and toll-free dial-in numbers
• A direct-dial number

3. When meeting with new people outside your team, start with a dial-in number and a have a backup plan.

When we meet with someone outside our team, we always start with web audio and a basic phone number first. If there aren’t very many people on the call, we might then ask if it’s OK for us to switch to video.

Why start with audio-only if you really want to use video? Because you don’t want to spend the first 10 minutes of your client call teaching them how to turn on their camera.

Dial-in numbers are less convenient, but make up for this by having a tendency to always work. Your client may dial the number or code wrong a few times, and that can be frustrating for everyone. They won’t, however, be as likely to run into problems downloading software, navigating network outages that drop the call, awful echo, software that freezes up on their older machines, confusion trying to get their microphone plugged in and setup correctly, and all the other issues you had to work through when you first started using video conferencing with your team.

Of course, if you can work out that your attendees prefer Skype in advance (for example), go for it. Just don’t assume up front that they’ll be able to use whatever it is you use.

Tips for Getting the Best Call Quality

So far we’ve talked about what kind of conferencing services to use, and which one to select as your default for internal and external meetings. But there’s more to getting a good quality call than picking a quality conferencing service.

For the best call quality, keep these additional tips in mind.

Wired beats wireless.

Wired internet connections generally have more consistent signal strength than a wireless internet connection. Wired telephones also have stronger, more reliable signals.

Similarly, wired headphones and a microphone sound better than wireless Bluetooth headphones.

Use a headset with a microphone.

This makes your voice clearer and eliminates a lot of the annoying echo you’ll otherwise hear. This applies when you’re talking through your computer and when you dial-in with a cell phone.

Know how to mute your call.

The more people on a call, the more likely you are to hear feedback, crackle, echo, and annoying background activity. Knowing how to mute your line when you’re not speaking can help clear up the call quality for everyone. The short pauses as people mute and unmute can make calls awkward, but “awkward” beats “impossible to hear or understand anyone because there’s so much noise” any day.

Be prepared to troubleshoot problems.

You are going to run into problems – not on every call, and maybe not on most calls, but it’s going to happen. We’ve outlined some of the most common issues you and the others on your call will encounter below, and ways to address them.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

Problems You Hear On Any Kind of Conference Call

Problem	Fixes
Hard to hear; People sound like they’re far away	Possible Cause The speaker is not using a headset and microphone. Instead, talking into a speaker phone or directly into their computer’s built in microphone. From a computer-audio perspective, this is like shouting to people outside from within a cave. Fixes to Try Ask the person to use a headset and microphone. If that’s not possible, ask them to get closer to the microphone and speak clearly.
Echo…echo, echo, echo	Possible Cause No headset: Audio is coming out someone’s speakers then picked up by their microphone and rebroadcast. Fixes to Try Mute the person causing the echo. If you’re not sure who this is, mute everyone except the person speaking. Make sure everyone on the call knows how to mute and unmute their own line, so they can speak up when they want to. Ask people to use a headset if possible.
No sound; you can’t hear anyone on the call	Possible Cause Volume or speaker settings Fixes to Try Most of these applications have a sound check feature that looks something like this. Make sure your speakers are set up correctly. If you are wearing a headset, make sure your system audio is configured to use them. Turn up the volume on your computer. Turn up the volume in the application (most have a volume slider). Try plugging your headset into a different USB port. You may need to reboot your computer to get it to recognize your headset speakers correctly.
You can hear others, but they can’t hear you	Possible Cause Microphone settings Fixes to Try Either your microphone isn’t turned on correctly, or the software can’t access it because something else on your computer is interfering. Check the sound settings (see above) to make sure the software is using your microphone. You may need to reboot your computer to get it to recognize your headset speakers correctly.
You sound choppy; you’re breaking up! We’re losing you!	Possible Cause Connection and bandwidth problems, tunnels Fixes to Try If you sound choppy to others, that’s usually a problem with your upstream internet bandwidth or cell phone signal. Computer audio, video and screen sharing need good upstream bandwidth (1Mb/s or more) to work well, which can vary wildly throughout the day on some networks. Stop any big uploads in progress. Switch to a telephone that doesn’t use the internet for dialing.
The screen freezing or lagging behind when others speak	Possible Cause Connection and bandwidth problems Fixes to Try This could be a downstream bandwidth problem. In that case, you can: Stop streaming videos, updating software, and anything else competing with your internet connection. Step away from the microwave (sadly, this helps with our WiFi). Get a wired connection if possible.

Additional Problems with Audio and Video Conferencing Software

Examples: Zoom.us, Cisco WebEx, GoTo Meeting, Fuze.com, and hundreds more

Additional Problems with Browser-Based Audio & Video (WebRTC)

Examples: appear.in, Google Hangouts, FireRTC, UberConference, Lucid Integrated audio

Problem	Fixes
You don’t see buttons to join the audio or video	Possible Cause Unsupported browser: Safari, Internet Explorer, others Fixes to Try Web audio and video only works reliably using Chrome or Firefox. Some services will attempt to substitute a Flash-based audio connection for Internet Explorer users and others who join using an unsupported browser. The quality of these alternatives is lower. Re-join the meeting using Google Chrome or Firefox
Your audio or video doesn’t start	Possible Cause Browser Permissions Fixes to Try The browser needs permission to use your microphone and camera, and you may have missed the pop-up. You’ll find these settings in the URL bar of your browser.
You click the button to join the call and nothing happens	Possible Cause Browser or Javascript Errors Fixes to Try The software didn’t load correctly or encountered an error. Hold down the shift key and refresh the page to reload the software from scratch. Try joining the meeting with a different browser.
Your call freezes or drops unexpectedly	Possible Cause Accidental page reload or internet connection problem Fixes to Try People will sometimes drop unexpectedly from a web audio call, or have their web video freeze, for two possible reasons. First, people forget that they’re using the browser for the call and will refresh or accidentally close that window, which severs the connection. Second, web audio and video is especially sensitive to bandwidth problems. Refresh the meeting page and rejoin the call. Switch to a phone and dial-in that won’t be impacted by internet bandwidth problems.

Additional Problems with SIP or VoIP Phones

Examples: PhonerLite, Blink, many corporate phone systems

Additional Problems with Dial-In Numbers

Examples: Toll, Toll-Free and International dial-in numbers