Up until this point we covered all the ways to look professional on a video conference call, but we haven’t discussed the most important aspect: having great audio. Even if you followed all the other steps, you’ll lose an audience quickly if they can’t hear you.

Microphones come in all shapes and sizes, design to pick up specific patterns and frequencies. On your computer, tablet or phone, they are mostly geared towards capturing all the noise around you. So while they do work, they tend to cause distortion and digital artifacting when video conferencing.

Your best option is to use a headset. Headsets tend to cancel out most of the background noise and get a nice clean recording of your voice. They also double as headphones, which means you’ll hear everyone better, and won’t feel like you need to be heard as much as you would without it. We’d recommend headsets that plug into your computer vs using Bluetooth, as Bluetooth can cause some issues such as a delay in sending and receiving, though admittedly rare.

Another option is to pick up a condenser microphone that can plug into your computer via USB. This will provide the cleanest sound for audio, and can also be used for other content such as podcasting. However, these tend to be a bit more expensive, and take up valuable desktop space.

For more tips and tricks for video conferencing, check out our video!