How To Improve Online Meetings With Better Audio

The entire world has turned to online living, and the grand majority people are now using some type of video conference software that works remarkably well.

One issue that everyone has regardless if you are a professional or not, is sound, your audio, everyone has very poor sound quality (unless they are using their headphones with built in microphone).

The main reason is that your device software is trying to "fight" between the voices in the room that you are in and your voice, trying to distinguish which is which in order to "cancel the noise" and the farther you are from your device the harder the device has to work.

For most, their first option to try and fix the issue is to use the headset that came with their phone that has a built in microphone, but even that leads to another set of problems.

In a previous post, I wrote how to improve your meetings on Zoom, and the solution referenced in that article also applies to any video conference software.

On this post though, we are going to just focus on dealing with microphone setup when you want to share audio with more people in the same room that you are physically in.

So here is the problem-your in a meeting and someone wants to hear audio. You could share a side of your headset.....but that's not a long term solution, and for social distancing-not a great option.
What can you do?

Here I will show you how to plug in the microphone on your device so IT WORKS!

Maybe you already have a separate mic and a separate speaker. Make sure your speaker has an AUX input to be able to receive the audio signal from your device.

First determine what type of plug the device you are using the video conferencing for has, and also what plug your microphone has.

STEP 1 - What type of input/output does your device have?

To determine your device connection type is simple, does it have 1 plug for both a headphone and a microphone? Or 2 plugs, one for headphones and one for a microphone?

Option 1 - Single Jack Port

Most likely phones, iPads and new laptops have 1 single plug for both. In this case your device accepts a TRRS plug. For these types of connections you will need the splitter shown below as (1.A)

Option 2 - 2 jack ports, 1 Headphones 1 Microphone

And older computers and laptops will have 2 separate plugs, one for headphones and one for microphones

STEP 2 - Now what type of microphone plug do you have

With TRS Microphone

The first possibility is that your microphone has 3 connectors, TRS.

In this case, the microphone line is stereo and is the TIP and RING right and left microphone signals

With TRRS Microphone

Headset jack with a TRRS plug and Mic line

The second possibility is that your microphone has 4 connectors, TRRS, like a headset.

In this case, the microphone line is mono and is the SLEEVE.

Option 1.1 - Single port and TRS Microphone plug

For Option 1 devices with a single port you will need an audio/mic splitter(1.A) that splitter will separate the speaker signal and the microphone signal.

All product links are at the end