Zoom is quite happy to use different devices for audio input and output
- say taking mic from a USB connected headset, but sending sound to the normal speakers via the internal sound card.
More recent bluetooth stacks that implement later standards of the protocol seem to have reduced latency quite dramatically.
I plug my laptop into the TV via HDMI, and use the sound system the TV feeds. Zoom allows you to select any camera, mic, or sound output. If the PC hasn't selected the correct one.
On the laptop, to frame the camera picture reasonably well, the screen is at the wrong angle for a decent picture. You'd have thought they'd think of this, and make the camera adjustable.
Indeed - and I've often made use of that.
But Zoom does seem to have some anomalies with its sound. My choir is having weekly rehearsals via Zoom, and our musical director sometimes shares his computer audio (usually an .MP3 recording for us to sing along to). Recently some participants have been unable to hear this shared audio, while others - myself included - can hear it. But when the MD speaks into his microphone, everyone can hear him ok. Also, we have an interval in the middle of each rehearsal, where we are divided into "breakout rooms" in order to have a chat with a subset of the members. Last night, one or two members lost their sound while in a breakout room, but it was ok when they were in the main "room".
I've looked on the Zoom site for clues, but haven't found any. It's got all the motherhood stuff about checking what devices are enabled and selected, etc. but nothing relevant to the problems described above.
Anyone got any ideas?
I avoid USB where possible because being a serial link, sometimes it freezes and needs restarting by unplugging and replugging.
I had suspected trouble with ducking on Zoom. First I had to find out what it means. I thought either the speakers quieten the mic or the mic quietens the speakers. It turns out it's more complicated with Microsoft saying it takes 1 second to raise or lower the volume if an overload is received.
Zoom doesn't give many options, but Windows has several things that can be tweaked if you know where to look.
Right-click the speaker icon on the toolbar and select 'Playback'. Options appear: Playback, Recording, Sounds. All these bring up the same dialogue as 'Sounds' on Control Panel, but with the corresponding tab selected. There is also a tab called Communications which gives options about reducing volume on calls.
On Playback, right-click the Speakers (or whatever you're using) to see more options. Select Properties to bring up a dialogue with 4 tabs. On Enhancements I found that checking 'Loudness Equalisation' made my speakers less faint. I think this controls ducking.
I'm sure I saw a checkbox in Zoom saying "disable Windows auto ducking" but I can't find it now.
No children yet jim..?
Not really sure what you mean. Zoom removes the output of your mic from the feed to your speakers. It has to. So everyone in theory get a 'clean feed' (mixed minus)
And assuming your speakers ain't at a silly level seems to stop them being picked up by your mic and sent to everyone - unlike general background noise, like say music in the room. Must use some pretty clever software.
You know someone's sound it likely to be in trouble when their video looks like it was painted by Picasso when blind drunk and their voice breaks up as well. They are best off disabling video at that point.
I see "low bandwidth warning" on such afflicted individuals. Yesterday due to the wet I was struggling a bit myself but others were worse. Wet string rural internet is barely able to cope with Zoom sessions.
Disconnect and reconnect seems to get them going again for a while.
Zoom audio bandwidth after compression is quite modest, better than POTS phone but not by a great deal. When it goes haywire all bets are off. Even on a good day I get about 10 hard error seconds an hour where the feed is completely broken.
I do quite a few Zoom meeting regularly. On one I can see the person is using the same headset each time - yet the audio quality still varies. Quite often with no obvious picture problems.
I've seen that here. With a connection when tested at 80mbps or so. Although Wi-Fi more like 20.
Yes your mic doesn't go to the speakers, but incoming sound from the speakers can get picked up in the mic. One group I use suffers from one participant who is inclined not to use a close mic or earphones, which makes everybody else's speech get delayed echo.
Maybe his speakers are not at a silly level, but they are too near his mic, and his device does not automatically deaden his mic on incoming speech?
I don't think conferencing does that (local squelch).
However, the person running a conference, has the ability to mute individuals who have misconfigured their setups.
In Windows, there's a "Listen" tick box you can untick. That may help a bit.
I wear headphones in video conference, just as a means to have one fewer variable in the hardware setup.
Paul
I have my laptop plugged in to the TV via HDMI, and the TV feeds an external sound system. Can have that at a comfortable level while using the built in mic on the laptop. The sound from those speakers does not get sent to everyone else. (I've recorded meetings and checked) I have occasionally heard an echo where something like this is happening, but a fault. However it is good practice to mute your mic when not actually talking. I well remember one meeting where a phone was being used outdoors, and the wind noise near drowned out everything.
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