The rapid technological developments since the outbreak of the pandemic have made online events and hybrid events with different participants and speakers from all over the world possible. You have probably heard of the term ‘zoom fatigue’ or experienced it yourself. Where does that come from? On the one hand, of course, via virtual image switching. This is more strenuous for the human brain than a face-to-face event. On the other hand, the often inadequate sound quality makes it difficult for participants to concentrate for any length of time. What can each participant do to improve the sound?

1. Quiet environment (close windows)

Background noise, e.g. When the canary beeps in the home office or the colleague at the desk opposite is typing long emails or making phone calls, this is disruptive for all participants, not just the interpreters.

2. LAN connection (WLAN signals can fluctuate – and with them the quality of the sound)

We’ve all heard phrases like ‘Your image is frozen’ or ‘I can only hear you in a very choppy way’. Can this be avoided? Yes! Firstly, it requires a LAN connection. It is faster and more reliable. If a WLAN is used by several users at the same time, a ‘traffic jam’ can quickly occur because too many data packets want to be transported at the same time. It is also advisable to test the connection speed before a video conference. This can be done within a few seconds via websites such as https://www.speedtest.net. At least 50 Mbit/s should be available for both uploads and downloads.

3. Use of a USB microphone (as a clip-on microphone or as a stand microphone)

Firstly, the use of microphones built into the computer or laptop is not suitable for professional contexts . Cell phone headphones with built-in microphones or Bluetooth headphones with built-in microphones are also not suitable. The reason is quite simple. The microphones are never where they belong, in front of the mouth. Microphones should always be wired. Why are USB microphones preferable to headsets? Headsets compress the audio frequencies. Important frequencies necessary for understanding speech are ‘cut out’. The effect is that you have to concentrate much more to follow an online event. USB microphones offer a remedy here. They are available either as clip-on microphones (image) or as stand microphones , which offer studio-quality sound as desktop or condenser microphones (image). The purchase is worthwhile because the sound becomes much more natural. The human ear has to concentrate much less.