It’s often not possible to Zoom from a quiet place or on a flawless Internet connections. This article describes some measures you can take to improve your Zoom meeting experience.
Internet bandwidth and data limit issues
What individuals can do:
- If you are on a wifi connection, try moving closer to the wifi router. Plug directly into your router if possible.
- Turn off other applications and devices that are using your Internet connection.
- If you share an Internet connection with others or have better bandwidth at certain times a day try to schedule video-intensive calls so to maximize bandwidth.
- Turn off your video.
- Make sure HD video is disabled. In the desktop client go to Settings > Video and make sure Enable HD video is unchecked.
- Mute your audio when you’re not talking.
What hosts and participants can do collectively:
- Ask everyone (or even all non-speakers) to turn off video. Reducing video usage is the easiest way to reduce the amount of data transmitted to participants computers.
- Keep screen sharing to a minimum and ask others not to share their screens. For a lower-bandwidth alternatives:
- Send participants the PowerPoints or documents so they can open and view them on their own computers while listening.
- Use collaborative document-editing tools like Word Online or Google Docs. These use less bandwidth.
- Record meetings and share in a way that participants can download to watch without streaming.
Background noise
- Use headphones so you can hear better.
- Use a headset with a noise-canceling microphone or a smartphone (which tends to have a noise-canceling microphone).
- Go to Audio Settings > Advanced and try turning on Suppress Persistent Background Noise and/or Suppress Intermittent Audio Noise.
- Mute your audio when you aren’t talking.
Video issues
- To improve how your video feed looks, sit so that light is coming from in front of you rather than behind you.
- Be mindful of what is happening behind you. If your space is cluttered or you want additional privacy
- Set a virtual background. You can upload your own images for a personal touch (Unsplash has free ones).
- Turn off your video. Virtual backgrounds are hardware-intensive. and video requires robust Internet bandwidth!
Questions?
If you have any additional questions or problems, don't hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk!
Phone: 610-526-7440 | Library and Help Desk hours
Email: help@brynmawr.edu | Service catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor
