Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Conference Call Problems

Businesses use conference calls to reach many people at once.


A conference call allows a party of people access to the same phone call. Businesses often use conference calls in order to reach many people, possibly around the world, at once. Like any technology, conference calls are not immune to problems, which include voice echo, volume issues, and background noise.


Voice Echo








Voice echo occurs when a person's voice repeats after she speaks. The speaker may or may not hear the echo, but every listener will hear the echo. The problem occurs for many reasons, including telephone carrier issues or when a participant has multiple connections to the same conference call open. For example, a participant using a speaker phone and handheld phone for the same call creates an echo. Mute the echoing caller to fix the problem.


Volume Issues


Conference call software attempts to level out all the participants' phone volume so no one is louder or quieter than another. Volume levels sometimes skew from technical issues or because a caller is speaking too loudly or quietly.








Background Noise


If a conference call participant is in the car, on a busy street, or around a noisy environment, the background noise will be heard by all. If the person can't help his environment, the conference call controller may mute the culprit's phone until he needs to speak.

Tags: conference calls, background noise, conference call, hear echo, many people, reach many, reach many people