Ways to Reduce Background Noise and Distractions

• 00:04 So what do you do if you have a mid sized group or a large group, all online for
• 00:08 the teleconference and you hear noise background sounds, talking, whispering,
• 00:13 murmuring?
• 00:14 Well, let's back up.
• 00:15 If you're talking to more than one person at a teleconference,
• 00:20 you need to say right at the outset please mute your microphones.
• 00:25 You don't want to hear anyone elses noise.
• 00:28 They should unmute it only when they are speaking.
• 00:31 This applies to you too.
• 00:32 If you are speaking, you're finished and someone else is speaking,
• 00:36 then mute your button.
• 00:38 Ideally, there's only one live microphone at any one point in a teleconference.
• 00:45 If there's just two of you, yeah, that's a little different and
• 00:47 you can both have your mics on.
• 00:49 But otherwise once the group gets larger,
• 00:53 have the default be that everyone's microphone is muted.
• 00:58 It'll be so much easier for people to hear, listen to you and others and
• 01:02 concentrate.
• 01:03 What else can you do to minimize distractions during your video conference?
• 01:08 Turn your phone off.
• 01:09 I don't mean just the sound I mean literally turn the phone off.
• 01:12 That way you're much less likely to get notifications
• 01:17 text messages if you have iPads around, turn those off.
• 01:23 If you use an iWatch, you can put the settings on the theater and
• 01:27 the Do Not Disturb mode.
• 01:29 That way you don't get notifications coming.
• 01:34 You don't even see the light come up when you're doing this because it's
• 01:37 on the theater mode.
• 01:39 Try to get other phones in your house, out of your office or away from your shot.
• 01:44 Of course put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door if you do have a separate room,
• 01:50 lock the door.
• 01:52 You don't want to be like the guy on the BBC a few years ago whose kids
• 01:56 came coming in he's doing in middle of a BBC interview.
• 02:01 You want as much privacy quiet as possible.
• 02:05 Get rid of the rings, the buzzers, the beings if you can stop any
• 02:10 other alarms do so you want to be able to focus on one thing at a time.
• 02:15 The people you're meeting with virtually

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