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I believe the biggest impact to rapport is poor audio, not video. Even dedicated conferencing rooms have poor quality mic setup (easy to fix) and acoustics (a
by zbuf 10y ago
I believe the biggest impact to rapport is poor audio, not video.
Even dedicated conferencing rooms have poor quality mic setup (easy to fix) and acoustics (a little harder)
It's testament to the ability of echo cancellation and associated algorithms that these systems are able to make anything work at all -- and in many ways this has masked the problem, preventing attention where it's needed.
I develop a 'conferencing' system for radio broadcasters called cleanfeed.net. It's amazingly basic compared to more general systems, (it basically doesn't do any changes to the audio) and yet the rapport is much greater, even with smart use of basic kit -- you can chat over the top of someone, interject and conversation 'flows'; no video needed.
Of course, this is very much a solution for a certain kind of "advanced" user, but I believe the solution is somewhere in the middle -- too much attention spent on video (not audio) and on software (rather than provisioning the right hardware)
- zamfi 10y agoYeah. I've attempted an experiment that disabled echo cancellation and required everyone to have a dedicated mic and headset. The difference is truly spectacular when people's voices don't cut out due to cancellation or suppression of the audio stream in the service of eliminating feedback. It's much more like you're in a room with folks. Unfortunately it's asking a lot of users of traditional video conferencing software that everyone have their own mic and headset -- but it really would be a much better experience.
- calchris42 10y agoAgreed that quality audio is key. But poor, stuttering video can really be distracting. In Locus we will typically just stop a video stream before allowing the stuttering experience.
- zbuf 10y agoI think we're probably agreeing here entirely; no video at all is better than bad video, which is a distraction. Our brains are familiar with a phone call; it's just not a problem in most cases. The remaining cases are probably more like meetings with unfamiliar people, or webcam sex chat.