5 Ways to Improve Sluggish or Erratic Video Conferencing
Are you tired of dealing with awkward video conferencing? One of the reasons that video conferencing feels so strange is because of the delays and sluggish video feed. But those delays aren't inherent to video conferencing; they occur when you have technical issues. And most of these technical issues can be avoided with some work.
1. Use Your Office Phone System
When you're on a video conference, you need to transmit both your video and your sound through your computers. If you're using high quality video and audio, you could run into problems. If the video is choppy and slow, mute the video conferencing on the computer and call them instead. You can then speak through your phone systems while you watch the screen and it should be about the same experience.
2. Get Your ISP to Give You a Speed Boost
Video conferencing takes a lot of bandwidth and speed. It could be that your ISP simply isn't providing enough to you. Ask your Internet service provider to check to make sure that you aren't consuming all your resources already. If you have a VoIP phone system (voice-over-IP), your phone system may be slowing down your Internet connection and you may need to run two separate lines instead. Additionally, if you're downloading any files or operating as a file server, these connections could be using up additional bandwidth.
3. Turn Off All Other Programs
Sometimes it isn't bandwidth. If your ISP says it isn't a speed or bandwidth issue, you might actually have a processing problem. Restart the computer that you're using and turn off all the programs other than the video conferencing programs. If you share Internet throughout an office, you should also make sure that others aren't tying up any of your system resources and potentially slowing down your connection.
4. Check the Other Side
Occasionally, the most obvious solution could be overlooked. If you've tested everything on your side and you're still having issues, it could be that the person you're conferencing with is having bandwidth or processing problems. Have them run through the same troubleshooting process that you ran through to make sure that this isn't the problem.
5. Lower the Quality
It can be easier to deal with a real-time low quality feed than a slow high quality feed. You can usually lower the quality of your video settings in the video conferencing solution itself. Try to play with these settings to find something with the right blend of speed and quality.
Your Internet service provider can often help you troubleshoot issues like this; otherwise you may want to contact your video conferencing solution. When used appropriately, video conferencing should be an easy and convenient way to communicate. For other options, talk to a phone system professional like Communications Plus.
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