Echo in hybrid meetings: how to stop audio feedback on Zoom

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[@melodymckayburton2206]

Thank you so much for your useful videos. I am in the early stages of helping to organise a hybrid event for a non-profit organisation and have been appointed technical lead - purely because I worked in IT :) I know very little about AV equipment, so your information is wonderful. I've subscribed, downloaded your list, and will work my way through everything.

Thanks for watching, and welcome aboard!

[@singwisevocals]

I don't know if I missed it, but what about if we want video/screen sharing on the laptop and sound/microphone on the (Android) phone?

Disconnect the audio on the laptop (on PC, click "Leave computer audio), and run all audio through the pone. It'll work nicely.

[@tammyhoward2811]

I've being hammered over this subject when I tie into a zoom meeting. I have a Android by Samsung. Your explanation made the most sense. Thanks 😉

Excellent!

[@OriolandCookies]

Thanks so much for the tips! Definitely worked and helped me figure out how to share screens from my phone via zoom while being present from my laptop : )

That's a great application!

[@regioncelestial]

How valuable this information is for me, specially for the parte of disconnecting, I have tried the other methods of volume down or muted mic. I will try that today. Great content Markus. You have gained a new subscriber

Thanks for watching, Gabriel, and welcome aboard!

[@josedrive]

Thanks! I already a good system of sound into the room to receive the calling zoom. Could I mute the speaker in Calisto 7200 and use this device just as a mic? Thanks

You can just select a different speaker in your video conferencing software.

[@mabel6046]

Thank you so much for the video and tips!!

Thanks for watching!

[@martidav1]

Great suggestions! What camera are you using to record this video?

Thank you! I'm using the Canon M50. All of the gear I use is actually listed at kit.co/markuspresents.

[@warner5600]

While its true that the specific boundary mic in this video rejects sound from the back, that is not really the main distinction of that design, and there are boundary microphones out there that have omni-directional pickup pattern, such as Shure MX 393. But that Poly solution sounded pretty good.

Thanks for that addition! You are right, of course.

[@mdilag]

Hey Markus, thanks for the vid I think I have a better understanding now but just wanted show my setup that had issues I tried a hybrid meeting, where we have a presenter zoom in and a group of us in a large room. I had my laptop wirelessly casting to a tv, so there is a 1-2 sec delay usb connected speakerphone but wanted to use the tv for the output because the speakerphone is better suited for smaller rooms but it caused the echo so I had to use the speakerphone speaker for the output Is there a better setup that can use the TV audio?

If you have both the speakerphone and the TV connected to the same laptop, you'll probably not get any feedback. Just turn on echo cancellation in Zoom. But I'm not sure, they delay may be a problem.

[@dazzarg5]

Thank you. What if you are using a mixing desk? I'm operating a hybrid church but I cannot get the people at church to have a conversation with the people at home. Getting obvious feedback

Have you connected the mixing desk to your laptop with USB?

[@evamei2863]

Thank you for explaining and this is extremely helpful!

Thanks for watching!

[@Trailhound1]

Marcus, We are attempting hybrid meetings conducted out side and at night. Challenging to say the least. We have tried a Meeting Owl Pro and next week will try an ATEM Mini (see You Tube, ATEM content). We are watching your most helpful channel and thank you for informative content. Jack Frick, Austin, TX.

I hope it goes really well!

[@srbh41413]

How was your experience with the Owl?

[@maribellabarda752]

This is a big help! Thank you so much!

Thanks for watching!

[@neub4321]

Very helpful. I saved a link to this video. Without getting into specific technology or specific procedures, can unmuted PCs where all the participants are remote cause feedback? Is that one of the reasons Zoom web conferences automatically mute the participants?

Perhaps they can cause feedback, if they use speakers and don't have echo cancellation enabled in Zoom.

[@jorgealexandremoreira1792]

Thanks for sharing! Very useful

Glad it was helpful!

[@robbiewolfson3160]

A great presentation. Thank you. I hope that I am not asking something that you have explained already but my setup will be in a meeting room with an audience. There will be my iphone camera on this audience. A centralised mic will pick up the audience. The laptop will be connected to a large TV screen which will show the full Zoom screen of the meeting and the zoom participants. How do I prevent the sound from the TV being picked up by the room mic? (The laptop mic will be off).

If the mic and the TV are both connected to the laptop, then Zoom's built-in echo cancellation will take care of that. In the same way that Zoom doesn't play back your own audio to yourself.

[@robbiewolfson3160]

@ Brilliant. Thanks.

[@samantachambers3097]

Thank so much for this, I appreciate it.

Thanks for watching!

[@scepticrat]

Thank you so much!! It was driving me nuts that I could not fully silence the Zoom audio output from my phone using the phone's speaker volume buttons. Problem solved!

I'm glad it helped!

[@andreacraytonmin]

Thank you so much. Great video that answered my question thoroughly 🙏🏽

Glad it was helpful!

[@muratbatmaz]

Hi Markus! If I join Zoom both with my Mac and iPad and screen share on my iPad, is it possible to see the participants on my screen instead of my shared screen? I'm a lecturer and I'd like to see what the students are doing when I screen share on a second device.

You can make it work. Typically Zoom forces screen shares on all participants, but you can play around with the view settings on your laptop and see if one of the other settings looks decenter. You can at least see a few of the other participants in a faux gallery view. If you move away from Zoom's built-in screen sharing and use something like OBS (like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZ69dqeXndOXZtU), you have a lot more flexibility. For example, you can go Spotlight the OBS output, but then cancel it on the other device. This would require that you run the slides on the laptop though (to run OBS). But I'm not sure how much you can adjust the view on an iPad. Worth testing!

[@nogardllub]

Great video. We have a situation that causes a quickly damped out echo, but annoying nonetheless. We have a stage and audience. microphones on the stage go through a sound system amplifier to speakers in the auditorium. We also output the sound system audio to the zoom audience through a zoom co-host computer in another room. There are no unmuted mics in this room. Another computer in this room, connected as a participant (not a co-host), provides zoom audio to the sound system to auditorium people can hear a zoom participant (that audio path is muted by the sound system from its output to the cohost). A backstage operator unmutes the participant computer system speaker when a participant needs to speak and be heard in the auditorium. if someone on the stage speaks when the participant computer is unmuted we get the quickly damped echo. The feedback path is sound system > co-host computer > zoom > participant computer > sound system. If zoom allowed a participant to mute another participant but only for their computer, this would fix the problem (by breaking the third ">" in the chain). Of course, we can ask that no one on the stage speaks when a zoom participant is speaking, or just mute the co-host zoom mic, but this is extra work for the backstage operator and is subject to human error. Anything you can think of to allow stage audio and zoom participant audio to be heard at the same time?

Could you have just one computer connected to the sound system with a USB cable? I never get feedback when I connect my mixing desk like that.

[@reyesmontemayor6998]

I have an awards banquet coming up and the client is asking if I can get a remote guest through zoom onto the big screen and audio to the guests as they chat. I see feedback from the venue speakers my biggest hurdle. Any advice?

If you can connect to the venue's speaker system/mixer via USB, you should not have too many problems. So long as the audio in and out are running through that mixer.

[@srbh41413]

Markus, thank you for patiently trying to explain a tricky situation clearly. On the subject of multiple devices, it might be good to mention that this capability and associated behavior varies some by platform. Today, I cleared up for myself that Zoom allows one to connect only one of each type of device (computer/tablet/phone). If you connect a second one of those, it will sign off the first one. I worked around this by creating additional Zoom accounts for multiple PCs. Which get tricky to keep track of. I believe this would vary on other platforms.

Yes Zoom will sign off the other devices, but that means nothing in practice. Those other devices still continue to participate in the meeting as before. I usually log in with three devices, with one account.

[@srbh41413]

@ Good Point! Would it be splitting hairs to say that still care must be still taken if one expects to use any authority based on the account, such as host controls, etc.? Hope to see you expand on this topic to larger rooms with PA systems. With groups who need amplification to hear among those physically present. I find it a challenge to keep that amplified voice out of the VC mics. Another YT shows using a mixer with 2 output busses (or aux out) and controlling the balance of PA / VC input manually. I’m looking to try that soon.

@@srbh41413 No the host will still be the host. When I'm logged in multiple times from the same account, they're all host or co-host.

[@ximonali]

Hi Markus, Nice video! thanks for sharing. I would love to know (if possible or if you have tried) how to handle in a single room with multiple people (each one with their own device) the "Zoom focus" on-screen (colored rectangle highlighting the person speaking). If only 1 mic "Polycom" is ON in the room, all the rest disconnected/muted and 2 or more people want to get that focus when talking?. Not sure if there is any trick for that one.

I think that's not possible. Zoom uses the source of the audio to determine who's speaking. And in this setup only one device is connected to audio.

[@peterdepippo8281]

Hi Markus. Logging the phone into the same account and joining the same meeting I understand. How are you sharing the both cameras at the same time? How are they displayed on the laptop? What are the attendees seeing. Does gallery view come into play? Thank you.

Yes I usually have the in-room laptop on gallery view, so they see all the cameras and participants. But often I switch to speaker view when an online participant is presenting.

[@billeubanks387]

Well done Markus!

Thanks for watching!

[@nlgbbbblth]

Hi Markus, great video. Just have a query. I work all day on a laptop which has its speaker muted. When attending Zoom meetings, I prefer to dial in via the Zoom app on my Samsung phone as I sometimes need to refer to or view documents saved on laptop. I prop the phone up against the laptop screen but when I talk, people complain that they hear an echo or feedback. Is this because the phone is too close to laptop? Or should I just dial into the meeting via the Zoom app on the laptop instead and forget about using my phone?

If you completely disconnect the audio on your laptop, it should work: Click the arrow next to the microphone, and then "Leave computer audio". That should get rid of that feedback.

[@nlgbbbblth]

@ Thanks Markus. In such situations, I haven't logged into Zoom on my laptop so I don't have a "leave computer audio" option. My laptop is just on with normal work applications running. Or do I need to disconnect the audio via the laptop's own audio settings? I presume wearing headphones plugged into my phone would help also.

Ah I see! Never had that particular problem before. But trying to move the phone further away is one thing I would try.

[@lingarajswain5591]

Thank you

Thanks for watching!

[@TracySetters-o2x]

Hi Markus, can I just clarify what you classify as an 'active' microphone? we have a new echo issue that only occurs when we have several people in the room. We use an array microphone set up (connected on one loop to one laptop via a USB dac). That one laptop is used to log into Zoom. The camera is a webcam that sits on a wall mounted TV which is used as the speaker (also linked to the laptop). None of the other participants are logged into Zoom. When others are in the room, their devices (laptops/phones) have microphones but are they considered active? Would a single Bluetooth speaker phone (both mic and speaker) be a better option that the TV for speaker and a microphone array set up (all connected to one laptop).

So the mic and the TV/speaker are connected to the same laptop? Then Zoom's echo cancellation should be able to handle it. It's hard to diagnose with limited info, of course. But in general one speakerphone has worked well for me.

[@geevers8084]

We are doing hybrid Zoom meetings in a church-synagogue setup, where people participate both live in the sanctuary and on Zoom. So, we need one or more microphones in the sanctuary to pick up the voices of people there, and at least one speaker to play the Zoom audio in the sanctuary. As the back-and-forth between live and Zoom participants can be rapid, it would be difficult to switch the Zoom audio on and off in the sanctuary depending on who is speaking at that point. I watched your presentation, but if you covered this, I missed it. My guess is that the Calisto 7200 provides the needed technology in your setup, as it won't feed back the sound from its speaker to its microphone. But we can't use a conference call device in our church-synagogue. Any advice?

I think your setup needs a mixing desk that you can connect via USB to the device running Zoom. Then connect all your audio to the mixing desk.

[@sargunkaurr]

Thanku thanku thanku so much....

Thanks for watching!

[@nicolebrock322]

We're exploring how to offer a hybrid option for a larger conference that used to have 75-100 people in a rather large room. We're concerned that using the room's speaker system to help in-person attendees hear the presenter will interfere with the mic needed to transmit the audio to virtual attendees. Do you have any tips for making this type of setup work?

If you connect the mixing desk to the computer running Zoom, there should be no issue. I share more details here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHKuk6ytq9iXbas

[@ryanfamisaran9464]

What will happen if you connect the lavalier microphone, if you have two devices and the other device will serves as the speaker, Does the audio will have an echo or feedback, if connected to a lavalier?

If the lav mic and the speaker are both connected to the same computer or phone, this will probably work. If they're connected to two different devices, Zoom won't know how to handle the echo cancellation.

[@nelidagarcia7412]

How can I have participants in the hybrid meeting particpiate if they have to Disconnect Audio in order not to get feed back?

Use a device that can pick up the voices of everyone. Like a conference speakerphone or video bar. Like this one: Beyerdynamic Space: amzn.to/3twbkYm

[@breathe_grace_]

thank you for the video but in my non tech brain i am still getting feedback when i go live from zoom to fb do i need to use other software to cut out the backfeed? i can't seem to get it to quit or is it just not possible to share zoomt to facebook live on a laptop without feedback the only way to not get feedback is to close the fb screen is that what i should do and open it on my phone?sorry for my brain this is so confusing to me.... thank you

Are you trying to live stream a hybrid Zoom meeting to Facebook? To avoid feedback the key is to have only one source of audio in and out.

[@ericcervantes7376]

I run a virtual deposition company which uses AI to produce speech to text captions that is integrated with Zoom. We sometime have a few people that are in the room together along with those appearing via zoom. The problem is that we need each person with their own device so that zoom can attach the speaker tags which the AI uses to create the transcript. So I am trying to find a way to run a hybrid zoom meeting with two or three participants in the same room. Each one needs their own mic because I need the audio separated. This would all be solved if zoom simply had a local mute function like discord , teamspeak and ventrillo have had for years. I have tried conference phones which clears up the feedback but then everyone’s audio that is in the same room is under one speaker tag which makes it so the AI can not separate them on the transcript.

You might need extremely directional mics, which will only pick up the voices directly in front of them, and reject anything from the side. But then everyone needs to be connected with their own device. I think it will be hard.

[@palvd]

Does it interfere if there are 2 zoom meetings in 2 different rooms in the same house?

That shouldn't be a problem from a feedback point of view. So long as one meeting does not disturb the other.

[@edisonlau2672]

Thank you Life Saver

Happy to help!

[@neilg40]

Markus, is it possible to run a small meeting on Zoom, with 2 devices - laptop and phone, both logged into the same account, just to record a meeting? Ideally, I want to record a meeting, using the phone audio in a room, to be able send to others later. I tried to mute the laptop and use the phone as the recording device, but get no sound in the video afterwards. I have successfully recorded larger zoom meetings (not in the hall) where I am the host and only connected once, and get sound from both myself and participants. Ideally, I don't want to use the phone as the host as it will only record to the cloud, and the whole purpose of this is we are trying to give our club a hybrid solution, but have been unable to test if the halls broadband is up to holding a zoom meeting. Time is short and don't want to spend on other equipment if the connection isn't good enough

Are you saying the meeting participants hear the audio from the phone, but there's no audio on the recording?

[@addphotographicsociety7112]

@ I haven't attempted it with a proper zoom audience yet. My attempts to get this to work consist of my laptop as host, with my phone as a participant, hoping for it to be able to 'see' the presenter and record the sound, with the laptop sound on mute. However, when I playback the recording there is no sound at all.

@@addphotographicsociety7112 That's a problem I have not encountered. But Zoom's recording is pretty unreliable.

[@Antonio-gg5xw]

Can you get the echo effect on the "Poly Calisto" even after having disabled the audio on the phone ? It seems that in my case something like this is happening and I can not really understand why.

When you say disable, do you mean you disconnected it like in the video, or you muted the microphone? If you already disconnected it, check that echo cancellation ion Zoom is enabled.

[@Antonio-gg5xw]

@ Thank your for the quick response ! I mean, that I disconnected it like in the video. I will then make sure to also check the Zoom echo cancellation feature.

[@tomgardner2547]

If all the audio goes thru Zoom isn't there a lag between a live speaker's actual speech and when it plays back thru Zoom? If so, is there a solution other than getting use to the delay?

If you mean that the audio would play back from the room into the room with a delay, this should not be the case. There should not be any playback into the room if you set it up correctly.

[@Pokechill547]

What if im trying to livestream and its just my android phone and im getting feedback ? I cant turn my mic down or anything like that ? Plz help ! Thank you

Without any details about your setup, I can't help.

[@aimevents15]

echo is coming more when i attach external camera and sound to laptop? what is solution

I'm not sure what you're asking here.

[@yogagurukm9877]

How to listen audio during hybrid meetings without putting headset?

Here's my latest video about audio in hybrid meetings: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bX6vg4aho9ugipY

[@glurgen]

I'm having the echo feedback problem but I'm only using a Mac laptop (I have an iPhone but it's not using Zoom during the meetings). This is an intermittent problem - some meetings are fine but others are really hard to run because of the feedback. Any ideas?

Have you activated Zoom's echo cancellation? What other devices are in the room, and is there any chance of them has a speaker or mic?

[@glurgen]

@ Thanks for your reply. I think Echo cancellation was on by default. I just have my iPhone in the room; the other attendees (I teach guitar so just one student plus a parent at a time) may have iPads or phones but I only started to have this problem with one person last week. Then this week 3 out of 4 people had the same problem.

@@glurgen Hard to say. But play around with the audio options, including the Original Sound setting and the noise suppression. That's where I would start.

[@glurgen]

@ Cheers - just done a Zoom with me using headphones which has solved the problem...it would be good to know if there's a specific setting that would create the same effect.

[@eunicedith]

When I share my screen on zoom, my students hear an echo of themselves. I have a mic connected to my laptop and use my laptop camera. I don't know how to fix it. Please help! 🙏

If this only happens when you screen share, perhaps you have ticked the box that says to also share audio.

[@eunicedith]

@ yes, it only happens when I share my screen, and yes I share the audio, but I need to do it cause I show them videos or audio resources. They start hearing an echo of themselves. I never hear the echo though.

[@sumelle2]

I have done all of this and there is still awful echo and feed back.

Thanks for watching anyway!

[@knowlavonne]

cant hear myself now

In a hybrid meeting, that's a good thing!

[@mdahmed9768]

You failed to deliver the solution.

What do you think is the best solution?

[@mdahmed9768]

@ stop aggressive echo in the advance settings of audio.

@@mdahmed9768 Yes that will work if you only use one device. But with multiple devices in a hybrid meeting, I believe it's more difficult.

[@mdahmed9768]

@ Then?. I already tried for two devices. Worked fine

[@ut561]

thumbs down only because 1/3 of the video is showing us examples of the problem. we already know the problem, that's why we're here. never watched the rest.

The chapter markings on the timeline are there to help you navigate to the part that's most helpful to you.