These days, many of us have a home office out of choice or necessity. Maybe you’re a solopreneur who has dedicated a room in your home or apartment to building something great or your company has transitioned its workforce online due to the pandemic and you’ve been forced to convert the spare bedroom.
Whatever your situation, you need the right audio accessories to make your home office as efficient as possible. In this blog, the sound experts at All in Audio will share some tips for making your video and conference calls more effective and creating the perfect office ambience for maximum productivity.
Rocking your Zoom meetings
Zoom meetings are our new working reality. Although your home office may be just down the hall from your bedroom or living room, everything needs to look and sound like you’re in the boardroom. This means:
- Proper grooming and business attire. Some people are rocking the Zoom mullet, a pandemic fashion trend consisting of an office-appropriate shirt, jacket, or blouse on top and pajama pants or comfy sweats on the bottom. As long as you look good on camera, you’re all set!
- A professional-looking backdrop. Shelves loaded with industry-relevant books or a neutrally-coloured wall are both good choices. Unless you work in a creative industry, keep the funky wallpapers and avant-garde furniture out of camera range.
- Good lighting. The ideal lighting arrangement for a Zoom meeting is pointing the light source at your face. If it’s behind you, your features will be in shadow. If your office doesn’t have a window that lets the sunshine in, you can set up a ring light that clips onto your monitor or onto the tripod that holds your phone.
- A professional-quality microphone. While the built-in microphone on your laptop or smartphone is adequate for FaceTiming with friends, a meeting with the boss or clients calls for a superior audio experience. We recommend this professional condenser microphone, which plugs into any available USB port and has an omnidirectional pick-up pattern that results in clear, smooth and crisp sound without static.
Strike that perfect sound balance
When you work from home and you have a family or roommates, you’re going to be dealing with background noise. Guaranteed. Whether you’ve got a dog that barks at every passing vehicle, a toddler with an eight-octave range, or a laid-off roommate who is binge-watching Netflix on full blast, you need some way of tuning it out so that you can work.
We recommend these Caridite Bluetooth earphones. They’re lightweight earbuds, so you aren’t bothered by the pressure of a bulky headset and, being Bluetooth enabled, they pipe your favourite tunes or podcast gently into your ears as you move throughout the house. If you’d rather block out all noise entirely, these HiFi noise-cancelling headphones help you concentrate on your work while family life goes on outside the office door.
Play your office soundtrack
Think about the last time you were at the office. Was it completely silent? Likely not: the receptionist was answering and redirecting calls, customers or clients were arriving for meetings, and coworkers were coming and going. While some of us like a quiet setting, others need some background noise to break the stillness.
This computer sound bar lets you listen to music or a podcast while you work. It plugs into your system’s USB port and includes two 3W subwoofers that deliver clear sound with deep bass, so you can enjoy superior sound quality all day long.
What’s the bottom line?
Working from home is hardly a new trend but the coronavirus crisis has presently made it a requirement for workers in multiple industries. Even when the pandemic eventually passes, many companies may decide that they don’t need large, expensive office buildings to run successfully, and many employees will conclude that they don’t need to be in the office every day to be productive. The right audio setup will be a big part of making it happen.
At All in Audio, we have microphones, speakers, and other next-generation audio accessories that can keep you productive and the business profitable. Check out our online store, and if you have any questions on how to get the most out of our products, be sure to contact us.
