Why is there echo in my Live interview?

Echo happens when sound from your speakers enters your microphone.

You might not hear it but other participants might be bothered by it. 

What's echo distortion or audio feedback?

Echo distortion occurs if input and output audio devices are placed close together, in other words, when the sound from the speakers enters to your microphone. Modern sound equipment employs different hardware and software techniques to try to reduce noise and cancel echo. Although these techniques can improve audio conference quality in many cases, they cannot remove the noise or cancel the echo entirely. There are also many scenarios in which these techniques do not work at all (or have a minimum impact). 

Why do I hear audio feedback?

When one or more participants in the call are not using headphones,  an echo distortion of voice may be experienced. If you hear an echo while having your Live interview, the problem is likely to be on your contact's end. If your contact mentions that he/she can hear themselves, then the issue is on your end. This is because one of the participant’s inputs (microphone) can perceive the output (speakers) and the chances are that either party will get audio feedback. Different circumstances determine whether a conference is going to experience audio feedback or echo distortion. Here are some examples: 

• Hardware's echo cancellation and noise reduction feature/quality.
• Driver and OS's echo cancellation and noise reduction feature/quality.
• Audio encoding and communication protocols' noise reduction feature/quality.
• Mic and speakers physical proximity.
• Mic and speakers volume.

Unfortunately, at Wepow we have little control over most of these aspects as they relate to specific hardware and software configurations of the users.

How do I fix audio feedback or echo distortion?

If there is echo or audio feedback during your Live interview, there are some other issues that could be causing it. The predominance of audio feedback is due by an improper placement of hardware or a misconfiguration of software settings.

The only solution that is 99% efficient is to ensure the use of headphones^[1] on both ends(1% accounting for defective headphones). This solution does not depend on echo cancellation algorithms to work and thus removes a lot of the variables. Always prefer headphones over built-in speakers.

The remainder of the proposals we can bring forth will have different results depending on the distinct hardware and software configuration, and we cannot guarantee will work most of the times. Here are some examples of our recommendations:

• If you are using external speakers, increase the distance between the speakers from the laptop’s mic.
• Reduce the microphone and the speaker volume to a comfortable level.
• If you have an external microphone, move it approximately a foot away from the speakers.
• Either participant on the call can mute by clicking the microphone icon in the room.
• If you are using a Mac enable Use ambient noise reduction, to do it go to System Preferences > Sound > Input.

^[1] Make sure to use headphones build with a microphone