What podcasting taught us about being heard
When we launched the SWISSUES PodCast, we were not shocked to find that audio-quality dominates everything. Content, intelligence, preparation, even charisma are all filtered through the microphone. A good voice recorded badly sounds unprofessional; an average voice recorded well sounds credible.
What did shock us was how little attention people pay to this in everyday professional communication, particularly in video calls.
Podcasting teaches one lesson very fast: distance is the enemy. The single most important factor in speech quality is how close the microphone is to the speaker’s mouth. A microphone a few centimetres away captures mostly voice. A microphone half a metre away captures the room, reflections, keyboards, fans, traffic, and every algorithmic attempt to “fix” those problems after the fact.
This is why laptop microphones are usually a poor choice. Their inherent quality may be acceptable, but their position is fundamentally wrong. They sit far from the mouth, increasing room resonance and reducing clarity before any software processing begins. To compensate, laptops apply aggressive noise suppression and echo cancellation, which often introduces flutter, pumping, and distortion.
In podcasting, no one would dream of recording a conversation with a laptop mic. Yet this happens in professional video calls every day. Like to hear the difference between a properly positioned microphone and one built into a laptop?
The same lesson applies to most in-ear microphones and consumer earbuds. When the microphone is in a dangling cable or embedded in a tiny wireless unit, its distance and orientation constantly change. Clothing noise, inconsistent levels, and limited wireless bandwidth all take their toll.
By contrast, an on-ear headset with a simple boom microphone solves nearly all of these problems at once. The microphone stays close to the mouth. Levels are stable. Room sound is suppressed naturally, not algorithmically. The result is clearer, calmer, and easier to listen to — which matters more than people realise.
From podcasting, we also learned something else: listeners judge you by your audio. Poor sound is tiring. It subtly undermines authority and credibility. People may not be able to explain why a call feels hard work, but they feel it all the same.
The good news is that this is one of the cheapest professional upgrades available. You do not need studio equipment. A €50 on-ear, wired, USB headset is enough to move from “unacceptable” to “effortlessly clear”. It’s the best investment you can make in your image.
For more on improving your online image go to SWISSUES Presence.
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