Achieve a High-Quality Recording of Your Next Meeting
Sophie Nixon
in Better Audio, Business & Legal Transcription, Media & Finance Transcription
Organisations rely on audio recordings of their meetings and conferences.
There are many advantages to recording a meeting, including:
- Keeping an accurate record
- Allowing people who were unable to attend, to catch up
- Ensuring the recordings can be turned into minutes or a transcript
- Holding a historical record of proceedings
A high-quality recording will make a world of difference when listening back to the audio during the process of creating minutes or a transcript of your meeting.
To ensure you have high-quality audio, it is important to take into consideration location, background noise, equipment and the set-up.
Location
Choose a quiet room that is reasonably sized for the number of people. In a room too large, some people’s voices may be lost. If you are in a large room with a small group, try moving off to one side or sectioning off an area to reduce echo. A location that is in the open with other chatter and disruptions may lead to excessive background noise.
Equipment
There are many equipment options on the market for recording a meeting. You can record on a phone which may struggle to pick up every speaker’s voice and may often result in poor audio quality. A professional voice recorder is recommended to achieve high-quality audio. If you are recording a large group or will be spaced apart, external microphones are a worthwhile option. Boundary microphones are fantastic for this as they are not intrusive and have a 360o pickup range.
Background Noise
Background noise can strongly distort your recording. A variety of unexpected factors can cause this distortion. Some causes of background noise include chatter, eating and even air conditioners. When setting up your recording system, ensure microphones are placed away from sources of noise. Ask participants to speak one at a time as overspeaking can disrupt the recording. Also, if there will be food at this conference, eat it outside of the recording time.
Set-up
When you are ready to have your meeting, make sure your recorder is fully charged and has enough memory to last. Placing the recorder or external microphones onto a hard surface, such as a table, can cause audio reverberation. To prevent this, place a cloth underneath the microphones and recorders. Have everyone in the meeting spaced comfortably enough apart, but close enough to the recording equipment that their voices are picked up. Set out the tables in a way that any microphones can reach all the participants. People that are positioned too far away from the microphones will not be heard clearly in the recording.
Test
If you have the ability to do so, we recommend testing the recording set up before the meeting begins to verify that everything is working. To test this, walk around the space, speak at different volumes and face away from the microphones. You can then listen back on the test recording and confirm that every speaker’s voice will be picked up. Doing this ahead of time will allow you to make any necessary adjustments by rearranging the space or acquiring extra equipment.
Click here for more information on recording good-quality audio.
For expert advice on the best recording equipment for your recording situation, drop our friendly Products Team an email.
