Custom Conferencing Solutions

• If you are Moderating an Audio Conference - be considerate of your teams time and BE ON TIME
  • It is a good idea if a moderator arrives early to greet each caller, and this allows you to take roll in a relaxed manner.  It also sets the tone for your callers that they should respect yours and others time and be on time themselves.
  • Introduce yourself when speaking for the first time on the first few conference calls.  This is important as other participants may not recognize your voice….yet
  • Avoid putting your phone on HOLD if you have music set up to play as this will introduce music into the conference.  Instead use *6 to mute on your www.ubridgecom.com audio conference call line (this may vary on other services).  Music playing into the audion conference call, and make it impossible for the others on the conference call to continue discussions in your absence! (Remember to un-mute yourself when you come back.)
  • You should ALWAYS create and publish your agenda before the call to keep your conference call schedule and participants on track.  Always try to remain consistent with the timeline and agenda to respect the time of your conference call participants.
  • Clearly state when the call is ending.  While some conference callers may want to linger to discuss some issues it brings closuer and reduces your audio conferencing bill.  This also eliminates any possible confusion so stay on the line and make sure everyone has left the conference call.
  • If you have any this sensitive to discuss which some of your conference callers should not hear it is recommended that you get off the conference and reestablish a new conference call in a little while or use another conference call bridge.
• If you are a conference call attendee
  • BE ON TIME - it is very disrespectful to your conference moderator as well and the other conference call attendees
  • Mute your phone when you are not speaking on the audio conference
  • When joining a call wait briefly for a natural pause on the conference before announcing yourself.
  • When you join a new audio conference call it is always good to state your name each time before speaking.  This lets people begin to recognize your voice on the conference calls.
  • Avoid putting your phone on HOLD if you have music set up to play as this will introduce music into the conference.  Instead use *6 to mute on your www.ubridgecom.com audio conference call line (this may vary on other services).  Music playing into the audion conference call, and make it impossible for the others on the conference call to continue discussions in your absence! (Remember to un-mute yourself when you come back.)
  • If you have any this sensitive to discuss which some of your conference callers should not hear it is recommended that you get off the conference and reestablish a new conference call in a little while or use another conference call bridge.
  • Final tip for conference call attendees - STAY ENGAGED - multitasking is very rude because you will probably miss things and need for the conference moderator or conference caller to repeat themselves.

• Avoid Conference Call Sound Quality Issues
  • www.ubridgecom.com audio conferencing bridges is full-duplex allows you to speak simultaneously with another caller zero loss of sound quality. This means, however, that any static or disruptive noise that can be picked up through your phone line will affect the conference, so you must ensure that you are speaking in a quiet environment.
  • Preventing conference call sound quality problems:
    1. Avoid speakerphones as they introduce background noise into your conference call.
    2. Mobile and cordless phones as they tend to have static and introduce ambient noise into your conference call.
    3. When cell call is required we recommend a stationary location where the signal strength is high.
    4. If you must drive while on the audio conference you should put your phone on MUTE when not talking.
       • Hands-free sets are safer when driving, but they also introduce a lower quality voice signal to your conference call and pick up a lot more road noise.
• Eliminating sound quality problems:
  1. Hang up and reconnect to your audio conference call.  This stops 99% of the problems when there is a bad conference connection.
  2. Mute your local phone using *6 to help isolate the problem conference line.  We recommend you only un-mute when you need to speak.  This also avoids frustrating typing noises as you multi-task…but you don’t do that, do you.
  3. If the problems persist, contact your conferencing customer service group.  It is best to contact customer service about the problem during your conference call.  this allows your conference call provider to join your conference bridge and experience the problem first-hand.  This is a big help in diagnosing the cause of the problem.

• Basic equipment check: (some of this might be obvious, but we here to make your audio conference call the best it can be for everyone)
  • Using a phone with a handset that is directly connected into the phone lines.
  • Always TEST your equipment before any important conferencing calls!  You don’t want to be the person who could not attend because of bad equipment.
  • Cell and cordless phones are more likely to cause static and pick up ambient noise.
  • Speaker phones pick up more background noise.  This can sometimes cause “clipping” of your voice where the first split second got cut-off due to the equipment limitations.  Most speakerphones are “full digital duplex” which allows all conference call parties to speak simultaneously with no clipping.
  • Mute your speakerphone if no one needs to speak.  Just un-mute when you need to speak or comment on the audio conference call.
  • Call waiting can be disruptive and should be disabled
    • Some audio conference bridges play a tone to announce a new person entering the audio conference. When your line starts beeping from a call waiting tone, it can be extremely confusing and disrupting to the conference call!  Most call-waiting features can be deactivated by dialing *70 before dialing. Call your local phone provider to be sure how to deactivate call waiting on your phone.

We hope all your audio conference calls are successful and trouble free.  Please feel free to share this document with all your conference call attendees.  When using web conferencing in conjunction with an audio conference all the above still apply.

You can find Enterprise Class Audio, web and video conferencing services at www.ubridgecom.com.