Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I have used Zoom meetings for various group sizes. I get constantly frustrated when Zoom’s build-in audio feature gives the stage to one speaker and suppressed audio for all other participants.
This is a problem for three reasons:
When the audio of other participants is not muted and accidentally makes a loud sound that Zoom can pick up, the audio suppress feature cuts off the audio of the main speaker(one who was talking). Listeners would lose the content of the main speaker because of this cut-off.
When in a group conversation, the suppressed audio feature creates a delay in back and forth talk. This makes it difficult to have a brainstorming type of conversation where there are frequent back and forth and simultaneous conversations (where two speakers would speak together at the same time). This delay made me feel like I was texting, not conversing in real-time. Also, extremely difficult to have a continuous group conversation with more than 2 people in the meeting.
Whenever I want to reply to the speaker, I needed to wait for a few seconds talking filler words until Zoom picks up my audio, or my first few words will be lost. So, I needed to constantly watch out for suppressed audio problems for communication since we would lose audio at the beginning and end when each person takes the stage.
Describe the solution you’d like
I think simply turning off the suppressed audio feature for all meetings would be most useful. If background noise is the problem, there is a mute function that the host can control. So, I don’t see why audio needs to be suppressed as the only option.
Describe alternatives you’ve considered
I have considered using an alternate app for simultaneous group conversation (such as Discord or RemoteMeeting). Still, Zoom is the preferred virtual meeting media for most people, and I cannot always be the host. So, I would love it if Zoom can change this feature. In fact, Zoom is perfect in almost all other aspects except this feature.
Please consider changing the suppressed audio feature. This would make all my client meetings and classroom conversations more real-time and interactive. Thank you.
I have the same issue (#3 above). It’s hard to break into conversations already, given the system delays. By the time I sense that the last person has finished and start to speak, I’m jumping on top of someone else who has already started up. When I start to speak into a silence, everyone complains that I was silenced until about the third word. Then they suggest that I make a practice of adding a couple of nonsense words at the beginning!
I have the same problem. I am using zoom on an iMac and a MacBook Pro laptop. On both devices my audio is suppressed. If am the speaker and someone speaks over me it squashes my sound. If others are speaking and I need to reply they miss the first words I say. It’s very frustrating.
Now I have experienced it the other way around where when the other person speaks I cannot hear their first few words which means I have to ask them to repeat themselves.
The only thing I’ve found on the internet is that if I wear headphones that will mean my sound isn’t suppressed. But I do want to be able to hear the other person too.
Is this a problem with zoom? With the settings? Or a Mac problem? Is it driven by the audio settings of the person hosting the meeting?
As an example, this week, I was joining someone else’s meeting with 12 other people. I was the person who had to give everyone else instructions, and only I had the problem with my sound being suppressed. That meant they could all be in conversation, moving between them and flowing and I could hear everything they were saying, but when I then wanted to add the next instruction the sound wouldn’t move to me.
Please reply hopefully with a solution or even an acknowledgement that this is a problem. Thank you
We use for Zoom for legal depositions and it is important to be able to hear all participants all the time. This is especially important when an attorney and witness are speaking simultaneously or opposing counsel are making objections. Having the dominant audio suppress the weaker audio is not conducive for creating an accurate record. I can record separate channels, but the recorded audio is also suppressed. It would be hugely beneficial to turn off the simultaneous speaker suppression.
This might be able to help. Looks like this was updated December of 2021. I was running into this issue because when doing a podcast, I need the other guests to hear the music I’m playing as a cue to wrap up their thought as we head into the next break. I was playing music and the other guests could not hear it at all which makes using the music as a cue, worthless.
Even if you’ve changed audio settings before the meeting starts, you have to change them after start of meeting. Audio suppression has to be changed while in a meeting for it to work. Just tried it. Set it up for the “original audio for musicians” choice, and could hear everything in the room that I couldn’t hear before.