Zoom Setup Instructions
1. Download Zoom Client software from here:
https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting
2. Run the install
3. Run the app. An important note – one of the options we’ll need later (“Enable stereo”) only
appears if one is logged on to a Zoom account. Even though your students can connect to your
“conference” without creating their own account, unless they register for one, they will not see
this option. Registering is easy and free – or they can use their Google or Facebook account to
log in.
After logging-in, click on “zoom.us” menu on the top-left of the screen (next to Apple icon), and
then click “Preferences”
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4. Click on “Audio” on the left, and then on the right, make sure that you choose the correct
microphone.
Under the Microphone Input Volume, make sure that the checkbox marked below with (1) is
UNCHECKED, (2) and (3) are CHECKED.
Afterwards click on “Advanced” button in the bottom right corner (4)
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5. On the next screen, make sure that checkbox marked (1) on the illustration below is
CHECKED, and for (2) and (3) choose “Disable” from the drop-down list. Leave option (4) on
Auto, then close the setup window by clicking on the red dot (5) in the top-left corner.
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6. If everything was done correctly, when you start the meeting, you should see a button titled
“Turn on Original Sound” in the top-left corner of the screen. Click it, and it should then say
“Turn off Original Sound”, which means that it is ON, which is what you want. Your students, if
they go through the same process, should see the same button when they join the meeting.
Remember that you want it to say “Turn off Original Sound”.
7. Using headphones or muting your microphone will improve sound quality (if you move a
mouse back-and-forth a bit, you’ll see a button in bottom-left corner of the screen with a
microphone icon on it – click it to mute/unmute).
If during the lesson, the sound quality starts deteriorating, muting yourself for a few seconds
may reset the sound back to original quality.
8. Connecting to the internet router directly with an ethernet cable (instead of using WiFi) will
dramatically improve the stability of connection (this should be done on both ends – you and
the student). Unless you have a very old laptop, you’ll probably need an an ethernet-to-USB
adaptor, like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013G4C8RE/, or if you have a MacBook or
MacBook Pro with only USB-C ports, get something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XKRGQQ2/
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9. You and your students SHOULD use a high-quality external USB microphone. The best option
is Apogee Mic Plus or Apogee 96K (http://a.co/d/5Lnr4JJ or http://a.co/d/dtuZIii). At least in
Macs, this microphone bypasses system level controls, making sure that the operating system
doesn’t mess with recording levels.
Second-best choice is Yeti Blue (http://a.co/d/g6KeDpX) – if you use this one, make sure to put
the mode dial on the back into stereo mode. Also, Polycom tends to sense Yeti Blue as a
speaker, so if you can’t hear the person you are connecting with, you may need to manually
change “Speaker” in the dialog above to your actual speakers. There may be other mics that
work just as well, but I haven’t tested them.
Also, I have discovered that in Windows, you sometimes need to manually set “stereo” options
in device controls in control panel, but since I don’t have a PC on hand, I can’t illustrate the
process.
AudioTechnica generally makes very good microphones, so this one
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B5ZX9FM/) should be fine as well, though I haven’t tested it.
Again, if you have a laptop with only USB-C ports (like MacBook or MacBook Pro), either make
sure that the microphone comes with an USB-C cable, or get an USB-to-USB-C adapter - the
second option from Amazon above (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XKRGQQ2/) will
give you both the Ethernet and USB adapter in one.
