MS Teams noise suppression/background noise issue in meetings

[WayneGHC]

Can anyone help? We have had a number of users comment on hearing other people (who are not in a teams call) in meetings. All users are using headphones with mics but it seams to still pic up background voices. 

I understand that Noise suppression only stops things like doors slamming/dogs barking etc and not voices but for some reason, it's like it's picking up more people. 

We have changed the Noise suppression settings from auto to high. 

Any ideas why this is happening all of a sudden? 

[#2]

@WayneGHC You are correct that Teams built in noise suppression blocks non-speech noises, not voices. What headsets are you using, a good quality teams headset will have microphones configured to pick up the sound from the mouth Infront of the mic and ignore any noises coming from the other side.

It's interesting that you say "all of a sudden", what's changed ?

[#3]

Thanks Steven. 'all of a sudden' really meaning in the past week. Numerous users have commented on hearing a lot of background voices when they are speaking in a meeting. They are using the same headsets (sennheiser epos) as before so no hardware changes.

So... before, whoever was talking in a meeting, only there voice was heard - even in a busy office. Now, in the last week, it's picking up other voices in the office who aren't in the Teams meeting. and sometimes, the person is a good 10 ft away.

[#4]

@WayneGHC Has any change happened in the EPOS Connect application? Firmware Update ?

[#5]

Thanks. No firmware update needed (just USB headsets). We're just telling users to change setting if they experience sound issues 🙂

[#6]

Having the same issue reported for a handful of users. Weirdly the Teams webapp behaves as expected but the client not only picks up surrounding voices (as far away as 10m) but seems to amplify them. Meetings are next to impossible due to the warring voices going on. Noise suppression is set to high for these users with no impact. Any ideas? Thanks!

[#7]

@WayneGHC There has definitely been a change. We experience that previously there was no issue on calls in an office and throughout, our folks have been experiencing that having a call in the open plan is impossible due to background voices being very prominent in the call (regardless of the headset used). This is a major issue for businesses.

[#8]

Had some success with completely uninstalling and reinstalling Office. It's almost like the noise suppression software doesn't install correctly on occasion. We've only seen isolated cases though, hasn't been across the whole fleet.

[#9]

@URM8N8 

Any solutions found? MS Teams and noise suppression worked in Nov. and Dec., then in Jan. an update took place impacting the behavior of MS Teams Noise suppression now picking up/enhancing background voices! No hardware changes, simply post update started magnifying the background noise. 

I'm seeing claims of install issues but I switched orgs and hardware in Feb. and same thing. I work in a shared workspace with someone from a different org on a different hardware and theirs also started picking up noise. 

I saw the mention of suppressing background noise but not voices. I see use cases for both (Conference room needing to hear the group vs shared workspace and suppressing voices) so Microsoft should offer technical solutions for both. On Microsofts site it does outline that voices should be suppressed!

[#10]

@Bob_WFH 

Having same issues here. Me and my wife have been sharing a home office for the last 6 months. All was going great until a month or so ago and we are both on meetings. Remote members of our respective meetings can hear my what me or my wife are saying....previously they couldn't and there was no issue with us sharing an office. Now remote teams meetings are very difficult.

Both using good jabra headsets and noise suppression set to high.

It really does appear there has been some sort of update to teams by Microsoft that is causing this issue...it does seem quite widespread

[#11]

We're having the same issue, but not for all users. We all have the same headphones and bumped the sensitivity up to high from auto and one person's mic picks up everyone around. Even the receptionist 25+ feet away. Any input would be appreciated.

[#12]

 We have experienced the same issue like others reported. We are using JBL Live 660NC. This seems to be the case while using Microsoft Teams. When we use the same headsets in Zoho meetings we haven't encounter this issue.

Microsoft Teams was working fine up to a month or so ago when we noticed that it's almost impossible with the amount of background noise picked up by the microphone. We also changed the setting for  Noise suppression from Auto to High.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thank you!

@WayneGHC

[#13]

I have the same problem with a Sony Linkbuds S. You can hear the moment you join a teams call or make a test call the ANC on the ear buds goes off and start picking out more sounds around me. Its like it is using the earbud's noise cancelling mics to pick up even more sound.

I did test it with Zoom and also experienced the same issue. Maybe it is a Windows issue ? I am on windows 10 [Version 10.0.19045.2846]

[#14]

I have exactly same issue in my company. Noise suppression working well and sudden it stops working. Only workrounds we found as jump back to Classic MS teams because this issue is happening with new teams.

I am not sure if this is the case. If anyone of you can jump back to old classic team and see if issue get resolved.

If yes, then I need to raise the concern with Microsoft.

[#15]

@Sukhdeep3003 

I have tried it on both Neu Teams and Teams Classic ... it is the same on both.

It is VERY frustrating as I am neurodivergent and need noise cancelling to focus. My EPOS headsets do this well outside of meetings and when I am on a Teams call but muted. However, the minute I unmute myself, the noise cancellation seems to let through everything, not just voices, but the taps on the keyboard of people around me, shuffling of papers etc.

It is definitely a Teams issue.