Virtual Cenacle Etiquette

Conferencing isn’t quite like a regular one-to-one phone call. Thus there are some important rules of etiquette.

Mute Your Sound When Not Speaking

Because there may be many callers on the line, each one adds their own background noise. All that background noise adds up and makes it hard for others to hear. They may also hear other sounds like your breathing, burping, conversations with others, unexpected sounds like someone shouting for you or a loud truck outside. Thus, for the sake of others on the call, please keep your sound muted when not speaking.

This is a general guideline but there are times when you will want to remain unmuted. For example, if there are only a few callers or if you are engaged in an active conversation. In that case, feel free to leave your sound unmuted.

If you are using a phone without a mute button, mute the old-fashioned way by putting your hand over the mouthpiece.

NEVER Put The Call On Hold

This can be awful for everyone else. If your phone makes noise, beeps, plays hold music, everyone will hear it and it may be impossible for the conference to continue as long as you have the call on hold.

Call From A Quiet Environment

Similar to the last two points of etiquette, for the sake of others, please try to call from a quiet location. The loud landscaping or construction noise outside your window may make it hard for others to hear on the call.

Use A Headset, Ear Buds, Or Hold The Phone To Your Ear

Echo can be a big problem on conference calls. You may not hear it but others will. Echo happens when the sound of someone speaking comes out of your speakers and then goes back into your microphone. Now the other person hears themselves but delayed and so does everyone else. If this is bad enough, it can be a mirror in a mirror effect and echo continuously making it impossible to continue the call. To prevent this echo problem, please observe the following:

Please do not use a speakerphone on your regular or cell phone. Not only will it pick up more background noise but it will produce the echo problem. Hold the phone to your ear.

If you are using a cell phone or tablet, please use your ear buds or blue tooth device like you were making a hands free call.

If you are using a computer, please use a headset unless your microphone and speakers are such that the sound from the speakers cannot enter back into your microphone. If you do not have a headset but still want to use your computer so you can see and be seen and take advantage of the other functions of the conference, you can use a hybrid approach. Connect with your computer, mute your microphone and turn off your speakers. Then dial into the same conference with your phone (using ear buds or holding it to your ear) to hear the sound and speak.

Be Patient With Each Other

There are many voices which may easily step over each other and there is the problem of latency. Latency means there is a delay between the time you speak and the time other people hear you. The delay will be different for each person on the call so they will all hear you at slightly different times. This also means that you will hear people start to speak after they have already started speaking and you will hear them finish after they have actually finished speaking.

Thus, you may find that we often “speak over” each other. Please don’t misunderstand this as being rude. What has happened is the other person hasn’t yet heard that you have started speaking even though you have. Thus, they thought the line was quiet and started speaking. Be patient when this happens and leave a little extra time before starting to speak.

Praying Together

This latency problem is bad enough when we are talking randomly such as when greeting each other, fellowshipping, or sharing and discussing the Diary or another topic during the cenacle. It can make praying together very difficult such as when we pray the Rosary. It is hard enough to stay together when we are in the same room! With the latency of a conference call, it is impossible.

Thus we strongly recommend that, when praying a prayer we pray together like the Rosary, everyone stays muted (or hold your hand over the microphone if you cannot mute your phone) and there be either one leader or a leader and a responder. The leader and responder should not speak at the same time, e.g., during the “Oh my Jesus” Fatima prayer, the responder should pray silently or mute their sound.

In our cenacles, we usually divide the decades between several people. One approach is to have the leader of one decade become the responder for the next decade. That is, if they lead the first decade, they would respond in the second decade, and mute their sound for the remaining decades. For the opening prayers, the responder would be the person who will pray the fifth decade.

Thank you for joining our virtual cenacles. By the grace of our God and the intercession of our Blessed Mother, may our prayer be blessed and a blessing to others!