Up your audio game with professional certified headsets and enhance the hybrid work experience

Ever wondered why you don't always feel engaged during an online meeting? Or why you feel less connected to your colleagues when working from home? It could be due to the audio equipment you are using for calls and meetings.

We have all encountered the situation of straining to hear others speak during their presentation. Or being told that our voice is too soft to hear with all the office chats going on around us, or the noise of traffic in our background.

To hear and to be heard clearly is a key tenet of building strong relationships, but many people forego this unwittingly by choosing unoptimized audio equipment for their hybrid work lives.

Audio standards in a new world

One should no longer think of where people are working, but how they are working.

In the pre-pandemic era when people worked mostly in the office, the use of a professional certified headset was not a pressing concern. Everyone would be in the same meeting room together.

In the post-pandemic era, workers have come to embrace the benefits of working in the office, working on the go and working from home. They have learnt to do their best type of work in each scenario, driving collaboration and maintaining work-life balance.

According to Jabra findings in Jabra Hybrid Ways of Working Global Report 2022, 80 per cent of all office meetings are now either fully virtual or hybrid, with only 20 per cent happening fully in-person. 64 per cent of Gen Z workers say they consider their "office" to be their laptop, headset and wherever they can get a strong Internet connection.

With many people coming together to interact in virtual environments, access to professional certified headsets has become critical to allow everyone to communicate clearly and seamlessly.

Unfortunately, most people choose to use consumer gear that are not purposefully built for a new hybrid world. A consumer headset is primarily designed for entertainment use, like listening to music or playing videogames.

However, these types of headsets often have major compromises for work needs and are not suitable for long hours of calls. For example, consumer headsets often do not provide excellent voice call quality, which affects people's ability to collaborate, increases meeting fatigue, and reduces productivity.

When you have to attend back-to-back meetings for hours on end, professional certified headsets like the Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex have you well covered with its state-of-the-art call quality and ergonomics. You also do not have to fumble with your gear when you need to jump into the next call - being certified for Unified Communications means that your Jabra Evolve2 is a simple plug-and-play affair.

Let's take a look at how Jabra's professional certified headsets like the Evolve2 65 Flex offer a major step up from consumer-grade headsets.

Flexible ergonomics

Consumer headsets are often designed with limited adjustability. Jabra designs their professional certified headsets for maximum versatility, and the Evolve2 65 Flex is the most portable model in its lineup. The Flex in the headset's name is first made obvious by its revolutionary hinged design - the headset can be folded into a very compact flat shape, and can fit inside any handbag or backpack easily. It also comes with a snugly-fitting pouch to protect the headset.

Upon first use, the headset adjusts to your head without any fuss. The comfortable memory foam earcups adapt their shape to your ears and help to seal out noise effectively. This ensures that you can get into the zone and focus on getting the work done.

The Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex also has a secret sauce that makes one forget they are wearing it for the duration of the 32 hour battery life - the Jabra Air Comfort technology. Jabra developed a process to

layer multiple layers of ultra-soft perforated foam inside the collapsible headband, resulting in a gentle cushioning effect for your head.

Hear and be heard clearly at all times

A professional certified headset finely balances the need for letting people hear you clearly at all times, and your daily enjoyment of music and entertainment. The Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex's advanced chipset and premium noise-cancelling microphones deliver the best ANC performance versus competing products in the same price range.

This means that the Jabra headset can effectively block out external noise when you listen to any music. At the same time, the people in your Zoom call will never be distracted by the noise in your background and ask "Can you say that again?"

This is because the multiple microphones in the Jabra headset deploy beamforming techniques to focus on capturing only your voice, and the software algorithm filters out any unwanted noise like barking dogs or colleagues chattering at the background.

True flexibility

The headset has multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to connect to both your smartphone and your computer at the same time.

And when you step away from your device, you will not worry about being disconnected because the Bluetooth 5.2 wireless operates over 30 meters and maintains a strong connection especially if you use the bundled Jabra Link 380 Bluetooth dongle for computers.

And people do judge you by your looks, so apart from the professional design, the headset has a sleek microphone boom arm that hides away so well that few people will realise you are using a communications device.

The sleek design also allows the headset to be charged wirelessly on a compatible charger without taking up much space.

Overcoming rigorous testing

What truly differentiates a professional certified headset from its consumer cousins is its certification. All headsets can be used for any online call, but most are not subject to the vigorous tests to certify them for use on major platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet.

The Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex has passed these tests, and the toughest certification it had to go through was Microsoft's Premium Microphones For Open Office benchmark, which tests how a headset microphone is able to suppress surrounding noise and office conversation from multiple directions.

Ultimately, not all headsets are the same. While consumer headsets are tuned to cater for music and media consumption, professional certified headsets still provide best-in-class balance of audio for both work and entertainment. Professional certified headsets are simply engineered to elevate the user experience under the most demanding conditions.

In a hybrid world where we work increasingly between the office, home, and co-working spaces, these headsets enable us to transition seamlessly between places and tasks to maximise our productivity and flexibility.

Professional certified headsets like the Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex strike a fine balance between work and play, and in this new hybrid world, they allow you to work the way you want to, anywhere and anytime.