Remote attendees report an echo as soon as someone in the room speaks

Echo in a hybrid meeting almost always comes from double audio paths, a laptop in the room that also joined, or a speaker too close to the mic. Not a cable fault, a setup fault.

Try this first

1. 1Count how many devices in the room are logged into the meeting, only the room system should send audio, every other laptop joins muted and without audio output.
2. 2Check if someone is using a personal headset while the room mic is also open, pick one path and disable the other.
3. 3Measure the distance between speaker and microphone, with a table mic 60 cm minimum is a safe baseline.
4. 4Turn on acoustic echo cancellation on the room system, Logitech and Poly have it on by default, a DIY setup with separate speaker and USB mic needs DSP tuning.
5. 5Test with one person in the room and one remote running a short yes-no dialogue, if you hear yourself repeated a second path is still open.
6. 6Document in the room guide that laptops join without audio, this is the most common cause and keeps recurring with new staff.

None of the above fits?

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