Better picture and sound quality in video calls is associated with higher competency.
Can't find the source for it again, but it was trustworthy to me at the time.
Exactly. Which can be the difference between success and failures in very important communication.
As an example, a company I worked for hired my Senior VP boss during COVID times, and his home-office setup was cringe-worthy. Especially since we worked in the network connectivity industry and our differentiator was superior and predictable user experience. When I offered help, he stated it didn't matter and that he was a great, confident speaker and that counts more than flash. He didn't last long, the expensively promoted webinars we did with him bordered on being completely embarrassing - how can you convince interested attendees you have superior technology when your boss' video is ghostly crap and his audio sounds like he's in the Apollo 11 on the moon?
I agree for regular meetings even built-in cameras and microphones work fine if you're in a good, quiet environment with decent lighting conditions. The built-in audio and video stuff in PCs also improved a lot during COVID times - previously many laptops had abhorrent communication hardware - we have come a long way.
I remember earlier in COVID times, many people had huge issues setting up their home environments. But that sparked an innovation curve, both in awareness on best practices, but also in the tech that was integrated into end devices.
