Audio Issues from the other person

[Bracken]

I am doing an interview on Zoom call/meeting.  My audio is fine I have my Podtrack P4 and mic and headphones connected to laptop.  I am in the US and have fast internet at my house.   The guy I am interviewing lives in Germany and says his internet is not as great as mine, but the guy has money and lives in nice area.  But I am having audio issues on his end.  He can hear me, but when he talks sometimes, he is normal volume then the volume gets quiet. I can still hear him, but it gets very quiet like he is far away but is clear.  Then occasionally i don't hear anything.  This is all within 30seconds.  The video is always clear, so that makes me think it is not the speed of the connection.  So, I ended it and sent him a headset with a mic. 

Attempt 2 with headset:  Same thing happened.  Talking to my friends that do ZOOM calls at work constantly, they say if it was connection the video would be having issues.  but the video part is fine it is the audio.  Maybe he didn't hook the headset up properly, but it is a Logitech and just plugs into the computer and he showed me that it was on.  My friend that is into audio/video did some looking into it today and thinks it might be BACKGROUND NOISE SUPPRESION.  I have not tried that, but the guy's voice never sounds like a robot or breaks in and out like a bad connection it just gets quieter for a few seconds then goes back to normal for a few seconds, then I can't hear briefly before it goes back to quiet and normal volume.     

[storyhub]

Most likely this is gating being done by the computer hardware and OS and not being done by Zoom, especially if he is using a headset mic. Zoom does echo cancellation to suppress background sounds, but it is quick to adjust. Most likely the computer has audio functionality that is gating the audio.