Is this really an AirPods problem or is it more of a Bluetooth problem?<p>Might have Gustaf said AirPods because, let's be honest, the vast majority of people with wireless earbuds in our field are using Apple AirPods?<p>AirPods are by no means perfect, but they're the least problematic out of many Bluetooth earbuds I had tried in the past (granted, I've yet to try the brand that sponsor so many YouTube channels as of late). Bluetooth in general is very problematic and, if you've ever tried working with any version of the Bluetooth stack, you'd have immediately figured out why. Even BLE, which is supposed to be more restrictive, is still complex and hard to understand. And let's say you've got Bluetooth itself figured out, now you've got to make sure you've handled operating system quirks. And yes, there are quirks. If you were developing for Bluetooth on Windows or Linux and decide to do so on macOS, you'll be surprised to find that your code, even when directly translated to Swift or Objective-C, won't just work as-is because macOS has different restrictions for Bluetooth that are hardly documented anywhere. Today, macOS forces you to use a generated UUID to identify a hardware device instead of a MAC address, yet as far as I can tell it's documented nowhere as to how those UUIDs are generated.<p>But I digress.<p>Bluetooth just isn't a good tech stack for ultra-reliable audio, especially duplex audio. It's just going to have interruptions and random disconnections and reconnections. The mic quality will almost certainly stink unless the host has a better Bluetooth chipset and the peripheral does some neat tricks that likely result in lag as a tradeoff.<p>IMO, you don't use AirPods for any sort of audio production, except maybe if you are using them to receive cues. You use a "real" wireless lavalier mic such as the Rode Go Wireless II, which doesn't use Bluetooth at all, sounds great, handles distance and interference really well (important if you are walking around on a stage), and has a built-in audio backup in case there's interference or connection drops.<p>But no one actually wants to pay for real audio equipment for some reason.<p>I wish that companies, in particular remote ones, make quality mics and lavalier mics easily available to their employees. Only one company I've worked for provided good headphones, but never has a company provided a microphone.