diff --git a/synapse/rest/client/v1/voip.py b/synapse/rest/client/v1/voip.py
index 62f4c3d93..53da905ee 100644
--- a/synapse/rest/client/v1/voip.py
+++ b/synapse/rest/client/v1/voip.py
@@ -42,7 +42,11 @@ class VoipRestServlet(ClientV1RestServlet):
             expiry = (self.hs.get_clock().time_msec() + userLifetime) / 1000
             username = "%d:%s" % (expiry, requester.user.to_string())
 
-            mac = hmac.new(turnSecret, msg=username, digestmod=hashlib.sha1)
+            mac = hmac.new(
+                turnSecret.encode(),
+                msg=username.encode(),
+                digestmod=hashlib.sha1
+            )
             # We need to use standard padded base64 encoding here
             # encode_base64 because we need to add the standard padding to get the
             # same result as the TURN server.