Conference Room Microphones: Balancing Aesthetics and Function

In today’s workplace, aesthetics is just as important as function. Unless your talking about microphones for In-room conferencing. This is one area in which were sometimes willing to make some sacrifices even if the mics have to be Tabletop mics. Especially in an open space plan with high ceilings. Not any more! With the New Shure MXA90 the ceiling mics can be up to 20’ high flush from the ceiling.  

Shure, one of the most trusted audio brands worldwide, has a solution with a revolutionary new technology in the Microflex® Advance™ Ceiling Microphone. We got to chat with Brandon Operchuck from Audio Geer who gave us the 411 on this innovative game changer to ceiling mics.

‘‘ The older style of hanging a microphone on the ceiling has a single pattern to them, it’s fixed and can’t be varied.’’ Says Brandon ‘‘ The MXA90, ceiling array microphone features steerable coverage of up to eight separate lobes, for eight listening areas in 35, 45, or 55 degree angles.’’

It really is incredible, each lobe could actually be brought down narrower than most Shotgun Microphones, this is very big news for in-room audio control because of the clarity you can provide in tele and Videoconferencing meetings.  Speaking of control, Brandon explains, ‘‘ It has a web server built into the system for local and remote access. You can have a series of presets, setup precise features for a specific meeting, make changes on the fly, or just turn on the auto function.

‘‘One of the key features is that this panel microphone has over 100 elements, it’s got rows of tiny microphone components and uses the phase relationship between them to steer and point the lobes around the table.’’ Says Brandon, ‘‘…this provides a higher lever of control, much higher resolution of audio, and it uses Dante audio.’’ Dante’s uncompressed, multi-channel digital media networking technology, with near-zero latency and synchronization has become a consistent and popular solution for several other products in the audio chain, making it a huge advantage to having the codec integrated.

But it’s the way it blends into the room via several mounting options that makes it not only functional, but appealing from a below-ceiling mounting option via standard Vesa-D mounting plate and wire rope, or right into the ceiling for a look that makes it practically disappear in standard 10 foot ceilings, as low as 8 or as high as 20+ feet, and as Brandon adds, ‘‘ It’s available in 3 colors, black, white and aluminum, it’s paintable, and the LED indicators can be a variety of colors to mask the décor in the room.’’

It’s a purposeful and well-designed solutions that will surely become a substantial competitor for hanging and tabletop mics.

Convinced? Give AVPlanners a call to learn more about the Shure MXA910 Ceiling Array Microphone and other audio solutions for your workplace or business by calling us at 800-409-3587.