Microphones to pick up audio from whole room (pref USB)

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robjg63

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#319219 3-Apr-2025 14:38

Not sure if anyone has some good suggestions (maybe even the magic words I need to make a query) - I am drawing a bit of a blank.

We have some Jabra Panacast 20 USB webcams. We are using them to record conversation in a room where the people are up to 3-4 meters away.

They work fine for video, but like nearly every webcam/conference cam, the microphones seem built to pick up voices only within a meter or two, then nothing.

I purchased a Jabra Speak2 55 bluetooth microphone/speaker to use more centrally in the room. It is an improvement - but still I wouldnt say it was great...

In the 'old' days, a Handicam seemed to have a microphone that would happily pick up people speaking in a room.

Does anyone know of a (USB connection preferably) microphone that is built to comfortably pick up spoken voices in a real 3m radius?

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Dynamic

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#3360234 3-Apr-2025 15:55

I suspect one of the 'meeting bar' solutions would be more appropriate for your use case. In my limited experience they do a good job of normalising voices around a small conference table. If you want to stick with Jabra, then one of these should be on your radar.

Video Conferencing Cameras - 4K HD Camera & Room Systems

We have two meeting spots in our office.

Larger meetings (up to 8 people) uses a Logitech Group which has an extension microphone, so there is a mic in the unit which is under our display (even though that unit was actually designed to go onto the table) and a second mic (cabled, in the case of this older model unit) on the table. This solution is PC driven. Audio vastly improved for people on the other end of the video conference when we added that second microphone.
Smaller meetings (up to 4 people) uses a Logitech Meetup meeting bar where everyone is facing the meeting car and is within 3m of the bar. This solution uses a long USB cable to the laptop of the person running the meeting.

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JemS

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#3360262 3-Apr-2025 17:37

Boundary microphones are designed to pick up an entire room. Not usually usb though.

yann

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#3360282 3-Apr-2025 18:27

We have Logitech Meetup 4K driven off HP Elite Minis (and TVs). They work pretty well with rooms up to 3-4 meters as they have some sort of beam-forming microphones I think. You can also get an extension microphone, though we never really needed it given the room sizes we had them in, as they worked well without it.

I use a Jabra Panacast 20 as my desk webcam, though don't use it for the microphone. I think from memory, the microphone was only rated for a pickup of about 1m.

I have a Jabra Speak2 75 and I know if you have two of these, they can pair/link and act as microphone/speakers which can be popped at different ends of the room, and linked to the computer via one of the Link370/380 USB dongles. That works pretty well from my experience, though I don't seem to think it works on the Speak2 55 units unfortunately.

In a larger room, we also use a Jabra 810 which has a slightly larger catchment area as well as more powerful speaker. That connects via USB (though also connects to a mains power source) - I've seen some on TM second hand for around $200, and looking now, there is one there for $250 which isn't too bad.

Yann

JemS

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#3360299 3-Apr-2025 20:02

JemS:

Boundary microphones are designed to pick up an entire room. Not usually usb though.

There are usb boundary microphones.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HSTATC26373/Audio-Technica-ATR4697-USB-Boundary-Microphone---O?qr=web-share

https://www.rubbermonkey.co.nz/Solid-State-Logic-SSL-CONNEX-Portable-USB-Microphone