Meeting room microphone advice please

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mattyb

254 posts

Ultimate Geek

#283878 17-Mar-2021 11:06

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but seems the closest one I could find.

I'm looking for suggestions to setup meeting rooms with better microphones so both onsite and offsite individuals have a much better audio experience for online business meetings. Currently at work we have been using Jabra 510 speakerphones, and they work well for small meeting rooms, but for larger rooms that require anywhere from 6x to 15x participants the audio experience for those remotely when someone is speaking from the back of the room is poor-to-non existent. Most of our small rooms are approx 3x3m, and our larger rooms are approx 4m x 8m. The 510 is not designed for large rooms so no fault of the device, but I'm wondering what is the next step. Ideally I envision that you could connect and hang a couple of drop microphones from the ceiling along the middle and it would be much better - but not quite sure how to go about it.

I've had a search and a google but haven't been unable to uncover too much but surely this is becoming a common issue at the moment with the volume of people working from home for obvious reasons.

Anyone got any suggestions for any piece of kit that could do the job? Or people to talk to who might know? Our IT team don't see it as a priority hence I'm reaching out for other advice.

Thanks in advance.

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#2676032 17-Mar-2021 11:50

Do you have a reasonable budget for this, or is it a shoestring solution like so many organisations try and get away with?

With a bigger meeting room you often need to consider multiple microphones and because of that you then need to ensure the system knows to cancel out it's own sound output either from it's own speakers or from room speakers. Cheaper OOTB solutions like Logitech Group or Logitech Rally can do this, otherwise the usual suspects like Polycom or the other certified conferencing solutions.

Senecio

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#2676033 17-Mar-2021 11:51

More and more businesses are moving away from built in video/audio conferencing solution to table top based solutions. We remove all all the drop down microphones in our meeting rooms and replaced them with these devices but we use BlueJeans as our chosen video conferencing solution so may not be suitable in all environments.

https://www.bluejeans.com/products/rooms/dolby-voice-conference-room

The performance of these table top solutions these days has come so far that most businesses don't want to invest in built in technology that will outdate pretty quickly. The device I linked to above can easily cope in a meeting room of 20+ people and if you need larger than that there are extender microphones.

One simple solution that you could explore is to replace the Jabra 510a with the 710 model. I have a 510 that our IT department gave me for travel, hotel rooms etc.. does anyone remember what work travel was like? Its great for that and as you say it works well in small meeting environments. The 710 has the added feature of being able to daisy chain two or more devices to a master device via Bluetooth. We have a couple at work and it works surprisingly well.

littlehead

214 posts

Master Geek

#2676036 17-Mar-2021 11:55

Not purely a speaker phone but we use the Logitech Conference Cam Group for this sort of thing. Works well in the centre of a table with around 10-12 people max around, or in-front of a screen with people speaking to it. There are expansion mics available it but we have never used them so can't talk to how they work. For just audio they are more than you need, and for video they are not as great these days compared to other offerings, but work well as an overall package. They are also quite expensive these days, we got them a number of years ago and they were almost half the price back then.

I know there are more pure speakerphone solutions by Poly and Yealink, some certified for Teams if you need that. They've been pushed to us in the past and I have seen/experienced them at other sites/organisations and they seem pretty good, But I've never actually used them myself. We will probably need to a move to a better/more integrated solution like those at some point.

CokemonZ

1051 posts

Uber Geek

#2676086 17-Mar-2021 13:37

littlehead:

Not purely a speaker phone but we use the Logitech Conference Cam Group for this sort of thing. Works well in the centre of a table with around 10-12 people max around, or in-front of a screen with people speaking to it. There are expansion mics available it but we have never used them so can't talk to how they work. For just audio they are more than you need, and for video they are not as great these days compared to other offerings, but work well as an overall package. They are also quite expensive these days, we got them a number of years ago and they were almost half the price back then.

I know there are more pure speakerphone solutions by Poly and Yealink, some certified for Teams if you need that. They've been pushed to us in the past and I have seen/experienced them at other sites/organisations and they seem pretty good, But I've never actually used them myself. We will probably need to a move to a better/more integrated solution like those at some point.

I have also used these Logitech devices. Surprisingly good for the money.

Dedicated devices are typically vendor specific - they have to have compatibility with whichever service you are using, webex, zoom, bluejeans, others, where as the logitechs just plug into a pc.

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2676286 17-Mar-2021 21:06

I've heard interesting things about https://www.nureva.com/audio-conferencing/meeting-room-audio-for-the-new-normal

But I have no personal experience with them.

But I have had good personal experience with Logitech kit. My vote added to the above recommendation.

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nitro

658 posts

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#2676362 18-Mar-2021 09:47

we also use the logitech system. integration with Teams is great.

jonathan18

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#2676445 18-Mar-2021 11:56

I'm in a similar boat to the OP, wanting to put forward suggestions for one of our work sites. Ironically, it's the Wgtn HQ, which doesn't seem to be able to provide decent MS Teams access in enough spaces; we want it in place to stop us from having to travel 4-5 hours to attend a one-hour meeting!

And, yeap, we're definitely in the space of an org that's too broke/tight to pay for a proper solution (even to the extent of the Logitech one referred to above), so further recommendations for affordable but decent options would be welcome.

I've had a look at the Jabra options, with its website suggesting the 410 and 510 are 'great for meetings of up to' 4 people; the 710 up to 6 people, and the 810 up to 15 people.

We're looking to something closer to the last of these - and the meeting rooms can be longer so not such a 'middle' to the room. The 810's RRP is $1075, and I can't imagine I could persuade them to spend anything close to that. Are there any other options that would work in this situation? I'm thinking a couple of daisy-chained mid-sized units may be better (possibly two of the other Jabra models?) It doesn't have to be perfect - just better than the current practice which is - and I kid you not - using a single laptop with its built-in camera and mic for a mid-sized meeting room with 20sh people in it (hence why currently I feel the need to still travel...)

Thanks for any suggestions.

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nickb800

2721 posts

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#2676460 18-Mar-2021 12:25

jonathan18:

I'm in a similar boat to the OP, wanting to put forward suggestions for one of our work sites. Ironically, it's the Wgtn HQ, which doesn't seem to be able to provide decent MS Teams access in enough spaces; we want it in place to stop us from having to travel 4-5 hours to attend a one-hour meeting!

And, yeap, we're definitely in the space of an org that's too broke/tight to pay for a proper solution (even to the extent of the Logitech one referred to above), so further recommendations for affordable but decent options would be welcome.

I've had a look at the Jabra options, with its website suggesting the 410 and 510 are 'great for meetings of up to' 4 people; the 710 up to 6 people, and the 810 up to 15 people.

We're looking to something closer to the last of these - and the meeting rooms can be longer so not such a 'middle' to the room. The 810's RRP is $1075, and I can't imagine I could persuade them to spend anything close to that. Are there any other options that would work in this situation? I'm thinking a couple of daisy-chained mid-sized units may be better (possibly two of the other Jabra models?) It doesn't have to be perfect - just better than the current practice which is - and I kid you not - using a single laptop with its built-in camera and mic for a mid-sized meeting room with 20sh people in it (hence why currently I feel the need to still travel...)

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jabra 410/510 will be a serious step up from your current setup. We use it in our meeting rooms - as you get towards 10 people you need to be more conscious of placement - moving it closer to the person speaking or speaking in the direction of it

Senecio

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#2676502 18-Mar-2021 14:26

jonathan18:

I'm in a similar boat to the OP, wanting to put forward suggestions for one of our work sites. Ironically, it's the Wgtn HQ, which doesn't seem to be able to provide decent MS Teams access in enough spaces; we want it in place to stop us from having to travel 4-5 hours to attend a one-hour meeting!

And, yeap, we're definitely in the space of an org that's too broke/tight to pay for a proper solution (even to the extent of the Logitech one referred to above), so further recommendations for affordable but decent options would be welcome.

I've had a look at the Jabra options, with its website suggesting the 410 and 510 are 'great for meetings of up to' 4 people; the 710 up to 6 people, and the 810 up to 15 people.

We're looking to something closer to the last of these - and the meeting rooms can be longer so not such a 'middle' to the room. The 810's RRP is $1075, and I can't imagine I could persuade them to spend anything close to that. Are there any other options that would work in this situation? I'm thinking a couple of daisy-chained mid-sized units may be better (possibly two of the other Jabra models?) It doesn't have to be perfect - just better than the current practice which is - and I kid you not - using a single laptop with its built-in camera and mic for a mid-sized meeting room with 20sh people in it (hence why currently I feel the need to still travel...)

Thanks for any suggestions.

You would be surprised at just how effective a single 510 would be in that scenario. However for you use case I would suggest 2 710s. Then they could be used as single units in two smaller meeting rooms or daisy chained together in one large meeting room when required.

mattyb

254 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2677092 19-Mar-2021 10:35

Thanks for the responses all - very helpful.

After doing a bit more research I've managed to arrange to get two Jabra 710s (https://www.jabra.co.nz/business/speakerphones/jabra-speak-series/jabra-speak-710##7710-409) to run a trial in one of our large meeting rooms, so once these have arrived and I've got them paired up and going hopefully I can report back.

chevrolux

4962 posts

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#2677099 19-Mar-2021 11:02

If all you want is a USB microphone, the Sennheiser (or EPOS as it is now) SP30 is pretty awesome. Same idea as the Jabra speaker pucks, but beats them in audio quality.

chevrolux

4962 posts

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Inactive user

#2677102 19-Mar-2021 11:05

jonathan18:

I'm in a similar boat to the OP, wanting to put forward suggestions for one of our work sites. Ironically, it's the Wgtn HQ, which doesn't seem to be able to provide decent MS Teams access in enough spaces; we want it in place to stop us from having to travel 4-5 hours to attend a one-hour meeting!

And, yeap, we're definitely in the space of an org that's too broke/tight to pay for a proper solution (even to the extent of the Logitech one referred to above), so further recommendations for affordable but decent options would be welcome.

How ridiculous. "Hey, can your team please spend 4 hours of unbillable time travelling to Wellington for a meeting because we don't want to spend money on a proper meeting room set up".

mattyb

254 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2677142 19-Mar-2021 11:59

chevrolux:

If all you want is a USB microphone, the Sennheiser (or EPOS as it is now) SP30 is pretty awesome. Same idea as the Jabra speaker pucks, but beats them in audio quality.

Can you connect 2/3x to capture audio for larger meeting rooms? I'm not sure how this (or even the SP80) might fit the use case in the original post.

csuttonnzl

30 posts

Geek

#2677199 19-Mar-2021 13:20

We are a Zoom shop for meeting room software.

In terms of hardware in our smaller rooms we use the " all in one" DTEN solutions https://dten.com/. In larger rooms for audio we use Shure golf ball mics which hang from the ceiling.

BlakJak

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#2680680 25-Mar-2021 21:18

I have a Jabra 510 - well, my employer has one for my team which I have custody of - we find them really effective in meetings with up to 12 people at the same conference table, if that gives you an idea.

In rooms where the table is sized up to 20-odd they're not quite enough but certainly better than nothing.

We have actually bought a whole bunch of the 710s and fixed them to the tables in many of our meeting rooms, now that our default mode is generally Teams driven from a laptop.

Our legacy VC kit and room mic arrangements are barely used since we deployed Teams, though i've used the legacy kit to dial in (via POTS) for audio connection from the biggest rooms when necessary.

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