Advice for conference room accessories

Steel Contributor

Hi All

 

Looking for some advice from others that may have set up a Surface Hub in a conference room or boardroom where the basic device isn't enough and some level of addition A/V is required.

 

We have 2 very large rooms with 84" Surface Hubs, and we need to provide an external mic solution. We have fitted XLR ceiling microphones in both rooms and are running these back into an amplifier, then from XLR stereo to mono, and finally XLR mono to active USB to make them plug N play compatible for the Surface Hub.

 

While the microphones are detected and can be used, we have terrible gain issues due to not being able to control the microphone volume on the Surface Hub. We're planning to implement a separate gain control before the mono to USB conversion.

 

However, at this stage I'm looking at what our contractor is proposing and all I can think is 'I wonder if we're missing a much simpler way of doing this'? I'm all for simple solutions, because then they're (usually) idiot proof!

 

Has anyone implemented any kind of additional microphone solution for a boardroom/conference room and, if so, what would you recommend?

 

Note that we're not looking at using a USB plug N play device like the Jabra Speak 810. We need something in the ceiling that is minimal, always on, and capable of picking up voices clearly from a good distance.

1 Reply

If you are doing a proper install, then look at something like a Polycom SoundStructure and their Ceiling Mics.  I've not tried it with the Hub, so best to ask if it can be done