10 Questions You Should to Know about Conference Desk Microphone

The quality of the sound in your video conference meetings is extremely important.

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Have you ever evaluated the equipment you are using, or do you just accept that it will ‘get the job done’ ?

In this article we are going to look more closely at how you can ensure that your audio quality is at a premium for all future meetings.

So let’s review the 10 things you should know about microphones for your video conferencing system.

1. Sound is more important than picture in a video conference. You can still have a conversation without a picture stream but unless you are a skilled lip reader all you will see is unintelligible gums flapping in HD or 4K. A perfect picture and poor sound quality just defeats the purpose of the conference to begin with.

2. Can you get good quality sound from a camera/mic set up, a sound bar with built in mics, table devices, extension mics, wireless mics and ceiling mics? Short answer yes – some cost more than others.

3. You are not unique if your CEO wants wireless mics. And yes in most cases they can be used. If you have a large board room table and you want high quality sound think EXTRA EXPENSE (cheap, good, wireless should not appear in the same sentence unless you are writing fiction)

4. Effective speaking distance from the person to the input mic is called its “reach”. If the gain is consistent there will be approx. a 6db difference in sound level if one person is twice the distance from the mic. For those of you who are not sound engineers this is a significant difference and probably will be noticed at the far end. And remember your microphones control sound you SEND to the far end.

5. Are there mics that adjust for differing volumes of people speaking in the room? Yes there are mics that provide automatic gain and adjust for this (note: not so much in wireless)

6. Do noise cancelling mics work?. Yes the good ones do. See point 10

7. We hear this question all the time. “I’d like ceiling mounted microphones and a projector, what would you recommend?” We’d strongly suggest you reconsider as ceiling mounted mic arrays and projectors are bad bedfellows. Have a listen for the fans next time you see a projector in a meeting room. The far end will hear your projector.

8. Wireless mics are fickle beasts, cheap wireless mics even more so. Choose a good brand, have a base station for charging them, use a mixer/preamp/amp and try before you buy if possible. DO NOT ( please don’t ) use mics where batteries need replacing. You are asking for headaches.

9. If you are using hand held or lapel mics in a presentation situation have a mic that can be controlled from the mixer and have a person controlling the level and the on/off function. Having the person speaking switching their own mic on and off and fiddling with it is for amateurs and it goes wrong often – this frustrates the speaker and the audience.
10. Good mics are expensive! Wireless or ceiling arrays even more so.

When buying or renting microphone systems, event and conference planners routinely face unfamiliar technological challenges.

Perhaps you’re familiar with table microphone systems, or you’ve investigated the pros and cons of renting conference microphones.

Now you need to ponder the next challenge: is it time to step up and add sophisticated voting microphone systems to your conference table?

Here are 5 questions event planners often ask about voting microphone systems:

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Question #1: What are voting microphone systems?

A: Voting microphones allow anyone taking part in a discussion — whether board members or panel members —  to also take part in decision-making by electronically tallying their votes.

Question #2: How do voting microphone systems work?

A: Voting microphones allow every attendee seated at the table to speak or vote by pushing the appropriate button. A moderator controls the flow of discussion from his or her chairman microphone.

In many ways, voting microphone systems are very similar to conference microphone systems.

But voting microphone systems also allow participants to vote up or down on proposed motions using a button built into the microphone unit. A central control unit tallies the votes, and the moderator reads the results.

Question #3: What times of events benefit from voting microphones? 

A: Voting microphone systems are an ideal choice for events where feedback is critical, or where decisions are made by a board or panel. This can be a public panel discussion, or a conference behind closed doors.

Question #4: Is it hard to set up and use voting microphone systems?

A: Like conventional wired conference microphones, voting microphone systems are daisy chained to each other, so all you have to do to set them up is chain all the microphones together and attach them to the control unit.

Wireless conference microphone systems are an even better option: since there are no cables, you can add or subtract microphone units at will.

Question #5: Why should you choose voting mics for your event?

A: By simplifying voting, you can spend more time on the matters at hand — not counting hands!

Best of all, electronic voting provides a veil of anonymity, allowing voters can make their decisions without feeling scrutinized.

If buying a voting microphone system makes you nervous, you can always rent your voting microphones from a qualified dealer!

How have voting microphone system helped your events? Let us know in the comments!

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Conference Desk Microphone.