Better Audio with Microsoft Teams
It's just the same if you use Teams, Zoom, Bluejeans or any video conference system.
Videoconference on a laptop is great for one-to-one but in a meeting room....
We can easily take audio for granted.
Look at that high definition picture, it’s fabulous, surely the sound will be just as good?
Unfortunately sound continues to follow some well established laws of physics. If you are speaking close to the microphone you will be picked up clearly. If you speak from several metres away then the background noise in the room may drown your voice out.
If you expect your laptop to pick up the sound of a board meeting you will be disappointed.
It would be just the same if you put a webcam on top of your 70″ monitor screen.
How can we improve the sound pickup quality?
The first thing to consider is the room you are using.
- If there is a lot of background noise that will make clear speech in a video conference much harder to achieve. If there are noisy machines running – turn them off. If you can hear people outside, shut the door.
- Reverberation and echo can also spoil conference audio and may require acoustic treatment to deal with them.
- Adding some soft furnishings can help to absorb these noises and if that’s not possible then acoustic absorbent panels can do the job. These can also be decorative if you want.
Once you have sorted the room then think how best to collect the audio.
If the room layout is fixed then putting suitable microphones on the table can work well.
If the room layout is changeable then ceiling hung microphones mean all the cables can be left alone. Most boardrooms can get really good coverage with just one or two ceiling microphones.
For anything more than a single microphone you will often need a dedicated DSP (audio signal processor) to manage the audio for the best results.
We've got good audio, now for the camera.
Once you have decided on the microphone system then you might also want to look at improving your camera. The little wide angle camera that is perfect for a one-to-one meeting means everyone is a tiny dot once you put it in a larger room.
There’s a huge range to choose from here. We have cameras with 4k resolution and a 120 degree wide field of view that have intelligent automatic zoom built into them. They will pick out the person speaking from the group. Then there are the more traditional looking PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) cameras. These can allow you to control and select exactly what your far end viewers will see.
One excellent system is the Yealink S90, which comes with two PTZ cameras. We can control this using the right microphones so that each individual speaker is framed in the picture.
Get the ball rolling today...
Call 029 2056 0333
We would love to hear from you
Don’t be shy, whether you know exactly what you’re looking for, or just want some general advice, we’d love to hear from you. Give us a call, or fill in the form and we’ll get back to you as quick as we can…
Call us Today on 029 2056 0333
Drake Audio-Visual,
St Fagans Rd
Cardiff, CF5 3AE
Email: info@drakeav.com
