I have had some experience with ceiling microphones in various Polycom 
conference rooms, and have not really liked the results.  When all is working 
as desired, the quality and clarity is very nice, a few mics can cover a 25 
person room.  The biggest thing that you have to watch out for is the HVAC 
system in the room.  With the units I have used, whenever there is a conference 
in the room, the air exchangers need to be turned off so that it does not sound 
as though there is a tornado in the room.  Then, all of the participants 
complain that they are getting hot and the whole thing starts over again.  As 
for what to do about your issue with not wanting cords all over the room, I 
wish you luck.





Derek Vine

Communication Network Specialist

The University of South Dakota

414 East Clark Street

Vermillion, SD 57069

Office - (605) 677-5042

Cell - (605) 677-8215

ce...@usd.edu







From: owner-ag-t...@mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-t...@mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of 
John I Quebedeaux Jr
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 4:18 PM
To: Jeremy Mann
Cc: ag-tech
Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Microphone recommendations



Jeremy,



My 2 cents from experience is that wireless mics are an extreme pain to 
maintain due to battery consumption and also to control the appropriate use and 
placement and audio... balance? If at all possible, wire them for lower maint. 
particularly if they receive a lot of use. Wireless is much more expensive as 
well, but they are convenient (it would seem) until you begin dealing with 
batteries.  Also, if they're wireless and the mics are not in a fixed point 
then you have audio issues to deal with with microphone placement- including 
the famous picking up a wireless mic and holding it like a "StarTrek" 
communicator... <shudder>. Perhaps it's just me, but i like it if my users can 
NOT physically move the microphones that I've so carefully balanced for the 
acoustics in the room they are in.



I feel your pain on the wires though and in particular the microphone 
situation. Newer rooms here they don't want to have "fixed" mics on the tables 
and the tables themselves aren't fixed either (i.e. can change room config in a 
few minutes). I know that Jason Bell had demonstrated at SC Global his success 
at incorporating ceiling microphones into his room infrastructure. Perhaps some 
audio folks can comment on microphone placement and installation a bit for new 
installations.



-John Q.



--

John I. Quebedeaux, Jr.; Louisiana State University

Computer Manager LBRN; 131 Life Sciences Bldg.

e-mail: jo...@lsu.edu<mailto:jo...@lsu.edu>; web: http://lbrn.lsu.edu

phone: 225-578-0062 / fax: 225-578-2597







On Feb 1, 2007, at 8:59 AM, Jeremy Mann wrote:





I've been assigned to design and install AG systems in several

existing conference rooms for different departments here on campus.

One design they all agree on, is the lack of or sparse use of cables.

The one portable AG node I built several years ago is not pleasing to

the eye at all because of all the cables.



I'm interested to hear if anyone else has built or is using wireless

table top microphones, or  a combination of wireless microphones with

built-in echo cancellation.



Any brand recommendations?



--

Jeremy Mann

jer...@biochem.uthscsa.edu<mailto:jer...@biochem.uthscsa.edu>



University of Texas Health Science Center

Bioinformatics Core Facility

http://www.bioinformatics.uthscsa.edu

Phone: (210) 567-2672





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