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