Science Fiction in the Meeting Space

Carl Lukings • July 27, 2020

Redefining the microphone for the meeting space

Captain Kirk had his handheld communicator. Captain Picard wore his communicator on his chest. But neither captain could call back to the ship without having a mic close at hand. The ability to be clearly heard on a call or video conference without a mic being close to the "talker" has been far fetched sci-fi for years. But not now.


With a building requirement for video conferencing and the quest to remove all cables and distractions from the meeting space, microphone manufacturers have been applying science and engineering to meet sci-fi requirements. A handful of innovators like Shure have developed mics that don't look like traditional mics or act like traditional mics.



These microphones are hidden, looking like ceiling tiles or mounted on the wall looking almost like sound bars under a TV (they're not sound bars!)  But everything we know about microphone technology would suggest that having a mic far away from the source is a recipe for disaster.

Mounting a microphone far away from any source raises all kinds of issues.

If you mount a "normal" mic, dynamic or condenser, at a distance from the source you need to turn up the mic to get a good volume input. But the byproduct is an increased noise floor. This means you'll hear other people in the room, the air conditioner, the fan on the projector, rustling of paper, and countless other distractions. This can sound like low frequency rumble, a background hiss and often increased echo.


Sure, you can try to EQ out this frequency and that frequency and maybe throw in a piece of gear or two to try to control the issues but often the resulting sound is thin and it doesn't sound right. We've all been on phone calls with people on speaker phone and it sounds terrible. Like they're stuck in that tube TV Buck Rogers premiered on in the 70's.

If only we could steer the microphone directly to a person, ignoring all the other sound in the room.


And then, have it point at another person when they speak.

The MXA910 from Shure allows for one 2'x2' microphone array to cover a room with up to eight programmable, distinct areas of coverage. Through internal processing the microphone sends a Dante or AES67 signal to your video conferencing or teleconferencing system. 


The MXA310 works as a simpler desktop model with predetermined coverage patterns and the new MXA710 can be wall mounted or suspended above an area with flexible coverage patterns for different room applications.


These mics cancel out the background noise and reflections allowing for only the intended sounds to be picked up. There's a lot of technology behind the scenes but the simplicity of operation is the true genius.

Today, when it comes to microphones 'science fiction' is now 'science fact'. 


For a demonstration on how Shure's MX Advance series of steerable microphones may work for your meeting space or teaching environment contact Horizon Solutions sales. sales@horizonsolutions.net

Balancing Best Price and Best Service in AV Procurement: Is It Possible?

By Carl Lukings • November 19, 2024
When it comes to procurement for professional audio, lighting, and video services, is it possible to balance the “best price” and “best service”? We think it is! Below are some insights that may help you navigate this challenge. The Challenge of Price-Driven Procurement Many municipalities and organizations are required to purchase from the vendor offering the lowest price. But is this approach always the best? As taxpayers, we want assurance that public money is being spent appropriately, and that there’s no room for favouritism or backdoor deals. The intent is good, but in practice, this system often results in a “bare bones” solution. The theory behind it is to guard against preferential treatment or collusion, ensuring that public funds are used responsibly. However, focusing solely on the lowest price can often result in solutions that are less than ideal.

5 Ways to Improve Your Audio Quality in 2025

By Jordan Elgie • November 19, 2024
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School Audio System Upgrades

By Duane Myers • October 8, 2024
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Dance at Home Floor Kit

By David Brown • July 29, 2020
It certainly has been different times dancing on Zoom for over 2 months. Now we are coming up on a new dance season. Everybody has different levels of confidence in returning to activities and that is perfectly fine. Some kids can not wait to get back in the studio. Some want to continue but would like to do so from home. Of course, depending on class size there may be a rotation where you spend two weeks in the studio and one week at home. Maybe you will dance in the studio like normal (with new physical distancing guidelines) but want to practice at home. With these new situations Rosco has made a kit version of their popular dance floor called the Marley Mat . The floor that is used in the Rosco Marley Mat is a lighter weight version of Adagio floor that we use in our studios. That makes it perfect for dancing at home for all types of dance including ballet, jazz, acro, lyrical and even tap . It will have the same feel and “speed” of the studio floor. Being a lighter weight material allows the floor to be rolled up when not in use and unrolled and used immediately. The Marley Mat kit can be purchased for $ 149.00 (price current as of July 2020) plus shipping and tax. The package comes with a 5’ 3” by 6’ section of black or grey floor, and a roll of tape that would allow you to lay down and tape the floor 5 times. Additional tape can be purchased. You can find and purchase the kit from StageStore at the following link. StageStore is a great supplier in Ontario of theatrical type products. https://www.stagestore.ca/product/rosco-marley-mat-kit/

5 Tech Tips to help you return to church after Covid-19

By Carl Lukings • June 9, 2020
Tech tips that can help your congregation make the transition back to church successfully

How much wire goes into the audio video system of a world class theatre?

By Carl Lukings • May 25, 2020
Even with the proliferation of wireless systems, our entire industry runs on wire.  Miles, or should I say kilometres of wire. But the truth is that we use a lot less than we used to. Back in the 1980’s we didn’t have digital audio snakes or DMX cables for lighting. And every video line was a coax cable or multiple coax bound together. A simple audio snake could be an inch in diameter for just a couple dozen channels. But that was then. We’ve come a long way in the last 30-40 years, but we still run a lot of wire. It’s just different now. So, how much wire does go into a world class theatre? For the last six months Horizon Solutions’ crew has been pulling wire into the new Tom Patterson Theatre in Stratford, Ontario to support the new Audio and Video systems. There is a lot of wire there. To be clear this wire does not include the lighting systems, nor does it include the cables that plug from plates into the pieces of equipment. Those are a completely different story.

A better acoustic environment to better your mental health

By Carl Lukings • May 15, 2020
New Acoustic treatment in Chatham-based CMHA

Acoustic Treatment - From bath towels to glass wool

By Carl Lukings • April 29, 2020
As a kid we moved around a lot.  My parents liked the change and my father was often looking for a new challenge with his work in IT. One of the things I have always remembered whenever we moved into a new home was how the house felt so hollow with no furniture, justblank walls and floors. It was even more noticeable in an empty bathroom. I remember my brothers and I standing in an empty bathroom hollering at the top of our lungs, listening to the echo. Although I had very little interest in sound or audio at 12 years old, I understood something about acoustics. When the shower curtain and bath towels were hung, the bathroom quickly went from being a cavern to a small room. The principals haven't really changed much over the years. The fact is, some rooms, for numerous reasons, have acoustic characteristics that make them much more reverberant than others. Sometimes it's the hard uncovered surfaces. Or it could be a tin-pan ceiling. More often than not it's the physical dimensions of the room, allowing for some frequencies to reflect for a long period of time before diminishing. One way to determine and quantify the "issue frequencies" is to play a frequency sweep within the space and then record the playback with a microphone in the room. What this does is provide us the ability to "hear" and analyse how the different frequencies are responding in the space. Using a measurement referred to as the RT60 we are able to determine which frequencies and to what extent each frequency is a problem. From there, we're able to take that information and determine how much acoustic treatment is required to bring the RT60 reverberation time down to a reasonable level.
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