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Ask Slashdot: Wireless Microphone For Stand-up Meetings?
rolandw writes We have daily stand-ups and normally there is at least one person missing from the room. We relay via on-line chat but the sound quality is rubbish. The remote person sounds great via our speaker when they use a headset but they can't hear what is happening in the room. We need a wireless mic that copes with a large echoing room and will stop feedback. Can you recommend one? We're not an over-funded start-up so don't have an unlimited budget...
Microphones aren't magic like that. :-/
and make a great microphone! Oh wait, this isn't YCombinator, is it?
And get them to knock up half a dozen blue-sky corporate bullshit canvasses for you. That will kill the echo, then just get a decent condenser mic, the blue yeti is pretty idiot proof and USB powered.
Pretty much every company ever has already solved this problem with polycom (or similar) conferencing phones(ranging from a few hundred dollars on up)
http://www.polycom.com/product...
Also conference phone numbers like Webex at all so lots of people can call in, if you need that sort of thing.
This is not a new or unsolvable problem, this is "standard office gear" since the 1990s.
How about just tell them to be in the room when you do the standup? This solution is simple and costs absolutely nothing.
Get one, mmaybe two real wireless microphones from Shure or someone like that -- think "audio equipment catalog", not "computer equipment catalog". Get the cables to hook the base station up to standard microphone input. Pass the mic around to whoever is talking; it doubles as the "currently speaking" token (and you only have one person at a time talking at standup, right?). Make sure you have lots of spare batteries (presumably rechargeable) in a convenient location.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
1: Stop doing "stand-ups".
2: Use a wired mic (or several). Alternatively, use the wired phones you likely have at your desks.
Standups? Remote work in a startup? Agile? The best solution is to get another job.
What about equipping all meeting participants with a wireless headset (headphone with mic). A base station in the room would connect to each headset, and transmit audio to remote participants. I also work for a company with many remote employees. When all meeting participants are at their desk using headsets, people are easy to understand, but as soon as some of the meeting participants are in a conference room with a speaker phone it becomes very difficult to hear people. As a result we do a lot of meetings from our desks even though many of us are in the same building and could benefit from a face to face meeting.
Does any device like this exist at any price?
Polycom Communicator C100 (USB speakerphone) works well for small group.
Is your room a natatorium, or a broom closet? How many people? Around a table, or classroom seating? Have you tried a proper conference room phone (not a regular speakerphone)? Is your phone system analog, digital, or IP (for the latter two, the solution may depend on the system in use)?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
We've had great success with phones, computers, and other devices (i.e. MondoPads, LifeSize, etc.) that use automatic gain control for the input microphones. Not only do they automatically increase gain to hear those low-talkers but they also helped us eliminate audio feedback "loops".
Most of the vendors will allow you to try them out first so you can find the device that works best in your space.
We use a Polycom Communicator C100 (the C100S specifically, branded for Skype) which works brilliantly.
The catch: the Automatic Echo Cancellation feature that makes it sound outstanding is actually handled by the software driver and that is only included in the Windows XP driver (*nix versions and later Windows versions don't have it) so we keep a Windows XP VM running just for our stand up meetings.
> large echoing room
Put up some curtains, couches or sound-dampening material in the ceiling (it really works).
You don't need a new mic, you need better cables.
I recommend Monster or Audioquest for the ultimate in high fidelity audio performance.
They are pretty useless. The seem to fulfill a role similar to the self-criticism sessions used to in communist countries. A waste of time, at best.
From the sounds of what you are saying, you actually need to look at a few things. First, for a wireless mic solution, look at RevoLabs. From the sounds of it though, you need a good hardware echo canncellation speakerphone setup. There are a lot of ways to do this. To be honest, you could get a RevoLabs FLX2 system. You could also get a Phoenix Audio Spider or Quattro3. If you need the wireless, you could also tie in a RevoLabs wireless mic with the Phoenix Audio equipment. At some point, no amount of echo cancellation and mics can deal with a room that has really bad echo qualities -- at that point you need accoustical treatment in addition.
My guess though, is all you really need is some Phoenix Audio Quattro3's. If you are deadset on using your current speakers and want a wireless mic, then get some RevoLabs mics, and get the Phoenix Audio MT107EHD for the hardware echo cancellation piece.
This is what I do for a living. My company provides technical solutions, including audio conferencing solutions. I have customer that is doing basically exactly what you are trying to do. The quickest and easiest solution was a Quattro3 sitting on a basic wheel table/cart, put right in the middle of the standing circle, and a cable plugged into the wall to connect with their phone system (this isn't what I think would be the best solution for this particular meeting for them, but solved their sound issues in a quick and cost effective manner -- they didn't want to go with the vidyo conferencing cart system route I recommended to them at the time).
What you are looking for is a "boundary microphone", also known as a "Pressure Zone Mic (PZM)"
Works like a charm in somewhat noisy environments too.
http://www.jabra.com/headsets-and-speakerphones/all-products/speakerphone
If you absolutely must do it the way you are doing, just buy a used Polycom and be done with it.
Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
I do a lot of sound for video, and live music. I can tell you without a doubt, that the last thing you want is wireless. There's not been a wireless system made that sounds as good as a $20 wire, or is as reliable, or is as easy to setup. Not Zaxcom, not Lectrosonics, not Sennheiser. But if you are going to insist on wireless, use one of those three. Nothing less than the Sennheiser G3 equipment is worth looking at -- ask any pro.
If you insist on wireless (and you will, because you didn't ask whether or not it was a good idea, you asked "which wireless" indicating you've already decided that), know that in the USA, frequencies above 600 MHz are being taken for LTE service in the next couple of years. Stay in the 500 MHz bands if you can. This band is crowded, so learn how to do a frequency scan during setup. You skip this step, don't complain about interference. If you do a frequency scan and can't find an empty band to use, well, I did tell you to go wired, yes?
If you are going to use either a lavalier mic, or a reporters "stick mic", use an omni. Do not use any kind of a directional mic. Why? Your "talent" (person using the mic) will make a hash of it, unless they do this for a living. If a lavalier, they will turn their head instead of their body, and take their voice out-of-pattern. If a stick mic, they'll keep moving the mic around relative to their mouth, especially if they are prone to gesturing, which in its way is even worse. So, insist on an omni. And no, you can't train them not to do these things. Why? Because you are paying them to think about the topic at hand, not for looking/sounding good during a presentation. We call news anchors "talent" for a reason -- it takes a special talent to say what you read on a telepromter all the while maintaining a look and controlling a mic, and come off convincing and sincere. Try it -- you'll cease laughing at those people (oh come on, you know you do. I did before I knew better.) almost immediately.
People (your boss) will object to an omni saying they "need" a directional mic to combat reflections in the crappy little conference room you're in. They lack experience; don't let it sway you. Signal to noise ratio in this case, is totally about mic placement. The closer you get to the mouth that's speaking, the better your signal to noise ratio is. Yes, it really is that simple. That's why you mount a lavalier center of chest, and why you hold a reporters mic around 10cm from the mouth. Close is good. Far is bad. Try it and see.
If you're going with a reporters mic, the most prevalent in NA is the Electro-Voice RE50N/D. Watch the evening news, you'll see them all over the place. The equivalent in Europe is the Sennheiser MD42. Both of these mics have excellent handling noise characteristics (that is, you won't hear noise as the talent nervously shifts it around in his hand). Both are dynamic mics, and therefore do not need phantom power. If you want to take either wireless, you can use a Sennheiser SKP 100 G3 plug on transmitter (and a matched receiver of course). If you pic a mic that needs phantom power, you'll need a Sennheiser SKP 300, which is considerably more expensive.
So to review. 1) wired, 2) omni, 3) lavalier or reporter's stick mic close to mouth.
What you need to figure out now is what you're trying to interface this mic to, so you can figure out how to do that. One way or the other you'll have to boost the mic signal (mic preamp) and get that signal into whatever you're using (camera, computer, whatever). But without knowing what you need to talk to...
either get the microphone closer to the person speaking (e.g. handing a microphone around) to tune out most of the room, or make the room sound better (curtains, reflection cancelling wall panels, ...).
If you are dealing with closed circuit system then just go to your local audio and band instrument shop. For a couple hundred or less they will have you set up. It probably can interface with a computer just fine without a mixing board as long as all your microphones can share a channel (so 2 mics max)
Get management to pony up for real AV gear. The problem is your gear is garbage and not designed for the use. There is no magical CHEAP thing you can buy.
Now get a biamp or BSS DSP and 4 boundary mics hanging from the ceiling on some 18" diameter glass plates... I can make a meeting room cover all voices in there perfectly for video and teleconference.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Really? Moderating down a post praising an industry standard device is just ridiculous.
You need a PZM microphone. It isn't wireless but you place it on a large flat surface, like a table or wall, and it will pick up everything in the room clearly. You cannot amplify it in the room or you get feedback but it would be great to send to a person on the other end of a connection or for a recording.
A $10 microphone won't be much good for a variety of people. OTOH ask where is the signal degradation happening? If you don't know then find out.
I was recently looking for a solution to a similar problem; speech-recognition from any spot in a living-room with a air-conditioner and lots of PC-fans running 24/7.
The only thing I could find that that was not a conference phone but still had speaker-tracking and echo-cancellation was this:
https://www.acousticmagic.com/...
4. PC/laptop microphones suck. I don't know why no one bothers to test them to the same level as your average cheap dumbphone speakerphone. They pick up all kinds of system electrical noise, ...
The problem usually isn't the microphone. It's the way it's wired (per the standard) and the way the desktop/laptop is powered.
PC microphones are wired UNbalanced: They have a signal and a ground wire, rather than the + and - signal wires and everything-but-desired-signal cancelation of the balanced wiring setups typical of professional microphones.
Laptops typically use power supplies that are not grounded, so they don't require a three-prong outlet. This usually ends up with the stray capacatance to BOTH sides of the line wiring capacitively coupling equally to the laptop "ground". That means the "ground" of the laptop is at half the line voltage - about 60 volts of AC (a rotten approximation of a sine wave plus lots of other junk it picked up at an assortment of frequencies). The capacitance is substantial - not enough to shock you if you touch the laptop and ground, but enough to feel a buzz if you rub your hand lightly across a "grounded" metallic part of the device.
Plug in the unblanced microphone and hold it, put the headset on your head, or just leave it sitting on the table. The "ground" is at 60V and you are driving maybe a couple MA of it down the shield wire. The voltage drop of that current (along with any other pickup) adds straight onto your audio input. The best microphone in the world will perform horribly if hooked up this way.
Try this: Unplug the laptop and let it run on battery. Notice how almost all of the noise disappears. You can also get rid of most of the noise by tying a decent ground onto the laptop. (Unfortunately, many meetings last longer than the laptop batteries...)
Plug in a VGA monitor with a three-prog power plug, which grounds the case of the laptop via the shield and the two hold-in screwd. I've done that without actually hooking up the monitor (which would have disabled my laptop screen) by adding a couple of the nuts scavenged from another DB connector as conductive spacers so the actual signal pins are not quite into the plug. And done this on a docking station, so the laptop headset was quieted when the laptop was docked, even though I used none of the docking station features except the power input.
Make a second cable with a three-prong plug to bring a ground up to the laptop. Green wire from the third pin to a screw into or clip onto such a chassis ground point.
Or bypass the problem completely by using a USB microphone. These digitize the audio right next to the microphone proper, with everything floating at the same voltage so nothing substantial is picked up betwen the air pressure sensor and the A-D converter.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
There's no omnidirectional microphone that can pick up everyone (assuming about 12 people in the room; four at a table might be possible).
The simplest solution would be to get everyone a headset that works with their phone or laptop and use the on-line meeting software.
Alternatively, you could use mixers to take sound input several microphones placed around a table. (There are USB mixers that output directly to a computer. Podcasters and livestreamers use them to get better sound.) Mixers should be able to adjust relative sound volume. You can get 10-to-12-input mixers for about $100 (via B&H). I'm not sure about the types of mics to use. For voice, maybe $50 each? (Musicians and professionals would pay far higher prices, but they need better quality.)
The last idea is to just have someone in charge of making sure ideas are heard.
I'm almost always the only person joining our team meetings remotely. I could barely hear people in the room. I searched for a hardware our small startup could afford. I decided to give a try to Highfive. The wide camera video feed is a nice plus to an outstanding sound quality.
Any of the Sennheiser or Shure wireless packs.
Countryman E6 type headset. Best every
For $700-$800+ you've solved the microphone problem. Look for used, maybe save half.
Maybe a Shure BLX14, $300
An Audio-Technica System 8 might satisfy your needs, $200 +/-
Then go fix your speaker placement and EQ the room. The Countryman likes a slight cut at 600Hz for vocals, choose the capsule cover carefully. The A-T mic I don't know well.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
We use the 410. I'm often on both ends of this device and while its not wireless, I can usually hear the quiet guy that is 10 to 12 feet away from the microphone. The 510 has some kind of bluetooth capability which might meet your wireless requirement, but I've not used it.
http://jb.factoryoutletstore.com/cat/26661/Jabra-Speaker-/-Conference-Phone.html
The best mic to use for good tone and level where you can't use a hand-held mic that I know of is a headband mic. It's like a headset but without the earphone bit. This is what actors would use with radio mics to be able to act and yet still sound loud and clear through a PA in difficult accoustics.
Here are some examples.
We do daily stand-ups between 2 locations. At one end which is a large office, we have a MXL AC404 USB conference microphone on a table that people stand or sit around. People around the table sound great, and it is omnidirectional, so it doesn't matter where people are. If someone goes off to scribble on the whiteboard and is 8 or 10 feet away from the mic, you can hear him or her, but it doesn't sound as good because it gets a little soft. If you keep an eye out on Amazon, or use camelcamelcamel, you can find this open box for less than $40.
At the other end, we use a Blue Snowball because the standup takes place in a large open room and we want the cardioid pickup pattern so we don't pick up extraneous noise. As with the other microphone, sound quality is a lot better when you are near the mic. I had someone who spoke softly, and I always had to get her to stand in front of the microphone, but a fellow with a booming voice was ok from 8 feet away.
You need two things:
1. On your end, a flush mount PZM. Mount this in the center of your table.
http://www.crownaudio.com/medi...
http://www.crownaudio.com/medi...
2. They MUST use headphones (not speakers) on the other end, or you will get massive feedback.
You need
http://getcatchbox.com/
It seems clear that you are asking for a high quality wireless mic with built in noise cancellation.
At my firm we are big fans of the Jabra 9400 line. Even the cheapest one (the 9450, which is what I use) is excellent but echo cancellation get better with the higher quality models. We use them with our Polycom HD phones and they sound better on both ends than the Polycom handset attached to the phone (and that's saying something). They also have excellent range.
Answering your question in advance: I do not, nor have I ever, worked for Jabra or Polycom.
This problem was solved in 1965. Just get a Cone of Silence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence). Just be sure you don't get it from a "discount place".
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
We use MXL AC-404 conference mic and Skype with good success in a room about 15ft x 25ft.
Saw this on kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... Might be interesting...
http://en-uk.sennheiser.com/sp...
Works for me (on linux) - good pickup for a medium-sized room, good sound (though you can use it just as a mic).
Don't waste your precious time with pointless meetings, problem solved.