Corporate audio: Aiming for ease Features 13/10/2017 As manufacturers from both sides of the aisle take steps to increase integration between microphones and DSPs, Hurrairah bin Sohail discovers that all efforts are targeted to make the lives of corporate clients easier.Corporate conference rooms are the bread and butter of the AV industry. Corporate projects allow manufacturers, integrators and consultants the opportunity to demonstrate in full the advantages of proper AV systems. However, the needs and priorities of corporate clients when it comes to audio have evolved over the years. Andy Wan, Asia director, integrated systems and enterprise sales at Shure, says: “No matter what microphone solution or form factor is used, reliable performance and clear, intelligible sound should always be the top priority. Effective communication cannot take place with poor audio. With varying levels of users’ technical competence, microphones should be intuitive and easy to use to reduce the likelihood of human error and consequently the need for troubleshooting by IT staff. Organisations that use different audio systems across many types of rooms also look for similar operational characteristics to ensure consistency and to avoid confusion.” Kamal Mahtani, director of sales and marketing Asia Pacifi c at beyerdynamic, says: “Generally, the first thing anyone would look out for [in a microphone] would be audio quality, longevity and ease of use. If it is a complex installation, end-users want to ensure neat and intelligent mounting points. Above all, consistency in quality is required.” Vince Tan, vice president of system solutions at Sennheiser Asia, says: “Corporate end-users in APAC are looking for high quality audio with utterly unobtrusive designs, while requiring ease of use and ease of installation. With the advent of increased web meetings in corporations, we are seeing an uptake of AV technologies that can optimise such meetings. Speech intelligibility is one of the main audio considerations for effective web meetings. Users may fi nd it troublesome and ineffi cient to huddle around a single audio source in group online meetings just to hear what the other party is trying to say.” After quality, the audio needs for the majority of corporate clients are ease of installation and ease of operation. It goes without saying that microphone manufacturers are trying to meet these needs. Wan from Shure says: “Considering the progress of the converged AV/IT world, the use of digital networked audio protocols has been a key component of product advancements and contributed to easier installation and management. Technologies like Dante enable transport of multi-channel, uncompressed digital audio signals over standard IT networks, using just one standard Ethernet cable to connect the system. Not only does this enable scalability and greatly increases installation flexibility, it also reduces the product and labour cost associated with cabling and ongoing maintenance.” Ease of operation begins with the proper microphone placement. Mahtani from beyerdynamic says: “The audio pickup is not only dependent on the microphone. Room acoustics, ambient noise and the vocal technique of the speaker are also very important. The placement must be carefully defined and based on the individual requirements of the room. Requirements differ from room to room, hence flexibility in tuning our system to room timbre is key to a successful installation.” Wan from Shure says: “It is very important to understand that any conference room is only as good as the sum of its parts and better conferencing sound is only achieved when microphones, acoustics and loudspeakers are considered equally. Room size and shape, acoustic treatment, and HVAC are crucial factors in the successful implementation of audio conference systems. Likewise, proper loudspeaker selection and placement have a great effect on how people hear and are being heard in a meeting.” He continues: “Advances in audio technology can help to automate these best practices, following the humanistic behaviour in meetings and allowing people to behave more naturally and focus exclusively on the meeting, rather than the mic. The MXA910 ceiling array is a perfect example, where highly accurate lobe positioning and automatic mixing ensure ideal audio pickup without requiring any user interaction.” Manufacturers on the whole are pushing microphone array technology. We saw a number of array microphone products showcased at ISE and new array microphone products continue to be unveiled and presented to the market. Mahtani from beyerdynamic says: “An array microphone is simpler to use and provides a more constant output signal. The operational costs are much lower because of the missing serviceable parts like goosenecks.” Wan from Shure says: “Array technology has been around for some time, though adoption used to be slow in the past as the benefit of ease of use didn’t outweigh the relatively poor audio quality that some products delivered. However, since the introduction of the Shure MXA910 ceiling array microphone we have seen that many customers who previously stayed clear from array microphones are now enthusiastically switching to this solution, as we are now able to deliver on both ease of use and high quality sound.” Tan from Sennheiser Asia adds: “TeamConnect Ceiling is designed to fit within the space of a standard 600mm 2 ceiling panel, making it easier to install discretely. Intuitive coloured LED- lights that indicate when the system is muted or in operation complete the overall subtle impression. The system can be easily expanded with additional microphones. Installation, configuration and everyday use require minimum effort, while the cable-free, tethered design ensures that the microphones are protected from wear and tear, thereby extending the longevity of the product.” Adoption of microphone arrays in Asia Pacific however has been slow. Wan from Shure explains: “Despite the advancement in array technology, the performance of array microphones is still limited by the environments in which they are installed. In acoustically challenging rooms, gooseneck microphones are still the recommended solution to ensure clear audio pickup. And while array microphones are a good option for users who wish to keep their meeting table clean and tidy, some customers prefer to have a visible microphone on the table, in which case wireless gooseneck mics are a suitable alternative.” To further improve ease of operation and ease of installation, manufacturers of different audio products deployed in corporate environments are cooperating and developing enhanced integration between their different products. Microphones and DSPs function in tandem and it is no wonder that players from both sides of the aisle are working towards greater integration. Wan from Shure says: “No matter how great the sound quality of a microphone, DSPs are still needed for echo cancellation, noise reduction, automatic mixing etc. to ensure good quality audio and videoconferencing experience.” He continues: “Offering enhanced integration between microphones and DSPs makes it easier to deploy complete solutions faster, cheaper and more efficiently. Specially where budget is a concern, it saves the development cost of configuring an appropriate solution to match a given DSP, making it more affordable for the client and profitable for the integrator.” DSP manufacturers also feel the same way. Martin Barbour, product manager for installed systems at QSC, says: “Integration between DSPs and modern microphones is really the next logical step for manufacturers to make systems integration easier for all users. We have already seen this in the past with amplifier, loudspeaker, telephony and control system integration.” Andy Pearce, director of system sales for Asia Pacific and greater China at QSC, adds: “It actually makes no sense to deploy separate audio DSP, control processor and conference room cameras when a single platform can achieve all those functions with far less integration complexity and limitation. The Q-Sys platform ticks all those boxes by including audio, video and control in one software-based platform.” He continues: “At the end of the day, platform standardisation with the Q-Sys platform from QSC leads to reduced integration complexity that in turn makes installations easier and increases ease of use. Q-Sys Enterprise Core processors also provide cost-effective scalability that opens up financial options for corporate customers with large-scale multi-year deployments.” Matthew Packer, sales development director for Asia Pacifi c at Biamp Systems, says: “This [enhanced integration between microphones and DSPs] is a newer and interesting integration option. It’s a great opportunity for system integrators to introduce something truly revolutionary to their customers: possibly a single ‘smart’ microphone paired with powerful DSP, alleviating a lot of problems AV professionals face with microphones that break or pick up unwanted noise from laptops. Plus, they can replace any wireless mics that go missing. We are now seeing the price point of smart amplifi ers drop, making them viable in any mission critical installation. AV staff always want to know when something is faltering before it actually fails and integrated networked amplifi ers can give us this insight. We don’t have to wait for someone to notice bad audio or no audio, or a red LED indicator anymore – the amp can tell us.” But even with all the efforts of manufacturers, setting up and commissioning an audio system for corporate spaces remains a difficult task. Kane Zhang, Asia Pacifi c senior applications engineer at Biamp Systems, says: “People are always looking for ‘smart’ equipment that can automatically set up and tune the system to the space, and through innovative software it is becoming possible. But there is still an artistic element to tuning the audio in a space – it’s the combination of science and arts. There is no obvious solution to ensure easy deployment but as I said earlier, DSP algorithms would help to some degree.” Packer from Biamp details: “We know that the time allowed to commission AV systems is around half of what it was 10 years ago. We always keep that at the top of our minds when defi ning features and designing software. Algorithms that are more forgiving of less-than-desirable room acoustics or are quicker to ‘dial-in’ to suit the room’s needs are our goal. Software affordances that make it quick to apply a common change to multiple objects is also something we always try to provide in our software.” He continues: “As for steps to make commissioning easier, we often have to remind integrators that starting out from the default confi guration is often the quickest way to quick success – as many of them ignore the default and roll their own settings. Most rooms have essentially the same baseline needs, so that is reinventing the wheel somewhat. The Biamp default confi gurations are tried and tested and almost every project can do well to start with them, then build on them with advanced features as needed. Plus, our applications engineering team is available to help with whatever steps beyond that may be needed in the default fi les. Also, send us your fi le before you go onsite. We may pick up something that could cut your time on the job, potentially saving signifi cant time on the job site.” Barbour from QSC adds: “To identify the most trouble-free implementation process for your project, integrators should open conversations with the IT department, representing your customer early in the project. Some IT departments are open to the prospect of leveraging the site- wide IT infrastructure to deploy AV solutions because of the obvious benefi ts offered by centralised management and monitoring as well as scalability. Some IT departments may be unable to share IT infrastructure with AV services. Either way, identifying those distinctions will help guide your project deployment decisions. Additionally, defi ning standards across the project including a small number of ‘room templates’ covering audio signal fl ow, third party integration and telephony as well as user interfaces that can be easily deployed to each room will dramatically decrease install time and complexity, while increasing user adoption by providing similar experiences throughout the project.” In conclusion he says: “I think it is becoming obvious that our touch point with the corporate customer is the IT department. With that comes the requirement of recognising the challenges faced by our new customer and addressing them in ways that are truly IT centric in their approach. The IT industry has already been through the hardware to software transition and I feel it’s clear that our industry is on the cusp of the same transition. At QSC, we started this journey over a decade ago with the development of Q-Sys, which is an AV solution for the IT customer.” Packer from Biamp comments: “Corporations increasingly want to manage access to the setup and confi gurations of AV devices and systems via active directory. Expect to see more developments in this regard. Along the same lines, network device security is also a hot topic. I think we produce some of the most security-responsible audio devices in the industry but we continue to look at how things are developing and what we can do to make our devices even more security-centric.”