Hybrid Socially Distanced Meetings.. Audio?

[Driftingashore]

We haven't previously needed a meetings room setup, and could get away with using a single laptop on a table for meetings in Teams but I've been asked for the ability to create pop-up meetings room, with socially distanced tables for those present. As the tables will be some distance apart, it seem logical we'll need multiple microphones, but I'm not sure on the best way to accomplish this and tie them back to a Teams meeting.

 

As the room will be pop-up I don't want to have to spend too much time tying it all together (I'm usually given about 20 minutes notice that anything needs to be set up at all, and a couple of days ago that included setting up a Teams meeting because no one else had ), obviously I don't want cables traipsing all over the floor between tables..

 

I'm assuming we'll need an actual audio setup with a mixing desk, but I'm hoping some of you can point me in the right direction before I start looking for something that's more complicated than necessary. Also, if the idea of this being pop-up sounds absurd and you believe there should be a dedicated room with permanent set up, say so, but I'd still be interested in hearing your setups for mics / camera(s) etc.

 

Thanks!

[3s-gtech]

I used to do this with a simple mixing desk and three wired microphones, with Skype for Business. It worked fine, and could be set up in seconds. We replaced it with a Logitech GROUP that does the same thing with a single mic. Still quick and easy. Pop-up works fine IME.

[SamanthaD]

An idea of your budget here would be really helpful, and the room size.

 

The best solution I've installed is using the Sennheiser Team Connect Ceiling 2 mic (TCC2). We've then fed this into an Extron DMP128 Plus C audio matrix, which provides active echo cancelling and noise reduction (much more effective than relying on the audio codec of whatever VC solution you're using). The audio matrix then connects the PC via USB as a generic soundcard. Using the matrix means we can use multiple mics (we actually use 2 TCC's in the room) and include radio mics etc if we need to, as well as giving an in room mix. The echo cancellation is so effective you can play a song at full volume in the room and it's not transmitted over the call.

 

There are other solutions that I've not tested - the Nuvera solution looks interesting.

 

The biggest headache you will have is if everyone is joining the call on their personal laptops, but want to use the in-room audio. This simply will not work as it requires everyone to mute the system and microphone else you'll generate feedback. (Guarantee someone will umute themselves to speak at some point!) A full VC solution is going to be preferable from a support and experience perspective, I can see this approach taking a lot of your time.

[Soulfish]

Teams meeting rooms are my bread and butter these days . The first question is how large is the room, and how many people are you looking at having in the room.

 

Teams will take care of all audio mixing if you used an approved meeting room - you don't need specialist audio mixing or anything like that. An out-of-the-box "Teams Meeting Room" by Logitech, Poly, HP or Lenovo will handle it all for you.

 

Teams meeting rooms are quite nice in that they are essentially all in one devices based either around a kiosk Windows PC or an Android device. For simplicity's sake, you can look at something like a Logitech Rally Bar with a Logitech TAP touchscreen, or for an Android-based solution the Poly Studio X50 with TC8.

 

I've got both devices in rooms that can take up to 10 people and they work pretty well. If you want a larger room then you're looking at something like the Logitech Rally Plus, where you end up with a separate webcam, speakers, mics that are all connected back to the Windows PC. We use those in rooms that are anywhere from 8 person up to 40-50 person. Larger than that is possible for Teams, but at that size you need a bespoke solution (we have Teams meeting rooms connected to multiple auditoriums that can seat 500-1000, but then you're looking at ££££££)