ceiling mounted microphone for a board-room

[crox]

not a typical post I think for this forum.

 

We are putting in a basic (ish) video conferencing package for our board-room, consisting of 5.1 surround system, basic desktop, LCD TV. Skype will be used the most, but in reality, we are not going to use it more than once a month in full anger.

 

I had in mind a desktop microphone such as the MXL AC 404 Microphone which I have used before with good success, but the table doesn't have a cable port, no big issue, but the floor is solid, so we would end up running cables under mats etc, which isn't pretty.

We could suspend from the ceiling with ease, but have no idea of a microphone to use. Ideally it would use USB, but happy to look at analogue, but would probably need a little mixer to go with it, so cost is king!

Any advice?

[Owain]

How big a room and how many participants?

 

Boundary mic stuck to the ceiling, or just put a socket on the ceiling and have one mic cable dropping down to the table when in use. Or use a wireless mic(s)

 

 

[Bobbsy]

Depending on the size and layout of the conference room, be a bit careful with the idea of a USB microphone. The maximum cable length for USB varies from 6 to 16 feet depending on the version being used--and even 16 feet doesn't go far if you have to do neat, indirect cable runs.

[crox]

thanks. The room is probably 7 x 3m, with a board table of 3m x 1m at the most. The screen will be 2m from the table at the shortest distance, so 16ft would be very tight.

 

If we had to for a more convential microphone, I suppose a USB Sound Card to receive the mic-input would suffice, assume that Skype can see it as a microphone

[plinque]

If you can, do a test with a mic in a similar position to the proposed ceiling installation before spending any money on installing. If it works, great (and please come back to talk what you did!), but unless the room is very quiet you are likely to be disappointed.

If the room is only going to be used once or twice a month, a boundary mic or two laid on the table as required may be your best bet.

This is what I do, and it's also the approach by the better VC hardware makers. I think in terms of a ratio of 1 mic to 2/3 participants or thereabouts, however the quieter the room the fewer mics you need.

Alternatively, just use an iPad or two on the table!

Skype is fantastic for this kind of thing.

[Jivemaster]

USB will not usually work in excess of 5 metres of cable (booster amps are available) a balanced or starquad mic lead is good for 100 to 1000m.

[bruce]

How high is the ceiling? Is it a suspended ceiling; can you get above it?

 

If the ceiling is not too high, and it's not too noisy (ventilation fans above, or projector hanging below will screw up this plan!) you might get decent results from a boundary mic ceiling mounted. An omni mounted above the table will give a similar coverage pattern to an omni sitting on the table - although it'll be a little further away from the participants.

 

Or it might be rubbish - so test it first!

 

 

I see someone is selling a pile of used Beyer MPC-22 ceiling mount boundary mics on Ebay for £19 each, free postage. Cardioid rather than Omni, but at that price definitely worth a try. Note that these are condenser mics, so you'll need a preamp with phantom power if planning to connect to a PC.

[Bobbsy]

 

If we had to for a more convential microphone, I suppose a USB Sound Card to receive the mic-input would suffice, assume that Skype can see it as a microphone

 

I've done Skype calls to the BBC using my Firewire interface so I assume a USB would be fine as well. So long as the interface is selected in your audio control, Skype just picks it up automatically (well, it does for me anyway).

[paulears]

Yep - seems to work with whatever you have - I sent the christmas show from the UK to America as I discovered Skype was happy with the firewire input from the camera. The only snag was the audio to video delay which I guess with just audio doesn't matter!

[crox]

I've bought two so let's see how we get on.

 

We have a suspended ceiling with no AC or power to complicate matters so will test it out this week if I can pick up the rest easy enough.

[crox]

as an update, managed to wire everything up in some fashion, and despite some issues with getting decent volume through the surround sound, the choice of the Beyerdynamic bounday mics, and a cheap and old Behringer desk, it worked fine for a Skype call.

 

No issues with feedback, unless going silly with the gain, and probably a lot more tweaking with positioning and volumes to avoid picking up noises such as the chairs moving across the wooden floor.

 

I think I will take some pictures tomorrow so show what we have done. Cheap and cheerful, but hopefully quite effective.