To meet video communication needs, the AV market proposes extremely 'smart' solutions, more or less supported by artificial intelligence logic, designed for video capture and audio capture of participants in the room as well as sound diffusion of the speech of remote participants. These solutions are valid and simple to apply, but with performance suitable for limited spaces such as huddle rooms and small meeting rooms.
Not infrequently, this type of equipment has been mistakenly installed to serve large meeting rooms, such as boardrooms, with ineffective results in terms of audio capture performance (playback to remote participants inconsistent and unintelligible) and video capture (shots with seemingly distant subjects and distorted scenarios). Setting up a suitable video conferencing system for a boardroom requires experienced AV integrators capable of integrating professional and specialised products for video capture, audio capture and related automation.
The ideal video capture
It is entrusted to one or more PTZ cameras (motorised cameras with zoom, tilt and rotation control), fundamental in the choice of cameras is the quality of the optics, which must not introduce distortions and be sufficiently wide to allow optimal light to pass through, it must have very little movement noise, a large sensor for high quality shooting definition, an extremely fast focusing capability and no 'focus bounce' effects.
The best camera that meets these characteristics is undoubtedly the Canon CR-N500, which boasts a 1″ 4K UHD sensor and a Dual Pixel CMOS instant focus system, as well as a 15x optical zoom, smooth pan and tilt functions, image stabilisation to capture content with exceptional detail and the ability to automate with the built-in Auto Tracking Lite function.
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The ideal audio capture
Audio capture is critical for the understanding of speech that must reach remote speakers, high throw microphones or microphone arrays suspended from the ceiling are critical for any aesthetic or functional architectural constraints imposed by the hall structure, critical for the quality of audio capture and the definition of the speaker's position coordinates in the hall, preparatory to activating self-aiming logic of the camera(s) in the hall, in those architectural contexts where passive acoustic treatments are not possible to achieve perfect hall acoustics.
The most effective solution is the arrangement of boundary microphones flush-mounted on the speaker's table, 1 microphone for every seat or 1 microphone for every 2 seats, for a precise pick-up of each speaker, greatly limiting the criticality that plagues ceiling-hung microphone array solutions.
The Clockaudio C 012E-RF microphone is highly appreciated for this type of application, discreet, very small, robust, with excellent finish, with audio characteristics of the highest level, can be easily installed on any surface. For the most prestigious environments Clockaudio has boundary microphones that can be hidden in the table with manual action, as for the CRM 102-RF model, or motorised, as for the ARM 102-RF model.
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The 'smart' approach for users
Users of a boardroom often deal with confidential information, so the presence of technical staff in the room to support the videoconference is not welcome. A level of automation is indispensable so that the delegates in the room can concentrate on the meeting without interruptions due to the need to autonomously control any technological equipment dedicated to videoconferencing.
In these cases, the level of automation must be delegated to modern audio processors capable of guaranteeing the continuous consistency of audio capture and playback in the auditorium, as well as managing an auto-aiming logic for the auditorium camera(s) by virtue of recognising the position of each active speaker.
Excellent for this purpose is the TightAV DSP-AEC-1410 digital processor, capable of handling up to 12 microphones on the meeting table for the service of up to 24 seats, equipped with echo cancellation process (AEC), USB interface port for direct connection to the video conference computer, and capable of handling the pointing of the camera(s) autonomously.
Tired of the constant criticism of the performance of your boardroom video conferencing system? Contact us for a free inspection by a Ligra DS Business Partner AV Integrator.
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