The current system where we have part onsite and part digital meetings needs work to get right. We have a budget to purchase some bluetooth microphones, but we really need a solution that uses those and the tv speakers or similar to both pick up the people speaking in the room and let people online speak.
At the moment, using discord with laptops means its a bit of a hellscape of feedback issues.
We are not wedded to using discord, so if theres a better platform we can get people to connect to just for meetings thats an option also
Proposed Solution
No real already proposed ideas, other than to use the Jabra 530’s already budgeted for.
Limitations
None
Deliverables
A hardware or software setup that lets us:
Have people online hear whats happening in the meeting room
Let people online speak
Not have feedback or echo issues
Let us show what is being displayed on the TV online as well (screen sharing)
During the recent messup cicra 2020/21. A lot of online meeting systems were widely used.
Is there an issue with using one of these?
Or.
Must we build an in house system?
Most meetings used the audio from someone’s laptop which had highly variable results. I borrowed some pairing teleconference speakers from work and they seemed to work better for those meetings. I proposed and have a budget to get two of these.
For 1, speakers in the room should use the audio on their own device if they want to be heard properly by people online. remote viewers could raise a hand to be heard so the tv speakers can be unmuted.
for 2, these boundary mics, with this mixer would give an analog mic level output. it still needs to get to line level and then ADC to a laptop. ~$800 at a guess. There is no echo cancellation or feedback protection
For 3, prices start at ok and move to maximum oof.
Base level is something like the Jabra 750. Two devices can pair easily, bluetooth and wired connectivity, Pretty good range and coverage. Bit more setup and have to be stored and charged. Jabra isn’t the only player in this space. ~$750 for a pair
Next level is something like the Logitech Rally kit Plus, the Rally is the camera but the important part are the mics, speakers and hubs. speakers are ears to mount on the TV, both mics and speakers connect to the desktop hub. Mics can be daisy chained and up to 7 in a room. There’s brackets for everything to secure it all and mount mics to ceiling tiles. I’m not sure if the camera is essential to this mix but its a 4K ptz with some smarts apparently. The lecturn controller mutes, hushes, controls camera. The output hub has dual display capability,
A system which neatly installs into the greenroom is approaching $6000. Plus a dedicated NUC for a single solution.
OOF level systems are something like Biamp, with a $1000 mic and a $3400 desktop. doesn’t include cameras or speakers. (if we were a shared facility with bookable meeting rooms this is the strata we’d look at)
I have made enquiries to Video Conferencing Australia and Brisbane Sound Group for solutions and am waiting to hear back.
I cant summarise it better than @Antifoo has. He is definitely the one deepest into this.
More trials with the borrowed jabra speaker/mic systems is in order i think. ie playing with it all while it is not during a meeting to get everything juuust right.
Mainly we want to solve echo and feedback issues, without having to kind of mute/unmute back and forth too much.
I think outside the jabras we may want some kind of semi dedicated ‘meeting runner’ pc? but this could be the same pc we are looking at purchasing generally to have space software on.