{"id":3853,"date":"2023-01-11T14:51:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T03:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.konnectus.com.au\/?p=3853"},"modified":"2023-01-11T14:51:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T03:51:47","slug":"conferencing-soundbars-in-meeting-rooms-audio-quality-is-so-subjective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.konnectus.com.au\/conferencing-soundbars-in-meeting-rooms-audio-quality-is-so-subjective\/","title":{"rendered":"Conferencing Soundbars in meeting rooms \u2013 Audio quality is \u201cso subjective\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine, and AV industry colleague for well over 10 years, managed to really stir up the pot earlier this week through a very simple post on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

The post was all about conferencing soundbars in meeting rooms, and he was asking for some input and recommendations from his professional network.<\/p>\n

His question was quite straight forward. \u201cI need a 1-year temporary conferencing solution for my client in a medium size room that will have people seated up to 7 meters away from the front of the room. For audio I am thinking conference soundbar. Do any of you have any good recommendations based on experience?\u201d<\/p>\n

Within minutes he had more than 30 different responses from AV experts that actually made me laugh. Here are just a few examples:<\/p>\n

\u2666 Model XYX will be perfect<\/p>\n

\u2666 Conferencing soundbars are designed for smaller spaces<\/p>\n

\u2666 You will need to have a room with great acoustic properties<\/p>\n

\u2666 We evaluated model ABC, and it worked OK up to about 5 metres<\/p>\n

There were no stupid responses. All had opinions that were valid and made sense, but I couldn\u2019t help thinking how confused my friend must have been after reading them all!<\/p>\n

The big takeaway for me though was that audio in meeting rooms (and in most AV applications) can be very subjective. At the end of the day, what is an acceptable audio experience for the situation? In my friend\u2019s case:<\/p>\n

\u2666 What is an acceptable listening experience for the people in the room? Will the loudspeakers in the conferencing soundbar output the right quality sound to meet that desired experience?<\/p>\n

\u2666 What is an acceptable listening experience for the people connecting to a video conferencing call with this room? Will the microphone in the conferencing soundbar pick up the speech of people talking in the room to an acceptable level to meet the desired experience?<\/p>\n

It’s interesting that none of these AV experts actually asked my friend any qualifying questions to gauge the desired audio experience for his application. They all just jumped straight into offering solutions.<\/p>\n

Many years of experience have taught me that different people can have different definitions of good, bad, and awesome when it comes to audio. It always needs to be qualified \u2013 especially in a meeting space environment in which clear communication of the spoken message is key.<\/p>\n

Like to know more about this topic? We can help. Feel free to reach out.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine, and AV industry colleague for well over 10 years, managed to really stir up the pot earlier this week through a very simple post on LinkedIn. The post was all about conferencing soundbars in meeting rooms, and he was asking for some input and recommendations from his professional network. His question … <\/p>\n