Audio, once regarded as the support act to the visual headliner through basic sound reinforcement, has become key to the success or failure of enterprise communications. Companies have realised that clarity and acoustic consistency cannot be simply ‘nice to have’ options, but are absolutely crucial for engagement in meetings, conferences and hybrid working. The requirement is being met by the development and implementation of new technologies that deliver high-quality sound.
A major driver in this has been the shift away from traditional hardware towards networkable software devices, particularly for processing, routing, mixing and system management. This trend is confirmed by Steve Clarke, technical director of AVolution (formerly ITSL Group), who says that over the past decade enterprise audio has shifted from labour-intensive analogue infrastructures to fully digital, network-driven ecosystems. “Traditional point-to-point cabling, hardware-heavy racks and manual de-embedding of audio sources have largely been replaced by software-based routing and standards such as Dante, which allow audio to travel across structured cabling using existing network infrastructures,” he says.
Clarke observes that this move has decentralised audio, reduced installation complexity and enabled scalable virtual matrices, where sources and destinations can be managed flexibly within the same network. “Current trends are focusing on increasing both system intelligence and intelligibility,” he adds. “Advanced algorithms are being embedded into devices to handle room mapping, noise management and automatic optimisation. Beamforming microphones, ceiling tile arrays and improved wireless technologies are raising the standard for clarity in meeting rooms and open-plan environments, while networkable loudspeakers and audio endpoints are being used to integrate with virtual platforms.”
INVISIBLE TOUCH
Mark Kempson, head of consulting at Kinly, agrees, saying that enterprises want audio to be “present but “almost invisible” and are regularly asking for clarity, consistency and the least possible user involvement. This, he explains, is why there are now fewer table microphones and more mics and loudspeakers integrated into the front wall or ceiling, often through videobars or ceiling arrays. “Over the last decade, enterprise audio has moved decisively away from analogue, hardware-heavy designs toward streamlined, IP-centric and software-led systems,” he continues. “Hybrid work expectations have raised the bar: people want room audio that matches the clarity and comfort of the headsets they enjoy at home.”
The move away from complicated hardware installations is picked up by Steve Hudson, managing director of Project Audio Visual. “Most companies now build rooms around Zoom and Teams, so the focus is on making voices sound clear and meetings stress-free,” he says. “They originally wanted a crisper video experience, but it is not just about video any more, people need that clarity on audio as well because they are doing conference calls across different cultures and languages.”
TRACKING SPEECH
Hudson observes that people now have a better idea of what they want in terms of equipment and how to make meetings work, bringing together both audio and video. “A lot of cameras now are tracked by speech, so high-quality audio has become more prevalent,” he says.
“This is especially true on the corporate side where they want the best quality both for themselves and their clients. Beamforming microphone arrays – like Shure’s MXA920 ceiling array – have changed everything. They have an adaptive pick-up that focuses on the active talkers and helps suppress room noise, which improves intelligibility.”
Another benefit, Hudson adds, is a practical one: because the microphones are hidden and away from the people using them there are no cables or wires, making it easier for furniture to be moved around. Along with Shure, Sennheiser is among the leaders in beamforming mic technology for the corporate sector. Its TeamConnect Ceiling 2 array is aimed squarely at the ever-expanding meeting room market. Insights manager, consultants, and technical application engineer manager David Missall comments that the installation of IT networks within corporate buildings has aided the adoption of new audio technologies. “The backbone of a company’s network is what’s handling the AV now, including the audio,” he says. “And AoIP has changed the whole infrastructure, with Dante becoming the standard.”
GREATER INTERCONNECTIVITY
This has led to a new way of doing things. The days of running copper wire are in the past, and there is much more interconnectivity. “You don’t have individual devices like you used to,” he says. “For DSP we used to have multiple devices that were plugged into point-to-point analogue for EQ, noise reduction and mixing. Now it’s all network-based on the infrastructure built into corporations.” Which, he adds, also includes mic arrays: “This started five years ago and now it’s the default to have a microphone array in a meeting space because it simplifies the experience. It’s omni-present but you don’t have to think about it because it’s hands-off. You just walk in and start talking.”
As Craig Collin, senior sales manager at Shure observes, beamforming arrays and ceiling mics have removed the need for people to speak into a microphone. By picking up voices across a room, this different take on the old-fashioned mic has created a cleaner, more natural environment that facilitates flow. “Audio has to be flexible enough to support hybrid work, training, town halls and everything in between,” he says. “Companies today are relying on superior audio technology that can focus on the talker within a space, remove unwanted noise and also has voice-lift and camera-tracking capabilities. Crucially, our systems are almost universally compatible with most unified communications platforms, including Microsoft Teams and Zoom.”
The voice lift feature boosts the level of someone speaking, which is picked up by microphones in one zoned part of an array, so that people listening on loudspeakers in another zoned area of the room can understand what is being said. As with other leading beamforming mics, this capability is included on the Audio-Technica ATND1061 and, says Logan Helps, brand development manager for Europe, it comes into its own for meetings in big rooms with a large number of participants. “If you have two or three people only a metre or two apart, it’s very easy for them to understand each other,” he says. “But as soon as you get past five or six metres, with people at the other end of a boardroom, you can end up having to raise your voice to be heard and it’s difficult for others to hear.”
INTIMATE FEEL
Helps explains that voice lift has several advantages: “Rather than projecting out like a big system, it will make it feel like you’re back in that 1m to 2m away scenario, which creates more of an intimate feel or a respectful distance where you can speak to each other, even when, for example, you’re 8m away. And when you use two beamforming microphones in combination, it creates an environment where it is easier to hear everybody, which is less tiring. The DSP in the microphones, digital mixers and matrices has been really important for supporting mics at a further distance, which overcomes the issues of direct signals to the early reflections of an acoustic room.”
Audio-Technica has also been working on DSP for other areas of enterprise AV in conjunction with third-party companies. “We’ve become more involved on the processing side,” Helps explains.
“This is becoming more integral to creating solutions for our customer base and the enterprise area, which we’ve worked in for 30 years and is a big market for us. In the UK we’re working alongside brands that we distribute to create solutions for consultants, integrators and customers to make the best experience within the enterprise industry. These include Allen & Heath, which has done a huge amount of work on the AHM range of digital matrices for audio routing and GPIO [general purpose input/output] control.”
HYBRID OPERATIONS
While staff have returned to offices and meeting rooms since the pandemic, hybrid working remains part of the modus operandi for many enterprises. This creates a potential weak spot in the audio chain, particularly if remote participants are relying on the integral microphone on their webcam and not using good quality mics or headsets. “We are now seeing 80 percent of meeting calls that involve some form of hybrid working,” says James Spencer, video solutions director at Jabra. “If people are working at home or from a coffee shop, the audio should hold up in both locations. That may mean the elimination of background noise and making sure we focus on that person’s voice. It also involves things like full duplex technology, which is now common within the workplace to allow for two-way communication and to hear the incoming audio.”
Getting to this point, Spencer comments, has involved educating people to understand that not all audio devices are suited to the job. “One of the common things I got quoted was ‘I have my earbuds and I can hear everything that’s going on’,” he says. “What wasn’t being appreciated is what it sounded like for the person on the other end. We’re in a much better position today, where people understand that because the ultimate goal is to have a productive meeting.”
ENTERPRISING COLLABORATIONS
Enterprise is the largest market segment for many AV manufacturers, including Biamp. The company’s executive vice president of corporate development, Joe Andrulis, describes it as a diverse sector but one that is dominated by collaboration. “Conferencing is still the centrepiece of commercial AV and the major transformation is associated with the UC systems coming in and standardising that experience, so it’s a well-defined, templated application at this point,” he says. “The solutions are somewhat less differentiated than they would have been in the past when the pro AV manufacturers were defining the experience themselves and introducing new features that were distinctive and different from the competition. That’s largely been displaced by the experience that’s defined by big players like Zoom, Google and Microsoft. The equipment is there as a supporting cast member to deliver that experience.”
In this respect, Biamp has added a Presenter Lift feature to its Parlé ceiling loudspeaker. Andrulis explains that the aim is effectively to do away with headset and handheld microphones for corporate presentations in a venue. “You create a pick-up zone that covers the stage,” he says. “The presenter can be onstage or go out into the audience, without feedback or the inconvenience of wearing a microphone. It is the spirit of delivering benefits to free the user and let them focus on their priorities and not the technology’s restrictions.”
While enterprises are now fully appreciating what good sound can bring to their businesses, they are still focusing on practical business aspects, including the bottom line. “Scalable systems that have remote management options are key, allowing companies to invest in products that permit expansion or reconfiguration as needs change,” comments Ian Bridgewater, managing director of TOA Corporation UK. “Innovation in wireless and infrared audio gives options for sound to be delivered across different spaces to different sized audiences from one system. A more minimal initial expenditure with the option to expand with their business needs allows for investment down the line without the need for a complete upgrade.”
As for the future of enterprise audio, it is inevitably linked to the continuing development of AI. In October of last year, Jabra and the London School of Economics and Political Science published a study that concluded voice will be the main way people work with Generative AI by 2028. Voice control and interaction are also likely to expand into UC, as Joel Mulpeter, director of product marketing at Crestron, points out: “The future, according to Microsoft, Zoom and others, will be that when you join a meeting, instead of screen sharing and recording, you would have an AI agent trained on precisely what you might need to complete your work. You’ll need crystal-clear audio so these tools can hear everything properly, whether that’s for transcription, translation or creating meeting summaries. An investment in quality AV is actually an investment in AI.”
While AI could end up taking the credit for making people recognise audio as the important component of enterprise AV that it undoubtedly is, this process began at least ten years ago and is set to continue. Audio in corporate AV will continue to evolve.
