Volume 12, Issue 5 — March 7, 2019

RaveEd — Volume 12, Issue 5 — March 7, 2019

March 7, 2019 | Volume: 12 | Issue: 5

As you may remember, Scott Tiner wrote about the division between accessibility and presenters lecturing/speaking and not using a microphone. The ever-present “I’m loud enough to not have to use a microphone” sentiment.

Today, he writes about Biamp’s Crowd Mics product. Think BYOD for sound amplification in venues, classrooms and other spaces. Scott, in his position in higher education, talks about the use case for classrooms and how the biggest challenge is faculty acceptance. “How do we actually make the faculty use this system?”, he writes.

Find his column, and others by Joan Vandermate and Dr. Fred Ampel, in addition to plenty of product news below.

And happy Friday eve!

-Jacob Blount

COLUMNS

+ Are Crowd Mics a Potential Game Changer? [Scott Tiner]

A small control box is installed into your AV system and this allows smart phones in the audience to connect to it via Wi-Fi and act as microphones. An app is installed on the computer in the room and that app gives you control of the Crowd Mic device. So, picture this in a classroom setting. The faculty member can choose to make all the microphones active at one time. When a student has a question, they can simply turn on their mic and ask the question.

+ Can We Finally Throw Away the Dreaded Videoconferencing Remote? [Joan Vandermate]

Videoconferencing technologies have improved tremendously over the past several years. Cloud services have made it possible to cost-effectively scale deployments to thousands of desktops and conference rooms. Improvements in video encoding, compute power and broadband services mean anyone can join a video call, from almost anywhere, via practically any device. And USB conference cams and audio systems allow IT departments to install high-quality room systems in a multitude of spaces unthinkable a few years ago. But one element of the video conferencing experience has stubbornly remained almost unchanged since the 1980s: the remote control.

+ Signal to Noise [Dr. Frederick Ampel]

If as a manufacturer/supplier you want your integrator/consultant/specifier partners to help you sell your products, you need to be open and above board in keeping them informed about all your marketing and sales communications efforts. If you don’t keep them in the loop, they can’t work with you!