I often get asked if there is a suggested microphone or speakerphone for use in a conference room. This is of course a very subjective question as rooms are all very different with different layouts and capacity.
Below are some examples that I use myself that may help you make a decision. The key is to ensure that you can return the device you are testing so that you can make a good decision.
Jabba Speak Series – I use the Jabra Speak 410 in my office and it is excellent (around $70). It is also known as the ‘puck’ microphone and it just requires a USB connection to the computer. This is really suitable for 4+ person rooms but not much more.
I just noticed that there is also a Jabra Speak 810 I see now and that looks to be for larger rooms but closer to $750 so not cheap. I have not tested this device BTW but it looks to be suitable for larger (12 person) rooms.
Jabba Speak 410
Jabba Speak 810
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Interesting and relevant review that speaks to both of the devices above:
I reluctantly bought this for our office. We have a large conference room that’s in an underground tunnel about 40ft long with a brick archway ceiling that extends the entire length of the room. We were having a lot of issues in conference calls with people being able to hear and understand us due to echo, background noise, and volume (due to the average distance of people from the microphone given the size of the room and table).
We originally started with a Jabra 510, which was great for small spaces when we had a conference table that sat 4, but for our new 12-person table, it just wasn’t working. We tried using a bunch of omnidirectional microphones with a mixer, but the sound quality was worse, probably due to lack of active noise cancellation. We then tried wiring up the 510 with two additional Jabra 410s at either side of the long table, but had issues with the computer recognizing all three devices as microphones at the same time, even when using software to combine inputs into an “aggregate” input device.
Finally we decided to try out the Jabra 810, fully expecting it to be simply a packaging exercise intended to fill the “we’re a large company and don’t care how much stuff costs” market ($600, are you kidding me?). We figured we’d try it and return it when we proved it wasn’t much better than the other setups we tried.
Sigh. The device works and sounds better than anything else we’ve tried, much to my dismay. Looks like we’re keeping it :-/
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Logitech Conference Cam BCC950 – I have one of these as well and it is an excellent camera and speakerphone (around $170). USB connection again is all that is required. I use the remote control to move the camera to different sections of my office so this would be good if you wanted to ‘produce’ the feed and direct the camera to different speakers. The video quality is excellent and it works very well with Connect though my Mac (in my case).
(the reviews here are also helpful and seem to speak to this being able to handle up to 12 people in a room)
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Selected review:
I was trying to find an inexpensive webcam to use with skype in a business conference room setting. Our room is 12 feet wide, by 22 feet long. Most video conferencing solution cameras are much more expensive, so this one was inexpensive, all things considered. The microphone on the webcam is stated to work well for users 8 feet away, as well as the speaker. We found that users over 12 feet away could still hear, and be heard. Picture quality (so we’re told by users on the other end) is good. We’re very satisfied.
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