Conference Room Audio SystemsConference Room Audio Systems

For four to eight people around one table, a pair of ceiling speakers and one or two table microphones is usually enough. The SYS-D27 is a unidirectional table microphone with a 581 g weighted base that keeps it stable, a 110 dB maximum SPL and a 5 metre cable — enough to reach a wall plate from the middle of a table.

Ceiling speakers here should be modest: two at a 6W or 10W tap gives even coverage without anyone sitting directly under a loud source. Coaxial models such as the CLS-585 handle both speech and any media playback cleanly.

Once there are formal speaking positions, gooseneck microphones become the better choice. The SYS-E66 is a cardioid condenser on a 390 mm gooseneck with an OLED display and touch on/off, running on phantom 48V or DC 3V. The cardioid pattern rejects sound from behind, which is what makes several open microphones workable in one room.

The touch on/off matters more than it sounds. Every open microphone is another path for feedback and another source of room noise, so letting participants mute themselves when not speaking measurably improves the system.

Beyond a certain size, individual microphones stop scaling and a dedicated conference system takes over. The SYS-1000H is wireless, supports up to 150 microphones and gives the chairman unit priority over all delegate units — so the chair can always take the floor.

Being wireless matters practically as much as technically: there is no cabling to run between delegate positions, which is what makes the room usable for other purposes between meetings. Operating range is up to 100 metres in ideal conditions, around 60 metres in normal use, with about 12 hours of battery life.

Conference rooms are typically glass, plasterboard and a hard table — all reflective. Combined with multiple open microphones and ceiling speakers overhead, that is a textbook feedback environment.

The order of fixes is the same as anywhere: use directional microphones, keep unused ones muted, avoid placing a ceiling speaker directly above a microphone position, and set gain at the channel rather than the master. Where the room still fights back, a DSP feedback suppressor such as the XTR 6.0 notches ringing frequencies automatically.

If the room has more sources than the amplifier has inputs — several microphones plus a laptop plus a video conferencing feed — a compact mixer such as the A4 gives you the channels, phantom power for condenser microphones and per-channel EQ, then sends one clean signal to the amplifier.