Conference microphones rental

What are conference microphones?

Conference microphones are table microphones designed specially for situations where several people speak at a table. They usually have a flexible gooseneck that lets you bend the microphone precisely towards the speaker, and a base that stands firmly on the table. There is often a button that lets the participant switch their microphone on or off. The whole is meant to capture everyone’s contribution clearly without a microphone going around.

The difference from an ordinary microphone lies in the coordination. When many microphones are open at once, a messy sound quickly arises and the chance of feedback grows. A good conference system solves that by only amplifying the microphone of whoever is speaking at that moment and muting the rest. HuurAV uses conference microphones when the intelligibility of many participants is the core, and makes sure the system is set so every conversation runs smoothly and clearly.

What do you use conference microphones for?

The classic use is the meeting or discussion where several people at a table have the floor. At a corporate event with a shareholders’ meeting, a board discussion or a decision-making session, you want every participant to be intelligible to the others in the room and to those listening in remotely. Passing a microphone around does not work then; everyone has to be able to speak up directly.

Conference microphones are also the logical choice at a debate or panel discussion. At a conference a panel of speakers sits behind a table, and then you want one to be able to respond to another without hassle. Each participant has their own microphone within reach and can join in immediately. At a hearing, a council meeting or a formal discussion the same structure is ideal: many participants, an orderly flow and a clear sound that carries through the whole room. For sessions that are recorded or streamed, a clean sound separated per speaker is moreover a big plus.

An orderly flow of the conversation

A pleasant side benefit of conference microphones is that they help structure the conversation. Because participants switch their microphone on and off, a certain order arises naturally: whoever wants to speak switches their microphone on, and whoever is done switches it off. With larger systems a chairperson or technician can manage the microphones centrally, so the conversation runs in a controlled way and not everyone talks over each other. That benefits both intelligibility and atmosphere.

The technology behind conference microphones

The heart of a conference setup is the management of open microphones. The more microphones are open at once, the more ambient sound is picked up and the greater the chance of feedback. Professional conference systems solve this with automatic mixing technology that only amplifies the active speaker. HuurAV sets that system to your situation, so there are never unnecessarily many microphones open and the sound stays clean.

The placement of both the microphones and the speakers is decisive too. The microphones have to be close enough to the speakers to capture their voice well, while the speakers are placed so their sound does not run back into the microphones. In an elongated or reverberant room that calls for careful calculation. We also tune the level so a soft speaker is just as easy to follow as a loud one, and we flatten sharp frequencies that are disruptive in a full room. You can read more about our approach on the page about sound.

Integration with the room installation

Conference microphones rarely stand alone. They are linked to the room installation, so the sound reaches the whole space through the speakers, and often also to a recording or livestream. We make sure all those connections are right and that the sound of the conference microphones runs along seamlessly with the rest of the installation. If a presentation or video is also shown, we tune its sound to that of the microphones so the levels are balanced.

Hybrid and recorded sessions

Increasingly a meeting or debate is not only followed in the room, but also remotely by people watching online or later viewing the recording. It is exactly then that a clean sound separated per speaker is worth gold, because those listening from home have no room acoustics to help and are entirely dependent on what the microphones capture. HuurAV therefore tunes the conference setup to this use: we send a separate, cleaned-up mix to the recording or stream, distinct from what sounds in the room. That way the online participant stays just as engaged as someone in the front row. We also take account of the sound coming back from the online side into the room, so a conversation between attendees and remote participants runs smoothly without echo or delay that makes the conversation awkward.

Setup, testing and operation by HuurAV

At HuurAV you rent conference microphones with the support they deserve, because setting them up against feedback is a delicate matter. We determine in advance how many microphones you need and how they are distributed across the tables. On the day itself we set up, link the microphones to the system and the room installation, and test every spot separately. We check that each participant is intelligible and that the system manages the open microphones well.

For a small, manageable meeting you can continue yourself after the test; we set everything up in advance and explain how it works. For a large gathering, a debate with many participants or a session that is streamed, we recommend a technician who manages the sound live and steps in immediately. That way HuurAV handles the advice, the setup, the testing and the operation, while rental without support is possible through SpeakerVerhuur.nl. HuurAV is part of Speaker Verhuur Amsterdam. Request a no-obligation quote.