Microphone Connections
There are two types of microphones being used in the Access Grid system, ambient and directional. The ambient microphones are used to pick up the voices of multiple people within the room. The ambient microphone has a low profile and inconspicuous design and can detect the sounds of the room over a wide area. This gives the audience a sense of talking to the distant parties directly rather than focusing their attention on the microphone. The distant end participants will hear all of the parties in the audience as if they were all in the same room, without each participant requiring their own microphone or allowing one user to dominate.
Directional microphones are used for single users or presenters whose speech will be the main focus of the event. The microphones are also used to supplement the ambient microphones for acoustically difficult areas of the room.
Placement of the microphones is critical in ensuring a high quality collaborative environment. Ambient microphones which are too close to noise generating devices such as equipment fans, PA speakers, walkways etc, will pick up the background noise which will disrupt and distract other AG participants at the distant end. Participants at the sending site subconsciously "turn off" background noise, but the users at the remote sites will be annoyed since this background noise will be amplified to the same level as the participants voices.
Microphone connections are made to the "Mic Input" on the Gentner Audio Conferencing Device. The position that the microphone is placed on the Gentner device is not important but needs to be noted so that the proper settings may be applied within the Gentner Audio Conferencing device.
Final Configuration