
For years, conference call technology was stuck – leaving frustrated users hoping for the kind of breakthrough that has transformed other sectors.
Microphone Mist technology is that breakthrough. It fills a room with virtual microphones so everyone can be heard everywhere in a space, and remote callers feel like they’re in the room with the team.
The revolution is here. And it sounds amazing.
A virtual microphone is an individual “pickup point” created when two or more physical microphones work together to focus their sound pickup on a distinct zone. Microphone Mist technology listens to each virtual mic simultaneously and optimizes each one for a natural listening experience.
Dive deeper into virtual microphonesMicrophone Mist technology provides true full-room coverage while a traditional beamforming system may leave dead zones where people can’t be heard.
Using a simple interface, define the pickup zone for your presentations so you hear more presenter and less audience. It’s like crowd control for your audio.
See how Active Zone Control worksIST preemptively identifies unwanted sounds, like HVAC, and simply stops picking them up. It’s kind of amazing. And completely unique.
See how IST worksReady for hybrid? Microphone Mist technology lets everyone be heard in meetings – no matter how they’re distanced. And Nureva audio automatically adapts if you reconfigure a space.
HDL series
People can be heard anywhere in the room, so it’s easy to stay distanced without compromising on quality.
Quick DIY installation, no ongoing technician visits and continuous autocalibration let IT keep things simple.
You’re ready to grow with models for varying spaces, firmware updates and centralized device management.
With four patents, Microphone MistTM technology is truly a revolutionary advancement in audio conferencing. At its heart is the very real concept of virtual microphones. A virtual microphone is an individual audio pickup point created when two or more physical microphones work together to focus their pickup patterns on a specific zone. Each virtual mic behaves similarly to an omnidirectional microphone being placed at that point in the room. (An HDL200 system deploys up to 4,096 virtual microphones, the HDL300 up to 8,192 and the Dual HDL300 up to 16,384.)
Using multiple digital signal processors (DSPs) combined with proprietary FPGA (field-programmable gate array) logic, Microphone Mist technology listens to each virtual microphone simultaneously and zeros in on the predominant sounds (while ignoring consistent noise sources like HVAC, display or computer fans) and optimizes them for clear conversations. No matter where a person moves in the room, a virtual microphone is always nearby – and no detectable transition occurs as the talker moves between virtual mics as one might experience when moving between beams in a beamforming system.
Microphone Mist technology fills a room with thousands of virtual microphones (individual “pickup points”). No matter how far apart in-room meeting participants are or which direction they face, a virtual mic is always close by. There are no dead zones. And thanks to advanced processing power, Microphone Mist technology listens to each virtual microphone simultaneously and zeros in on the predominant sounds, optimizing them for clear conversations. Unlike other systems, it also ignores consistent noise sources from HVAC, displays or computer fans. The result is a clear and consistent audio experience that makes remote team members feel like they’re in the room.
Many traditional audio conferencing systems employ beamforming technology, which picks up sound in defined “lobes,” usually pointed at fixed positions around a meeting room table. Pickup can be adequate, as long as participants stay clustered around the lobes. However, if meeting participants move outside the lobes – to present at a display or spread out within the room – they may enter a dead zone where pickup can be diminished, making it difficult for a remote caller to hear. And if a talker is between lobes, the audio may drop off or rise sharply, which can be an annoying and even fatiguing experience for remote participants.
Active Zone Control, an extension of Microphone Mist™ technology, emphasizes pickup of the virtual mics in a zone at the front of the room while inhibiting pickup from the virtual mics in the rest of the space. This means better audio for remote audience members and lecture capture because the person speaking in the active zone can be heard more clearly while sounds from the rest of the space are reduced. And it’s easy to configure the active zone to match the area where the presenter will move.
With Active Zone Control, lecturers or presenters can leave lapel mics, headsets and the hassles of changing batteries behind. They can move freely in the active zone, confident that remote participants can hear them above room noises. And when they want audio pickup throughout the space – for questions from the audience or group discussions – they can switch to full-room pickup with just the click of a button on the remote for the HDL300 system.
HVAC and other unwanted sounds can seriously affect conference call audio – ultimately causing frustration and even reducing productivity. But IST, a feature of Microphone MistTM technology, takes a groundbreaking approach to this problem. Instead of attempting to suppress undesired sounds completely, it uses its intelligent sound identification capabilities to mitigate the negative impact of those sounds in an elegant and efficient manner. You hear voices better and unwanted noises less.
Achieving rich, full-room audio pickup in noisy meeting spaces has always posed a significant technical challenge. Traditional systems use “post-sound” filters to suppress sounds. However, these require substantial processing resources and are not always effective. But IST takes a “pre-sound” approach. Using adaptive learning algorithms, IST preemptively identifies and learns unwanted sounds and then simply stops picking them up. It’s a feature other technologies can’t match.