3 minute read

Active Zone Control improves lecture capture and open office conference calls

Dave McKean
Posted by Dave McKean on Jul 26, 2019 8:45:00 AM
Find me on:
Active Zone Control improves lecture capture and open office conference calls

Audio conferencing in a lecture or open office scenario can be tough. Remote listeners, or those listening later through a lecture capture platform, can find it difficult to hear the lecturer or presenter clearly above room noises, such as audience members talking. Traditional microphone solutions to this problem can be very expensive. And many users find lapel mics or headsets a hassle. They can be cumbersome to wear, and proper pickup can still be an issue.

A simple, innovative solution

Nureva is pleased to announce a solution to this problem: Active Zone Control. It’s a new feature available with Nureva® audio conferencing systems. Active Zone Control allows the user or an AV technician to focus audio pickup from the wall-mounted microphone and speaker bar on a configurable zone in a large room. It then curtails pickup in the rest of the room so the lecturer or presenter can be heard clearly above room noises.

Active zone control adjustable pickup

Virtual microphones make the difference

Active Zone Control is a feature of Nureva’s patented Microphone Mist™ technology, which fills a room with thousands of virtual microphones. (A virtual microphone is an individual “pickup point” created when two or more physical microphones work together through processing algorithms to focus their pickup patterns on a configurable zone.) With Active Zone Control, the virtual microphones outside of the configured pickup zone are inhibited so you get much less noise from the rest of the room.

Using Active Zone Control

Active Zone Control is incredibly easy to use. In the Nureva Room Manager, you simply drag at the edges of the interface to configure the active zone to accommodate where the lecturer or presenter will move in the room. And you can use the remote to turn Active Zone Control off (for the times when you want pickup throughout the room, for discussions and questions from the audience) and back on (for pickup in the active zone only).

A superior lecture capture solution

Lecture capture is vital to many higher ed institutions. But many lecturers find lapel mics or headsets required for traditional systems a hassle. Having to replace batteries is also a major drawback for many users. With Nureva audio, you never have to bother with batteries, and Active Zone Control lets a lecturer move freely at the front of the lecture hall and be heard without a microphone in sight. And the systems integrate seamlessly with leading lecture capture platforms including Panopto and Matrox®.

Nureva audio conferencing’s new Active Zone Control feature in higher-ed

Great for open office environments

Audio conferencing from a group meeting in one section of an open office (at a display, for example) can lead to frustrations for remote team members who may hear too much noise from the rest of the office. With Active Zone Control, the pickup is focused on the meeting while extraneous sounds are diminished.

Nureva audio conferencing’s new Active Zone Control feature in open office space

Another advancement for Microphone Mist technology

Like the intelligent sound targeting feature released last year, the Active Zone Control feature is an example of how Nureva continues to advance the Microphone Mist technology that is at the heart of our audio conferencing systems. All our new features, as well as regular updates, are available automatically through the Nureva Room Manager so your system is always improving.

Discover the technology

Topics: Audio conferencing Active Zone Control Microphone Mist technology