How Designer Enhances the Shure Audio Ecosystem
When Shure introduced Designer, the aim was twofold. First, to simplify and speed up conference room installations for rooms with multiple MXA910 microphones. And second, to create great sounding rooms that end-users actually enjoyed using!
This is still the aim, although the scope and abilities of this unique AV design software tool have extended significantly. With the latest Shure Designer 4.2 you have the ability to create a complete end-to-end audio solution for conference rooms that improves the overall usability, scalability, quality, and stability.
Designer 4.2 Features
With 4.2, we're supporting more microphones, processors, interfaces, and loudspeakers in the Shure Audio Ecosystem, including three new devices: the Microflex Advance MXA710 Linear Array Microphone, the Microflex MXN5-C Networked Loudspeaker, and the MXA Network Mute Button.
A notable feature in Designer 4.2 is optimize, which is a time-saver for integrators. To put it simply, optimize looks at everything that you add to your Designer room and applies optimal audio settings and routes on all available devices for the system at the click of a button.
Optimize automatically creates audio routes, turns on mute synchronization for use with codecs, and then applies the best settings depending on what's in your room. This enables the setup of an entire system through one software tool, rather than having to navigate one user interface for each individual device.
Additionally, it’s easier than ever to keep sensitive meeting content secure. In a single step, Designer enables Shure Audio Encryption through the entire audio chain from microphone to loudspeaker in the room.
With the 4.2 release, firmware updating is available in Designer, making it possible to design, configure, and update your system via a single tool. Notably, this includes cross-subnet updating, so users with large installs can update devices on the same subnet and cross-subnet across an entire building from Designer.
Another feature that makes troubleshooting more streamlined for integrators and AV managers is the ability to recreate rooms. When coming back on site, users will be able to see which devices are already together in a system and add them all to the room in Designer, rather than having to manually add one device at a time. This reduces time spent troubleshooting as it offers quick visibility across an entire system.
Designer 4.2 for Small Rooms
While it’s easy to see how these updates will help larger installations – reducing time on site, simplifying design and configuration, and enhancing troubleshooting – the benefits shouldn’t be underestimated for those with a smaller number of rooms too.
Whatever the size of your enterprise, you still need to set up systems and organize rooms, and Designer makes this significantly less time-consuming. But as an audio system solution, the capabilities are further extended. Combining multiple software tools into one platform, for example, means fewer platforms to keep updated and to train others on – whether you're an end-user or integrator. Now you can design everything, configure the system, discover devices, create audio routes, and update devices all from one place.
Looking ahead, Designer will continue to evolve. The focus will continue to be on improving and automating workflows for the design and configuration of Shure audio systems. As with all our products, we will also continue making usability improvements based on your feedback and use, so please share your experience from the field of using Designer 4.2. We look forward to your input.
Learn more about Designer and the Microflex Ecosystem for AV conferencing.
