Microflex® Advance™ MXA910 Ceiling Array Microphone provides flexibility and clarity at KPMG’s u-collaborate space, Canary Wharf, UK

A recent installation of Shure’s Microflex® Advance™ MXA910 Ceiling Array Microphone has provided unrivalled audio clarity, along with flexibility, at KPMG’s U-Collaborate space in Canary Wharf, UK, with MXA910 part of the company’s new Voice Lift system. 

Unlike conventional sound reinforcement systems, Voice Lift boosts the frequency range most critical for intelligibility, restoring the natural speech level for far-end participants within a room by increasing speech level 3 to 6 dB. The effect is so subtle that participants notice the difference as soon as the system is turned off.

Client Needs

An innovative, bespoke environment within KPMG, ‘U-Collaborate’ provides the perfect space to help clients overcome complex challenges by providing powerful SME insights and problem solving expertise through live events of up to 120 participants working together to provide effective solutions to market challenges.

A system was required to assist with collaboration, live event and conferencing requirements which included Voice Lift to provide natural speech levels to far-end participants within a large room capable of seating up to 80 people at a time, along with the alleviation of handheld and lapel microphones during sessions.

Solution

Shure’s Microflex® Advance™ MXA910 Ceiling Array Microphone was deployed along with Voice Lift, increasing speech level from 3 to 6 dB across the entire space along with a more adequate system for use in video conferencing situations.

Results

Communication and collaboration are now much easier, with Voice Lift working alongside the MXA910s to provide a flexible and elegant audio solution.

“A lot of the work we do is actually conversation,” says Paul Guy, Collaboration Solutions Engineer, KPMG. “It’s people talking to people, from different parts of the business, understanding their different vantage points.

“It’s made collaboration much easier. You can talk in your normal voice and do not have to be conscious of talking into microphones, its complete freedom.

“We run our own post graduate course in acoustics, so we wanted a room that we could use as a boardroom and a classroom. We have seen a marked improvement in the response from students. So much so, that even the students that used to come here to the lectures now choose to log on online. In fact, I get lots of compliments from the acousticians about how well our system works.

“We are very pleased with what we have done and it works very well.”