Ceiling & Conference Microphones

A ceiling array microphone combines many small microphone elements and uses beamforming to focus on talkers while rejecting sound from other directions. The Shure MXA920 uses more than 100 MEMS elements to form up to 8 audio beams, and its Automatic Coverage picks up talkers anywhere in a 9 m × 9 m area by default.

Because the array is above the table, every seat is at a similar distance from the microphone, which keeps voice levels even across the room.

Divide the seating area by the coverage of one microphone. A Shure MXA902 or MXA901 covers 6 m × 6 m and one unit usually serves one meeting table, while a Shure MXA920 covers 9 m × 9 m by default.

Long boardrooms and divisible rooms often need two or more arrays, with coverage areas set so they do not overlap. Yealink rates the CM50 at a 5 m premium pickup radius per unit.

The Shure MXA902 combines a ceiling array microphone and a 2.5-inch loudspeaker in one 60 cm square unit, while the MXA901 is a microphone only, in a 13.5-inch round low-profile housing. Both cover 6 m × 6 m out of the box and include IntelliMix DSP with echo cancellation, noise reduction and automatic gain control.

Choose the MXA902 when one device should handle both pickup and playback, and the MXA901 when the room already has loudspeakers or needs up to 8 steerable lobes.

Some do and some do not. The Shure MXA902 and MXA901 include onboard IntelliMix DSP with echo cancellation, so a small room can connect them through a Shure ANIUSB-MATRIX interface to a room PC.

Rooms with several microphones, loudspeaker zones or voice lift usually add a processor. The Shure IntelliMix P300 processes 8 Dante channels with echo cancellation, and the Yealink AP08 handles 16 × 16 Dante channels with 8 channels of dynamic echo cancellation.

Shure states that the MXA901 paired with the Shure IntelliMix Foundation System forms a Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms certified solution. The certification applies to that combination, so it is checked as part of the complete room system rather than the microphone alone.

With the IntelliMix P300 or ANIUSB-MATRIX, Shure arrays such as the MXA710 also support LED mute sync with Microsoft Teams and Zoom Rooms, so the microphone's mute light follows the meeting.

Dante is a network audio protocol that carries many channels of digital audio over a standard Ethernet cable. The Shure MXA902 carries Dante or AES67 audio, PoE+ power and control on one cable, and the Yealink CM50 also uses Dante, so it works with other Dante-compatible devices.

Using the network removes long analog cable runs, but the switch must be configured for Dante traffic and supply enough PoE power for every device.

Yes, with a compatible camera system. The Shure MXA920 sends real-time XYZ position data of the active talker for camera tracking, and the Yealink CM50 locates the talker to give Yealink intelligent cameras a tracking reference, for example with the MVC S90.

Camera tracking needs a supported pairing between the microphone and camera brands, so check the manufacturers' integration lists before designing the room.

A linear or table array is the usual choice. The Shure MXA710 comes in 60 cm and 120 cm lengths and mounts on a wall, horizontally or vertically, on a table, on a desktop stand or on a ceiling, in white, black or aluminium.

The Shure MXA310 table array sits on the meeting table and suits rooms with high or decorative ceilings, while still connecting over a single network cable.

The Yealink CM20 is a low-profile ceiling microphone for small and medium Yealink meeting rooms. It has 16 omnidirectional microphone units forming 8 independent pickup zones, a 4 m nominal pickup radius with 3 m of high-quality full-duplex pickup, and an 80 mm profile.

Its integrated DSP gives a plug-and-play setup with Yealink MVC systems such as the MVC S50 and MVC S80, without a separate processor.

Check the ceiling type and height, the network and PoE budget, and the loudspeaker positions. Confirm whether each array goes into a ceiling tile, onto a hard ceiling with a mount such as the Shure A910-HCM, or on a suspension kit.

List the PoE class of every Dante device, and keep loudspeakers outside the microphone coverage areas. In plenum ceilings, use products with the required plenum rating, such as the UL 2043-rated Shure MXA710.