Preparing for a decisive presence at InfoComm 2018 in Las Vegas, June 6–8, 2018, Nureva just unveiled a series of enhancements for its HDL300 audio conferencing system, the Nureva Wall system and Span Workspace 8. The Calgary, Alberta, based company announced the addition of intelligent sound targeting (IST) to the Microphone Mist technology platform that powers its HDL300 and Dual HDL300 audio conferencing systems.
This patent-pending technology adds new intelligence to the thousands of virtual microphones that fill the meeting space and provide full-room audio coverage. Using IST, the system identifies and ignores persistent undesirable sound sources that can disrupt the efficiency and flow of audio conference sessions. Typically, several noise suppression techniques are required via post-processing methods to reduce undesirable sounds. IST preemptively identifies and ignores these sounds in real time through the virtual microphones that are always listening throughout the room. This eliminates the need for complex post-processing algorithms to filter and reduce unwanted sounds, thereby improving overall system performance and the audio conferencing experience.
The introduction of intelligent sound targeting brings a fresh approach to addressing the issues caused by undesired sounds during audio conference sessions. HVAC systems, display fans and active cooling systems are just a few of the distracting sounds that can cause frustration and reduce productivity. Building upon the concept of virtual microphones that create a listening grid throughout the room, IST addresses the issue while providing a natural listening experience for meeting participants. 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.
“Achieving rich, full-room audio pickup in noisy meeting spaces has always posed a significant and stubborn technical challenge,” says Nancy Knowlton, Nureva’s CEO. “We are very excited about intelligent sound targeting to address this issue and deliver the audio conferencing experience that organizations are looking for.”
Intelligent sound targeting is part of a firmware update to Microphone Mist technology that will be available to all Nureva audio conferencing systems already deployed at no additional charge at the end of July 2018. This firmware update, Nureva confirms, also includes new customizable audio settings, new auxiliary audio modes for interoperability with third-party systems and refinements to audio performance.
HDL300 users can enable these enhancements by downloading the updated version of Nureva Room Manager software, which provides ongoing access to the latest firmware and functionality. Both the microphone and speakers can be set to stereo or mono sound, and users can also adjust speaker bass and treble levels. The new auxiliary audio options on the HDL300 system provide more flexibility in connecting to in-room speakers, mixers, recording devices and hearing aid transmitters. The auxiliary output can be switched to send a microphone, speaker or a mixed signal at both microphone and line levels. Together, with the enhancements in echo cancellation, the new customizable settings will enable HDL300 users to not only have a better audio experience but also be in more control of their meeting room audio.
“We are really excited about the ongoing evolution of our Microphone Mist technology platform and its ability to transform the audio experience in meetings,” adds Nancy Knowlton. “This latest update further enhances audio quality while giving our customers the flexibility to implement the system in ways that best suit their needs and spaces.”
At InfoComm 2018, Nureva will demonstrate how the HDL300 audio conferencing system resolves the frustrating and persistent issue of poor audio pickup, especially in dynamic environments where participants move around the room. When combined with the Nureva Wall visual collaboration solution or other interactive display, the HDL300 system can also be used as the primary source for audio and video playback. At the core of the HDL300 system is Nureva’s breakthrough Microphone Mist technology, which places 8,192 virtual microphones throughout a room to pick up sound from any location to ensure that everyone is clearly heard regardless of where they are in the room or the direction they are facing.
The system uses sophisticated algorithms to simultaneously process sound from all virtual microphones to provide remote participants with a high-quality listening experience, enabled by continuous autocalibration, simultaneous echo cancellation, position-based automatic gain control and sound masking. The HDL300 system is optimized for small to mid-sized environments and is designed to work with Skype for Business, Zoom, Blue Jeans, Cisco Spark, Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting, Pexip Infinity Connect and other common UC&C applications.
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