Sound systems for meeting and conference rooms

First decide how the hall is used

Two halls with the same floor area can need very different sound systems. A twelve-person board table and a two-hundred-person conference hall have different problems. Before asking for a quote, the answers to these questions should be clear:

These answers determine the size of the system. A training room solved with just a lectern microphone and two speakers and an assembly hall that wants a microphone at every seat cannot be compared in the same quote.

• How many people sit in the hall, and is the layout fixed or changeable?
• Is one person speaking, or does everyone at the table take the floor?
• Do people join the meetings remotely?
• Are meetings recorded?
• Is the hall also used for presentations, training or ceremonies?

Microphone choice: table, wireless or ceiling

The most common solution on conference tables is delegate microphones with a talk button in front of each participant. The chairman unit can mute the other microphones, and how many microphones stay open at the same time can be limited. The advantages of this arrangement are that everyone around the table hears each other clearly and that it is clear in the recording who is speaking.

For someone standing and speaking on stage, a wireless handheld or lapel microphone is more suitable. With wireless systems, care is needed in choosing frequencies and monitoring batteries; if there is another wireless microphone in the same building, interference can occur.

Ceiling microphones leave the table empty and look clean. But because they are far from the speaker, if the hall's acoustics are not good they pick up the sound together with the echo. They give good results in small, acoustically treated rooms.

When deciding the number of microphones, how many people will ask to speak matters as much as how many will speak at the same time. In delegate systems, a light turns on at the microphone of the person asking to speak, and the chairman gives the floor to the next speaker. This arrangement makes it easier to control the discussion in crowded meetings.

Speaker placement and echo

The most common complaint in conference halls comes from the back rows: there is sound, but the words blend into each other. The cause is usually two large speakers placed on both sides of the stage trying to fill the whole hall alone. The front rows hear too loud, the back rows hear the echo.

In long halls, speakers distributed across the ceiling or delay speakers added in the middle of the hall spread the sound more evenly. In halls with glass facades, hard floors and bare walls, it may be necessary to look at the acoustics before the sound system. Curtains, carpet or wall panels reduce echo.

Wherever the microphone passes in front of a loudspeaker, feedback, that is the high-pitched howl, can occur. Placing the loudspeakers in front of the person speaking rather than behind reduces this risk.

Expert note: When installation is finished, test the hall separately empty and full. A full hall absorbs sound; a setting that sounds good when empty can sound muffled in a full hall.

Video conferencing and recording connection

If remote participants hear the sound in the hall only through the computer's own microphone, they cannot understand someone speaking in a far corner of the room. The hall's sound system must be connected to the video conferencing computer, and the remote participant's voice must be played through the hall speakers.

Echo prevention (echo cancellation) is important in this connection. If the remote person's voice comes out of the hall speaker, enters the microphone and returns, the other side hears their own voice with a delay. An audio processor with echo cancellation, or a conference system with this feature, solves this problem.

If meetings are recorded, the recorder should be fed from a separate output of the mixer. It is also worth remembering that the recording contains personal data and that retention and access rules must be set in line with KVKK requirements.

The speakers that play the remote participant's voice into the hall must be placed so that everyone in the hall can hear comfortably. A single small speaker on the front table leaves those in the back rows out of the conversation.

Ease of use

The hall's sound system is often turned on by administrative staff or a secretary. A complicated mixer ends up with a different setting at every meeting. If ready-made stage presets (such as meeting, presentation, video conference) can be saved and recalled with one touch, nobody has to deal with fine tuning.

Cables should run through the table or a floor duct as much as possible, and connection points should be labeled. The projector or screen connection should also be planned together with the sound system; sound from a laptop should be easy to send to the hall speakers.

A short checking habit before a meeting starts also helps: do the microphones turn on, does the remote participant hear the hall, is the wireless microphone's battery full? This five-minute check prevents the first ten minutes of the meeting from being spent on technical problems.

Multi-purpose halls

Municipality, school and institution halls are often not used for a single purpose. A meeting in the morning, training in the afternoon, a ceremony or concert in the evening may take place. A system set up for meetings may fall short for music playback, while a powerful system set up for concerts may make a small meeting harder to use.

In these halls, the main system is set up for speech clarity, and ready connection points are left so that extra speakers and a mixer can be connected on event days. One connection box on the stage and one at the back of the hall prevent dragging cables later.

If the hall will also broadcast outside, for example if the speech is to be given to the foyer or waiting area, this area must also be planned as a separate line.

Check before installation

If the hall is being built new, the sound system should be planned before the ceiling and wall finishes are completed. If speaker cables, microphone lines and in-table ducts are added later, both the appearance suffers and the cost goes up.

When comparing quotes, the number of microphones, the number and positions of speakers, whether the video conference connection is included, and whether usage training will be given should be written out separately.

In an existing hall, the problem is first determined by listening: is the sound insufficient, is clarity low, or are remote participants complaining? Desa Bilişim inspects institution and municipality halls on site, recommends the system that suits the need and prepares a written quote.

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