IBERIABANK, a 127-year-old subsidiary of the IBERIABANK Corporation, hosts multiple high-level audio conferencing engagements from its upscale executive conference room in downtown New Orleans. Specifically designed to enable superior sound quality, the space is used exclusively by the bank’s executive body during important events such as the company’s quarterly earnings report when industry analysts attend the call. To optimize audio clarity from participants across the room’s 23- foot conference room table, IBERIABANK implemented wireless tabletop microphones with best-in-class audio enhancements to effectively capture audio from all 20 meeting members.
The IBERIABANK executive conference room system was designed to leverage the latest digital G.711 voice over IP (VoIP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based technology. However, the system needed a way to improve the room’s microphone performance in order to balance participants’ voice tones and volumes. The original setup comprised of two hanging ceiling microphones, making participants sound distant to call recipients since the ceiling microphones could not be adjusted nor moved closer to presenters. Raising volume only increased ambient noise while amplifying the discrepancy between loud and soft-spoken voices.
In addition to pristine sound quality, the audio conferencing solution needed to blend seamlessly with the conference room’s upscale design and adhere to several spatial considerations. For instance, the room had limited space to fit any equipment beyond executives’ personal devices, meaning that any conferencing equipment would need to be stored in a location up to 275 feet away. In addition, the room’s only storage area, a small closet, was also unavailable to equipment since it could not provide any ventilation to rack-mounted gear. Due to the conference room’s frequent usage, any proposed solution would also need to be simple to use and provide continuous operation during long periods of time to ensure uninterrupted conference calls.
To turn IBERIABANK’s executive conference room into a high-performance audio environment, integrator Summit Integration Systems (SIS) turned to Revolabs’ Executive Elite Wireless Microphone System. Using the system’s directional tabletop microphones, the devices were placed closer to participants which inherently increased audio quality while eliminating the effect of participants sounding distant during calls. Audio quality within the room is further improved thanks to Revolabs’ “Designed for Speech” technology, built-in equalization, and advancements such as an improved signal-to-noise ratio, allowing participants to experience audio quality that closely resembles the authenticity of face-to-face conversations.
"To satisfy such a high-stakes setting, we immediately turned to Revolabs’ Executive Elite"
To satisfy the room’s space constraints, Executive Elite’s new distributed architecture and Power over Ethernet (PoE) support allowed the integrator to place the system’s two remote antennas in the same room as the wireless microphones while stationing the two base units in a separate location 275 feet away. Positioned within the small closet, the antennas were installed entirely out of view while the fully wireless microphones eliminated any possibility of unsightly cables running across the table or the length of the room. Easy to use, the microphones feature a simple single-button interface for easy muting and unmuting and enable up to 20 hours of operation on a single charge — even with base units 275 feet away. The system also provides intelligent power conservation for stand-by times of up to 72 hours.