Audio
Beamforming Microphone Array
Also called: beamforming mic, ceiling microphone array
A microphone with many capsules whose outputs are combined electronically to steer narrow pickup 'beams' toward talkers while rejecting off-axis noise.
Instead of a microphone per two seats, one ceiling array covers a table and dynamically follows whoever is speaking. That buys a clean ceiling and no table clutter, which is usually why architects specify them. Coverage is a function of mounting height and ceiling construction — the same array that covers a 16-seat table at 9 feet covers noticeably less at 14 feet.
Arrays are unforgiving about what is around them. Mount one next to a supply diffuser and you steer a beam straight into moving air; mount it in an open plenum without proper backing and you pick up the room next door. We lay out arrays against the reflected ceiling plan, not the furniture plan, precisely because the mechanical drawings decide whether they work.
Related terms
- DSP
- The processor that mixes, routes, and conditions every audio signal in a room — gating microphones, cancelling echo, and applying EQ and limiting before audio reaches the amplifier or far end.
- AEC
- Processing that subtracts the room's own loudspeaker output from the microphone signal so remote participants do not hear their own voices echoed back.
- Ceiling Tile Speaker
- A loudspeaker installed into a suspended ceiling grid, used in distributed arrays so coverage is even across a room instead of loud at the front and thin at the back.
- NC Rating
- A single-number rating of a room's background noise level across frequency bands, used to judge whether mechanical noise will interfere with speech and conferencing.
More Audio terms
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