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Creating ad hoc microphone arrays from personal devices (2019)

microsoft.com

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Re: Creating ad hoc microphone arrays from personal devices (2019)

#51
post #28

This is a really interesting technical concept. Capturing high-quality audio in a meeting room for videoconferencing is a notoriously complicated problem. Microphones are crazy sensitive and pick up things like footsteps and conversations outside the door, shuffling feet and tapping on keyboards, and construction and HVAC noise like you wouldn't believe. So filtering those things out, and then capturing the best qual…

> And it's well-known that the "bowling alley" visual of meeting participants (camera at the end of a long conference table) isn't ideal. If each participant has their own laptop camera on themselves, it could be a vastly better experience for remote participants. My company pushes us to have any conference that will include remote people from our desks, even if some or most of the attendees are in the same physical…

Really late to the party, but I love this concept. I feel like this would be really difficult in an open office/shared office.

I enjoy team based offices, 7-10 man rooms. Even in there, this would probably be a nightmare unless you had this tech running in real time so you don't get microphone crosstalk/echo.

None the less, I really like the spirit of the system.

Re: Creating ad hoc microphone arrays from personal devices (2019)

#52
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it's well-known that the "bowling alley" visual of meeting participants (camera at the end of a long conference table) isn't ideal. If each participant has their own laptop camera on themselves, it could be a vastly better experience for remote participants. My company pushes us to have any conference that will include remote people from our desks, even if some or most of the attendees are in the same physical…

Really late to the party, but I love this concept. I feel like this would be really difficult in an open office/shared office. I enjoy team based offices, 7-10 man rooms. Even in there, this would probably be a nightmare unless you had this tech running in real time so you don't get microphone crosstalk/echo. None the less, I really like the spirit of the system.

Apparently IBM tested a system where participants faces were projected onto dummies faces in a real room, voice related through speakers on each dummy, then the whole thing recorded and broadcast to participants.

Re: Creating ad hoc microphone arrays from personal devices (2019)

#53
This reminds me of this open source project (and its predecessor manyears and open hardware projects 8/16soundsusb).

https://github.com/introlab/odas https://github.com/introlab/manyears https://github.com/introlab/16SoundsUSB

Website of the team behind these:

https://introlab.3it.usherbrooke.ca/

Re: Creating ad hoc microphone arrays from personal devices (2019)

#54

There are obvious(?) privacy issues and what not here. But ignoring all that for a second, it does sound pretty cool to be able to leverage all the little computers we walk around with. Think of all those shitty little video clips people take at a concert. Could all those be combined to make some high quality panoramic video? Probably a lot of other cool applications that I can't even comprehend for now. What a time…

It was more premeditated than what you describe but the Beastie Boys handed out hundreds of cameras before a show in Madison Square Garden in 2006 and then post-processed the resulting footage into a pretty epic concert film.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awesome;_I_Fuckin'_Shot_That!

Re: Creating ad hoc microphone arrays from personal devices (2019)

#55
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most headsets come with omnidirectional microphones. Even some "noise cancelling" microphones are actually omnidirectional, just with an arm long enough to be reasonably close to the mouth. When I recently decided I need a cardioid microphone on my headset, I've ended up spending about $300 total.

Which headset was that? I’ve been looking for one with a cardioid mic but wasn’t able to track any down.

AT BPHS1. That has an XLR connector, so I also got a Scarlett Solo. I also recommend replacement cushions, e.g. from Brainwavz, as the stock ones are for people with some tiny ears (my ears hurt pretty badly after a long stream of meetings).

I've heard good things about Sennheiser PC 8 for tighter budgets, but haven't tried personally.

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