Royal College of Music Relies On Audio-Technica Beamforming Microphones

Located in the Royal College of Music's East Tower, the Carne Room is one of the institution’s four 'Parry Rooms', named after composer Hubert Parry (and Royal College of Music Director between 1895 and 1918).

Also known as the East Parry room, it functions as a multi-use space for performance, practice, teaching and meetings, with visitors treated to views overlooking the Royal Albert Hall.

In order to deliver high quality audio during hybrid meetings, a pair of Audio-Technica ATND1061DAN Dante-enabled Beamforming Ceiling Array microphones was recently installed in the Carne Room’s vaulted ceiling. The unobtrusive design of the microphones was furthered by a custom paintjob by Aura Futures Ltd, ensuring the perfect fit for the venue’s impressive aesthetic.

"While the natural reverb in the room is wonderful for acoustic performances, when we started hosting hybrid or online meetings in here, it wasn't ideal for speech," explains Royal College of Music AV and Broadcast Engineer Andy Denyer. "It immediately became clear that we needed a solution that would allow meeting participants to clearly be heard by remote attendees, without feedback echoing through the system.

"Additionally, the multi-purpose nature of Carne Room meant that ease-of-use and deployment was a real priority. We used to spend an hour setting up tabletop microphones with a mixer and audio interface for each meeting – logistically that became untenable.

"We realised that permanently-installed ceiling microphones were going to be the way forward and having auditioned several, we settled on a pair of Audio-Technica ATN1061DAN models, which give us great coverage over a large area. We weren't necessarily expecting a super-clear, crisp 'meeting room' result – we needed to avoid using any acoustic treatment that might have made that possible – but the results were much better than we predicted. The beamforming functionality of the ATND1061 ensures very precise pickup.

"The microphones deliver excellent, intelligible speech and the onboard DSP, echo-cancelling and the fact that they’re Dante-enabled they integrate nicely into our wider Dante network - they’ve proved to be the perfect solution for us."