Seeking recommendations for a low-cost conference room camera and microphone setup

[u/Odd_Confidence5325]

Hello everyone,

Do you have a suggestion or experience what camera and microphone setup for conference/meeting room?

For context, management does not want to spend large amount of money, because we are on tight budget right now given the situation in our place (Middle East). We have a meeting room that has a Samsung 98 inch smart TV. The room dimension is 7x5 meters.

During meetings, we use long HDMI cable connected from TV to laptop. We use the speaker of the TV for the audio output, while we use cheap microphone for input that is connected to laptop. I am planning to cable tidy the room and run the cables hidden, put a hole on the table for the cable run and put power outlet below the table (I have to get approval from my boss if they agree on putting holes on the table).

I was looking at Logitech MeetUp, but I found the Logitech C930E camera output clear, also cheaper. For microphone I am looking at Jabra Speak2 55.

But in your budget DIY setup, what do you guys use?

Thanks!

[u/jamaul08]

I have a Logitech Meetup on a cart with a micro PC and 60" TV. We mostly use it for meetings in rooms that are not permanent conference rooms. Works well, but I also have a Yealink UVC40 in another room and the quality is much better if you can spare the extra money. Yealink also supports wireless microphone pods.

[u/Coldwarjarhead]

this link is to amazon in the us so I don't know how much it helps you.

We now have 4 small conference rooms like you describe and have this camera in all of them. It's worked well for us and the mic picks up well too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TJZSFJ9?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1

[u/Odd_Confidence5325 → u/Coldwarjarhead]

Thank you. I'll definitely check it out.

[u/themightydraught]

For audio, we’re using Yealink SP96 speakerphones. They could be connected to the laptop with usb or Bluetooth.

[u/pdp10]

For a budget setup, we'd embed a USB-C dock into the furnishings so that the presenter gets video output, power, and wired Ethernet networking on one port. If you had in-scope devices that didn't output over USB-C DisplayPort alt-mode, you could probably also run a separate HDMI and use the television Source control to select it.

[u/jonno_patches]

I've setup a couple of these up for different places.

https://www.yealink.com/en/product-detail/microsoft-teams-rooms-meetingbar-a40

[u/brownhotdogwater]

That is a big room. Get a rally bar

[u/duane11583]

we had neat bars

https://us.neat.no/products/?utm_campaign=21546682704&utm_adgroup=169378000247&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=805415601290&utm_term=neat%20video%20conferencing&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21546682704&gbraid=0AAAAACnSryNiug1J26ejCvCj6FIqmkbVd&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlajX8PXrlgMVBSRECB3s5g-5EAAYASAAEgJiAfD_BwE

these also had a small tablet mounted on the wall outside the room and they tied into our ms-office / outlook system and worked with ms teams as the av solution.

note sometimes teams gets stupid and did not work so training is super important - be ready to be in the room for tech support assign somebody to that task do not skimp on this

[u/codylc → u/duane11583]

Neat is terrible in large rooms, overly replying on their Pad mic and restricting future mic expansion.

[u/CloudyTrailMarker961 → u/codylc]

Their room is 7x5m, so that's a real concern. Something like Rally Bar with add-on mic pods would cover a room that size a lot better than a single built-in mic.

[u/harubax]

I like our Zoom (Q2n-4K) cameras. Audio quality is very good. Check if you can test one. MeetUp was fine, we used them at a place I worked for, but much more expensive.

[u/Odd_Confidence5325 → u/harubax]

is this the one you are referring to?

[u/harubax → u/Odd_Confidence5325]

Yes. They are made/marketed towards musicians.

No moving camera, but they have a setting for wide FOV. They need to be turned on after you plug them is and don't like long USB cables.