A “Fiscal New Year Eve” Purchase Suggestion

There are only a couple of days left in many of our court’s fiscal year budgets.  So, for IT departments that sometimes mean a small "spending spree" to use the allocated funds.  I would like to suggest a small purchase that will benefit your computer video/audio communications setup.

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For many years I have used a headset-microphone combination for all the various online meeting systems such as GoToMeeting, Skype, WebEx, Lucid Meetings, and more.  After wrestling with a slipping headset one last time, I decided that a flat boundary microphone was the solution.  I have used these microphones in the past and often talk about them when discussing courtroom audio setups.

Wikipedia explains about boundary microphones:

 “A conventional microphone placed on, or a few inches above, a hard boundary surface will pick up the desired direct sound as well as delayed sound reflecting off the boundary surface. The direct and delayed reflected sounds will combine at the microphone to create comb filtering, with constructive and destructive interference causing peaks and valleys in the frequency response.”

Since I use the microphone on my desk, or a conference table it fits the bill.

Doing a quick search, I found the MXL AC-404-LED which is a USB “Boundary Microphone” was still available.  I have used this microphone before and it works well even in a large conference room as it has a 25-foot range according to the manufacturer’s website. (BTW, I don't have the "cool color" LED version.)

And if you are interested in learning more, here is a YouTube video review to see the unit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AfidkvN_g8

Recommended.