Announcing their partnership with an integrated room solution that ‘minimises installation time, improves audio quality, and enhances collaboration for end-users’, Sennheiser and Xilica have paired Sennheiser’s TeamConnect Ceiling 2 beamforming microphone array with Xilica’s ecosystem of DSP, user interfaces and network endpoints.
The pairing ensures speech intelligibility for physical and remote participants in hybrid spaces, along with the ability of users to move throughout their space and present in their own style, while eliminating risk of inaudibility.
As part of the alliance, Xilica has enabled support for the TruVoicelift functionality of Sennheiser’s TeamConnect Ceiling 2 (TCC2) across its Solaro Series of DSPs, which simplifies the installation of multiple Sennheiser TCC2 microphones through automatic testing and calibration of audio. Additionally, TruVoicelift offers noise reduction, speaker amplification, and creates targeted zones to home in on participants speaking in busy spaces. When paired with Xilica’s proprietary noise reduction and HearClear echo cancellation algorithms, the combined solution promises ‘robust defence’ against meeting distractions.
Together, Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 and Xilica Solaro processors offer end-to-end mute status sync for Microsoft Teams. This enables a software-based mute action, such as clicking a button in the Microsoft Teams application, to be reflected throughout the chain and back to the Sennheiser TCC2’s status indicator LED. Similarly, when using Xilica user interfaces, a mute action can be reflected both to the Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 and back into the Microsoft Teams application – giving room users complete visibility.
‘Modern meetings have more remote participants than ever, and they need to hear clearly without being distracted by background noise and interruptions,’ says Sennheiser Global Alliance & Partnerships Manager, Charlie Jones. ‘TruVoicelift is perfect for large conference spaces and lecture halls that allow everyone to hear a presenter, or a question from a student that is raised. Together with Xilica DSPs, end-users are assured high-quality, dependable audio with exceptional room and user control.’
He adds that the ultra-low-profile Xilica Solaro QR1 DSP will benefit integrators working in corporate and education environments with limited or no rack space, and notes that bundling the Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 and Xilica Solaro QR1 ‘is ideal for these situations because no special wiring or configuration is required’.
‘The Xilica Solaro QR1’s compact form factor allows installers to mount the DSP virtually anywhere. It’s small, powerful and PoE, and upon first seeing it we realised that many Sennheiser customers could benefit from a combined solution. It’s also the standard for Sennheiser demonstrator kits worldwide.’
General availability of the Xilica follow-me camera tracking module for the Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is expected in Q4 2021, enabling automated pan-tilt-zoom by using the beam position information from the TeamConnect Ceiling 2. This gives room users even freedom to present throughout their space without consideration of the A/V infrastructure.
‘We’re pleased to partner with Sennheiser to help unlock the power of human connection,’ says Xilica COO, James Knight. ‘Our joint solution offers a pre-validated room system for the high-value collaboration space that delivers greater freedom and flexibility to end users, while eliminating lengthy setup for integrators. Pairing Sennheiser’s patented technologies with the audio-enhancing algorithms of Xilica processors gives a distraction-free experience in which people can come together.’
More: www.sennheiser.com
