In this episode of the Wainhouse Live! From the Show Floor video series, Wainhouse Research Senior Analyst Craig Durr is joined by Jim Schanz, VP of Sales with Shure.
They discuss:
- Shure’s launch of the Microflex® Advance™ MXA902 Integrated Conferencing Ceiling Array
- The features of the new MXA902 that help bring all of Shure’s expertise to small and midsize rooms, including a state-of-the-art array microphone for enhanced directional voice capture, an integrated wide-dispersion loudspeaker for natural sounding far-end speech, and an onboard IntelliMix DSP for automatic mixing, echo cancellation, noise reduction, and automatic gain control.
- The benefits of the new MXA902: First, it provides excellent audio quality for both in-room and remote participants, is easy to deploy and manage, and the one-device solution is cost-effective at a very competitive price.
Learn more at https://www.shure.com/en-US/conferencing-meetings/infocomm.
Watch and listen to the full conversation and hear about Shure’s Stem ecosystems of products and the rest of the MXA lineup.
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TRANSCRIPT
Craig Durr: Hi, this is Craig Durr, senior analyst with Wayne House, researcher of Futurum Company, and we’re here live from the showroom floor from Infocomm. This is North America’s largest trade show for audiovisual products and technologies. I’m lucky to be here today talking to Jim Shanz. He’s the Vice President of Global Sales for Integrated Systems with Shure. Jim, thanks for being here.
Jim Schanz: Glad to be here, Craig.
Craig Durr: Now, it’s not unusual, Jim, that we’re seeing you here at Infocomm. Shure right now is the go-to solution for many audio video professionals, especially for those premium needs in those large, unique rooms. We’re talking classrooms, auditoriums, corporate boardrooms as well. But the real reason we’re here to talk about is that you recently announced a solution that’s geared towards small to medium-sized rooms. Now that’s the Microflex Advance MXA902 Integrated Conferencing Ceiling Array. Right? The MXA 902. Now, this is something that I’m excited to see about because at Infocomm it’s the first time that people can actually see it in person. Right? Tell me what makes this product different from other solutions already on the market.
Jim Schanz: Thank you for the question, Craig. And we’re so excited to be announcing the MXA 902. What’s different about it is that it incorporates our state-of-the-art array technology microphone, but also adding an integrated loudspeaker into the same form factor. So it provides incredible audio both from picking up speakers and also from the far end.
Craig Durr: So with this differences, what are the benefits for these end customers trying to utilize this in small to medium rooms?
Jim Schanz: Well, the benefits, aside from having just the microphone and the speaker in one enclosure, we also have our Intellix DSP included in the box as well. So you have noise reduction, you have AGC, you have echo cancellation. All this is incorporated into this box. So it’s really simple, easy to install, easy to deploy solution.
Craig Durr: I love it. So you’re bringing all this premium audio down to the small to medium sized rooms. Now, if I remember the specs correctly, it’s about a 20 by 20 room we’re talking about there?
Jim Schanz: Correct. 20 by 20 pretty much out of the box. Put it in the ceiling, plug it in, and you’re pretty much good to go with an audio network interface.
Craig Durr: It’s great that you’re talking about the IT administrator experience there because one of the key benefits we’re talking about here is that this is coming to market already certified for some critical UC ecosystem, and I’m talking about Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Tell me more about that.
Jim Schanz: Correct. It’s certified for both Microsoft Teams and Zoom when in use with our Annie USB interface box. And this is something that we worked very hard with coming up to the show, and this is a product that we’ve been working on for many, many years. It’s very difficult to get a microphone and a loudspeaker premium on both sides working in the same enclosure.
Craig Durr: And at the end of the day, the end users get that premium audio with this ease of use experience because it’s like a set it and forget it. There’s nothing for them to deal with. Right?
Jim Schanz: Correct. And getting it off the table, obviously, so you have a microphone and loudspeaker in the ceiling. It also helps with meeting equity, and I know that’s a big topic nowadays. Or if you have an all-in-one bar, let’s say at the front of the room, folks in the back of the room aren’t really going to be heard as well as folks in the front. Putting it on the ceiling allows for a little bit more equity from the audio pickup perspective.
Craig Durr: That’s fantastic. With everyone focused on hybrid work, I think that’s a key thing to deliver there. But what I love is this is not the only thing Shure has here at this show. Now you have some other things also in the booth. What else can people expect to see if they stop by?
Jim Schanz: Well, Thank you. Yeah. We have our complete MXA ecosystem line of products as well as our SEM ecosystem, which is for IT administrators specifically, and is really, really easy to install, easy to deploy. It’s an incredible system.
Craig Durr: What I love about the SEM ecosystem is that it’s very IT friendly in this AV centric experience right now. So you’re really bringing a great ease of use story to people that may not be familiar with how to set a premium audio. Right?
Jim Schanz: Exactly. Exactly. That’s really what we marketed towards, and that’s what the product is representing. And in fact, we’ve done several firmware updates, so it’s better than it’s ever been. So please encourage anyone to come by the booth. We also have a secondary room near the booth, so come by and see us at the show and we’ll show you around.
Craig Durr: Yeah. That’s fantastic. Now, if by chance people are not here at Infocomm, where can they go to get some more information about this?
Jim Schanz: Shure.com/Infocomm.
Craig Durr: Fantastic. Well, I appreciate it, Jim. Thank you for coming and sharing this information with us. Everyone, I encourage you to stop by the Shure Booth. Thank you again. This is live from the showroom floor at Infocomm.
Author Information
Craig holds a Master of Business Administration from the Texas McCombs School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Tulane University.
