Meetings suck because we always have to say everything twice, yelling the second time.

August 19, 2011 1:53 PM

Please help me find the best telephone conferencing hardware for our conference room.

We have regular meetings in our conference room at a long rectangular table, about 12 people in the room and 3-5 offsite any given week. We currently use ReadyTalk to dial everyone in, and use one of those three-pronged speaker-phone space-pod-looking things, sitting in the middle of the table. (Looks kinda like this.) But inevitably, the people on either of the far ends of the table have to shout in order to be heard, and even then, the remote folks usually can't hear them.

Is there a really good solution for this? Has speakerphone technology significantly improved in the last couple of years, to the point that simply buying a new tabletop unit would help? Or do we need to look at some other solution entirely?

posted by jbickers to Technology (1 answer total)

There's microphone extenders for that Polycom that you could get. They look somewhat like this depending on your model. These extenders also have handy mute buttons built into them in case those at the table want to say something off the air with those present (very handy when talking with vendors). I'd check to see if it's capable of being outfitted.
posted by samsara at 1:57 PM on August 19, 2011