Speaker Phones for Teleconferences
A proper conference speakerphone makes all the difference to sound quality and hence how effective a meeting is. If people cannot hear clearly, then they will lose interest in the meeting. I cannot stress enough, the importance of having good sound quality.
The market leader by a wide margin is Polycom. They deliver excellent quality equipment at fairly sensible prices. Their range is as follows.
2-4 people VoiceStation 500
2-8 people SoundStation 2
8-20 people SoundStation 2W
For larger numbers of people the speakerphone needs to have additional microphones – you may need to specify that these are included because they are normally an option.
Tips for using speaker phones
- Place the speakerphone equidistant from the people that will be talking.
- Ensure that when people talk they are facing the speakerphone
- Don't place anything on top of the speakerphone (such as folders or paper)
- Don't put the unit next to something noisy like a projector or a PC.
- When you are not talking, the sound quality is normally improved by muting the speakerphone
