The first audio processing software for Windows 10 PCs that is fully optimised for use with Shure networked systems microphones is now available globally. Announced with limited availability in February 2020 at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), IntelliMix Room is a groundbreaking innovation in digital signal processing (DSP) for AV conferencing.
IntelliMix Room is a software-based DSP that requires minimal customer setup and no additional dedicated hardware, reducing the costs and footprint required to provide premium AV conferencing. It brings premium audio to video conference calls as it is deployed to in-room Windows 10 PCs and meeting control devices.
The Shure IntelliMix digital signal processing technology is pre-installed on hardware devices such as the IntelliMix P300 Audio Conferencing Processor, the MXA910 and MXA710 array microphones. It is now available in a standalone software form.
IntelliMix Room helps IT professionals and business executives achieve better meetings with the following features:
• Natural audio quality for more room sizes and budgets
• Consistent AV quality across rooms
• Fully Dante compliant
• Enterprise-wide licensing
• Scalability and lower maintenance costs
• Ease of deployment and management
• All Dante audio secured via Shure Audio Encryption
This new software-based approach allows systems integrators to install more rooms, more easily, more consistently and more cost-effectively than traditional hardware-based DSP solutions. Providing up to 16 channels of audio processing, IntelliMix Room deploys the same algorithms as Shure’s award-winning IntelliMix P300. It is designed to be installed on the same in-room PC as the conferencing soft codec like Zoom, Microsoft® Teams, Skype for Business, etc.
IntelliMix algorithms are specifically designed to optimize the performance of Shure premium conferencing microphones. IntelliMix Room aggregates and enhances the audio output of multiple microphone sources and thus scales-up to support even more complex boardroom deployments. With Echo Cancellation, Noise Reduction, Automatic Mixing, Automatic Gain Control, and secure Dante routing, IntelliMix Room automatically produces a single channel of conference-ready audio.
Once installed, IntelliMix Room runs in the background of the in-room PC as a Windows 10 service. Designed with IT workflows in mind, it can be mass deployed, and configured remotely using Shure Designer System Configuration Software.
IntelliMix Room is licensed on three-year and five-year options. Using Shure’s free software – Designer and SystemOn Audio Asset Management — integrators can either set up rooms using Shure’s supplied templates, or easily configure their own for consistent large-scale deployments in their customers’ facilities. Firmware updates are automatically installed. IntelliMix Room’s software-only approach for DSP is particularly suited to progressive systems integrators offering AV-as-a-service solutions to their end-customers.
The University of Southern California (USC) is among the first to install IntelliMix Room. As one of the world’s leading universities, serving more than 50,000 students and 4,000 full-time faculty members, effective classroom and e-learning technologies are paramount.
USC is working to install IntelliMix Room in 226 rooms by the end of July and another 80-100 by next summer. With 22 rooms completed already, Joe Way, Ph. D, CTS, Director of Learning Services at USC is already seeing advantages.
“The microphone clarity and quality on recordings are unbelievable – even with just the factory settings,” he said. “It is also providing better flexibility for virtual learning as well as in classroom learning with voice lift, a feature that helps automatically amplify the presenter’s voice to other parts of the room.”
Way said his AV team was “floored” by the simple drag-and-drop features of IntelliMix Room that allowed for easy set up of rooms. Designer’s auto-configure feature helped the team optimize equipment to prepare classrooms for use. He also appreciates how the system can be an overall cost savings due to its scalability and ability to be easily updated as technology evolves.
With a large population of students attending USC from India and China, travel restrictions due to the pandemic could make physical classroom attendance difficult. Social distancing for other students attending class is a factor as well. By upgrading the classrooms with IntelliMix Room, the enhanced audio quality improves the experience for remotely attending students.
“Knowing the Shure brand and the quality products they produce on the pro audio side, I knew they’d be the right ones to choose for a project like this,” Way said. “They are an innovation company. They are
revolutionizing audio DSP, well ahead of what anyone is thinking on technology.”
While Way said he was initially planning on upgrading the technology in the classrooms to better prepare for remote learning in cases of shorter-term campus disruptions like earthquakes, it has better prepared the university to manage new protocols due to COVID-19.
The ease of use is another advantage. For professors, there’s no complicated set up or wiring to capture audio. With IntelliMix Room, everything is preset. It is true AV that speaks IT.