Audio Issues with Polycom System

[LarryS]

Ok I'm kinda board.

I work for a distance learning site for a University in the states. The classes that I offer here are broadcast, from separate location, to my site and a couple of others via a Polycom system. See here:

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&source=hp&q=polycom+vsx+7000&oq=polycom&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=bG5sS_r7K4-Z8AbNy-n8BQ&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQzAMwAw

We are having some issues with the received audio signal coming from the the classrooms from the broadcast site. Can't hear dick! Actually to be more precise it has been my experience that hearing woman's voices seems to be the biggest issue. So I guess in this case it is can't hear vagina.

The rooms that the classes are being broadcast from are approximately 30 feet by 30 feet with 13 to 14 foot ceilings. (sorry I am a dumb ass half American and too lazy to convert to meters for you more advanced folks):) The rooms have tiled floor, virtually bare walls with one wall being all windows. There is one mic (see link) mounted in the ceiling pretty much directly over where the instructors speak from.

The powers that be at the broadcast site plan to "fix" the problem by installing a second mic in the ceiling.

I personally do not think this is going to fix the signal to noise ratio issue that I believe to be the culprit. But as I said above I am just a dumb American/Canadian half breed and lowly Distant site Director. So what do I know.

I would welcome suggestions for a fix, backed up with some science of why said fix would or would not work.

P.S. I made a bet for $1.00 with the "tech guy" that adding another mic would probably not fix our issues so this is very important.

[macrae11]

Even if you didn't know anything about audio, you would thing that you could figure out that adding another mic is not only going to increase the volume of the desired source, but also proportionally increase the noise, which you already alluded to.

I think the solution would either be to use a different mic or a different placement. Ideal situation for sound would probably be a wireless countryman type mic. My second choice would be a different hanging mic. Either a shotgun variety from the ceiling that would have a much narrower pick up pattern, or some type of hanging choir mic that you could drop down to 8- 10 feet or so. The problem with these solutions is that they will limit the movement range of the speaker. They'll be able to be heard very well in a localized position, but if they move to far from that location the sound would drop off dramatically.

Actually acoustically treating the room would probably yield better results than either hanging situation, but I'm guessing they wouldn't be up for such an endeavor.

[LarryS]

Thanks Andrew. that was exactly my siggestion to them as well!!