Acoustic Magic, Inc. announced today that it has shipped Voice Tracker™ array microphones to its 300th School/University.
SUDBURY, MA, June 11 – Acoustic Magic, Inc. announced today that it has shipped Voice Tracker™ array microphones to its 300th School/University.
The large number of educational customers validates the value of having a single microphone that can capture questions from the class as well as the lecture from the teacher. Voice Tracker™ I array microphone can capture all the talkers in a classroom, at ranges of 30+ feet, eliminating the need for wireless lapel mics that require batteries, or a series of mixed microphones placed throughout the room.
The Voice Tracker™ I array microphone has been endorsed by all the leading manufacturers of lecture capture software, including Tegrity, Panopto, Sonic Foundry Media Site, AnyStream/ Echo 360, Camtasia and SmartBoard.
A comment from Al Ducharme, Assistant Dean-Distance and Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida, is typical of the feedback about the Voice Tracker™:
“One of the problems we were having was low audio from the instructor and absent audio from students. We were considering an expensive traditional audio system with hanging room microphones and wireless instructor microphones. Fortunately, we discovered Acoustic Magic before we made the purchase. We tested the Voice Tracker™ array microphone, and were amazed to discover that it could pick up students talking in almost a whisper 20 feet away. In addition, the instructor audio contained little noise and allowed the instructor to move about the room without the need for a separate wireless microphone. We have decided to use the Voice Tracker™ array mic exclusively in all of our recording classrooms”.
A link to Al’s test, and a list of the 300 schools using the Voice Tracker™ array mic, can be found on the Lecture Capture Application page on the Acoustic Magic website.
“Although the Voice Tracker™ I is technically sophisticated, it is surprisingly inexpensive (under $300) and provides a very cost-effective solution which is much appreciated by education providers, especially at this time,” said Bob Feingold, CEO of Acoustic Magic, Inc.
Since the Voice Tracker™ knows the location of each talker, it can output that information as a serial word through a DB-9 connector. This is useful for camera pointing.
Acoustic Magic recently launched the Voice Tracker™ II, which adds acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) to facilitate distance learning applications. The Voice Tracker™ I could be connected to conventional conferencing hardware from Life-Size or ClearOne that had its own AEC. The Voice Tracker™ II can be used with VoIP conferencing tools like GoToMeeting that do not have an AEC.
Voice Tracker™ array microphones incorporate two-stage noise reduction, coupled with the sensitivity of six or eight always on microphone elements, to give the Voice Tracker™ outstanding range and sound quality. The two-stage noise reduction originates with the array microphone locating the person speaking and, using patented steering technology, electronically focusing a“listening beam” in that direction. This creates spatial filtering that eliminates sounds and reverberation from other parts of the room. In addition to spatial filtering, proprietary digital noise reduction processing removes more stationary background noise. The Voice Tracker™ is also the only array microphone on the market that can scan a full 360 degrees.
About Acoustic Magic, Inc
Acoustic Magic, Inc. manufactures the Voice Tracker™ desktop array microphone that has found application in automatic speech recognition, meeting and lecture recording, VoIP and conventional teleconferencing, voice control for home automation, and security surveillance. Further information about Acoustic Magic and the Voice Tracker™ array microphone can be found at //www.Acoustic Magic.com.
