Southern California-based Audiovisual Systems Integrator dB Media Group Selects Earthworks IM3-W for University Audio Video Conferencing Installation

Milford, NH – When Azusa Pacific University was looking to replace their presentation and playback system with a full conferencing system, they turned to dB Media Group to design and install the system.

Azusa Pacific University has seven locations—its main campus in Azusa, CA and six satellite campuses around Southern California, in addition to offering online courses. The university is in its first phase of the project, completing two rooms to serve as an evaluation of the conferencing system, which they plan to deploy to all of the satellite locations and throughout the university. 

The first room is a conference room in the administration offices of the School of Nursing at Azusa Pacific University’s main campus. The conference room is connected via 1080p video over the internet to a satellite location classroom based in Monrovia, CA. The addition five satellite locations are currently able to join calls via a local computer. 

The university had four main requirements for the microphones for this installation: good quality, unobtrusive, good coverage for the large classroom, and as there was no option to get wiring to the conference table in the small conference room, the microphones needed to be ceiling mounted.

Dan Burdett, Owner of db Media Group, selected the Earthworks IM3-W microphones for this project based on the university’s requirements. “With the only good placement option being ceiling mics, I wanted to the cleanest and most transparent sounding option.  Being locked into ceiling mics, I knew the IM3 would be the best option.”

When asked what benefits Burdett has found in using the IM3-W, it all comes down to good audio.  “Great consistent coverage and a clean, natural, and transparent sound as I have come to expect from the Earthworks product,” explains Burdett. “It makes good audio easy. I didn’t have to spend a large amount of time adjusting and tuning the audio from the mics. They were positioned so that the speaker naturally sat in the null of the mic’s pattern.” 

Room 1 for this installation is a conference room in the School of Nursing administrative building on West Campus of APU, which called for 3 Earthworks IM3-W microphones. Burdett explains the functionality of the conference room: “The room is used for meetings, conference calls, presentations, lectures, and now video conferencing as well.  The mics are used for the video and audio calls, and also connected to the local dedicated PC, so they can also be used for any application like Skype, Google Hangouts, or GoTo Meeting.”

Room 2 is a classroom located in a satellite location in Monrovia, CA, in which 10 Earthworks IM3-W microphones were installed in the drop ceiling. “As a classroom, the room is mainly used for teaching and presentations, and now will also be used for remote teaching and lectures. The Earthworks microphones in the room are there so the students can be heard by the remote presenter and have live interaction,” explain Burdett.

At 1320 square feet (60’x22’), the classroom size played a role in the selection of Earthworks microphones by Burdett. “For the classroom, with such a wide room viewing angles for the screens and camera are less than ideal, but with the Earthworks mics, I knew I didn’t have to worry about the audio quality or coverage of the people in the room.”

Burdett offered his final thoughts on his experience with Earthworks microphones for installed sound applications. “To me, there is a naturalness and lack of coloration to the Earthworks mic that isn’t matched in other options. There is a frequency response consistency through the pattern, all which adds to the intelligibility.”