Audience Participation Using Personal Cell Phones For Mics

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As the coronavirus pandemic continues to alter the way schools and businesses operate, more organizations are looking into increasing audience participation using personal cell phones for mics when it comes to classrooms and boardrooms.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Why More Schools and Businesses Are Turning to Personal Cell Phones for Mics

Pre-pandemic, students and executives often sat in a communal space where they could pass around or share a microphone without much worry of contracting germs from their neighbor. With the arrival of coronavirus, there is heightened awareness and the need for another solution. The challenge facing many schools and businesses then becomes how to increase audience participation for an in person, virtual or hybrid environment in a way where all participants can clearly hear others without being forced to use a shared microphone. The solution to this problem may be found in something most older children and adults already have access to—a cell phone. By pairing personal devices with Biamp Crowd Mics, a phone also becomes a personal microphone.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Smartphone Microphone Solutions via Biamp Crowd Mics

A technology solution that uses smartphones to be microphones is currently available in Biamp Crowd Mics. It opens up the lines of communication between a teacher and their students, a meeting leader and participants, and even among attendees in both groups depending on the settings. Once the Biamp Crowd Mic central hub is set up for use, this user-friendly program simply requires that users:

• Download the free app
• Use Wi-Fi to connect to their event
• Join the event in progress via the free app

By following these three easy steps, schools and businesses can use wireless technology to connect event participants with moderators. Not only will Biamp Crowd Mics allow smartphones to act as microphones, the app also:

• Notifies the moderator if a student or meeting participant would like to speak
• Gives the moderator the power to choose which individual will speak next
• Enables the moderator to mute mics as needed during an event
• Creates real time polls to enhance classroom or meeting participation

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The Benefits of Cell Phones as Personal Mics

Biamp Crowd Mics uses a central hub to connect a space’s main audiovisual system with students or meeting participants via network connections. Despite its ability to be a valuable resource in small classrooms and boardrooms, it also has the capability to connect up to one thousand participants for an event or lecture. Some primary benefits of a school or business using Biamp Crowd Mics include:

• No sharing or passing of a microphone, which can help limit the spread of germs between event participants
• Event attendees only need to download the app and then join the meeting via the internet
• Microphones connect directly to the event’s public address system so participants can be clearly heard as they are approved to speak
• Participants who do not wish to speak into their phone as a microphone but still wish to contribute may also do so via text
• Event leaders and moderators can better control conversation flow during a meeting
• Moderators can utilize real time polls as a way of encouraging participation among meeting attendees

Some schools can find this particularly effective as instead of making phones off limits in the classroom, it allows them to let students use them as learning tools. As students use the app to text comments, speak in real time, or engage with a poll, teachers are able to better gauge the interest and participation level of students. In a business setting, meeting moderators can have more control over a meeting than they did pre-pandemic. By having the ability to mute mics when reaching a stopping point, moderators can better set the pace of a meeting to be respectful of the participants’ time.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Why Personal Cell Phones as Mics May Also Prove to Be A Post-Pandemic Trend

As the nation continues to reopen schools and businesses, some experts estimate that a hybrid school and work environment may outlast the pandemic. In some sections of the nation, companies are going so far as to sell their corporate office space as they plan to change the way they work in the future. For reasons like these, it is more than plausible that schools and businesses will have a need to utilize personal cell phones as mics during and post pandemic to support students and employees in a safe manner.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]As the hybrid school and work environments continue to trend up, those interested in audio solutions such as Biamp Crowd Mics should choose to work with a reputable AV integrator that also offers other smart technologies. Whether it is a tool like LumeCube that offers better lighting for conferences and streaming, or ScreenBeam which assists with wireless presentations, the provider you choose should offer multiple solutions that will facilitate and enhance collaborative work in the classroom and the boardroom.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]