What are the best meeting room microphones?

The best meeting room microphone depends on room size and what you are trying to capture: voices around a fixed table, a presenter standing at the front, or any speaker anywhere in a flexible space. Five microphone types cover most commercial deployments, and most rooms above a basic huddle use a combination.

Integrated VC bar microphones (built into the Logitech Rally Bar, Poly Studio X30 or Yealink MeetingBar) work to roughly 4 to 5 metres and suit huddle rooms and small meeting rooms up to about 8 people. No additional install.

Ceiling array microphones (Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2, Shure MXA920, MXA902, Audio-Technica ES954) are the standard answer for standard meeting rooms and boardrooms above 8 people. The array steers beams towards whoever is talking and removes the need for table-top devices. The MXA920 covers up to roughly 9 by 9 metres on a single unit; the MXA902 integrates the speaker as well. Ceiling mics need a flat ceiling at the right height (typically 2.4 to 3.5 metres) and a DSP behind them in larger rooms.

Table boundary mics (low-profile pucks set into the table) suit boardrooms where the table is fixed and the client wants visible mics for a more formal feel. Cabling has to be planned at table-build stage.

Gooseneck microphones at each delegate position fit council chambers, formal boardrooms and discussion-system rooms where every speaker has an assigned seat.

Wireless lapel and handheld mics are needed for rooms where the speaker moves: training rooms, briefing centres, executive presentation rooms.

Comparison:

In larger rooms a DSP (Q-SYS, Biamp Tesira or Shure IntelliMix Room) sits behind the microphones to handle echo cancellation, automatic gain and mixing. The microphone choice is part of designing the meeting room AV system as a whole rather than picking a device in isolation, and the audio systems discipline is what determines whether the room actually sounds intelligible at the far end.

Quick reference: VC bar mic up to 8 people, ceiling array above that, lapel for movable presenters, DSP behind any larger room.