Whether in person or remote, there is no denying that audio is the key component to positive hybrid experiences. In a world where employees and students alike need clear and intelligible audio, speakerphones offer a simple and quick setup to bring a conference anywhere and at any time.
[SCN Hybrid World: Right on Schedule]
Like many technologies in the post-pandemic world, speakerphones have evolved with enhancements over the past few years. SCN talked to manufacturers to find out what to look for when turning to speakerphones.
Plug-and-Play All Day
Portability. Bluetooth. USB-C. These are the terms thrown around with modern conferencing technology and what many people are looking for in their hybrid solutions. It should come as no surprise that it is no different for speakerphones.
In the "work from anywhere" world—as Josh Blalock, chief video evangelist at Jabra, calls it—portability and plug-and-play connectivity are table stakes for speakerphones. As Blalock explained, whether using a USB-C, USB-A, or Bluetooth connection, users want a frictionless meeting process from start to finish from an office huddle room or at their kitchen table. But, of course, it's always about the audio.
"High-quality audio is paramount," Blalock said. "Voice drop-offs, muffled audio, and background noise are not only frustrating, but also disruptive and can impact meeting productivity. Premium audio capabilities like full duplex audio help back-and-forth conversation in meetings sound and feel like they’re in person."
For Alan Nicholls, enterprise sales manager, MAXHUB, speakerphone features and capabilities are dictated by where the device is being set up. “For a dedicated conference room, portability and wireless are usually not necessary," Nicholls said. "For a traveling worker, the needs completely change. Portability, battery life, I/O, and Bluetooth will all be necessary. Something everyone needs is audio fidelity, voice pickup range, and noise cancelling."
[SCN Hybrid World: Out of Sight Sound]
In today's hybrid world, one in which multiple devices are daisy-chained and connected to an array of solutions, how much of a requirement is a charging dock for speakerphone setup? "Charging docks are popular in the conference speaker space, not so much in the portable speaker space," Nicholls said. "The USB-C port is used for both direct connectivity and charging. So, instead of a proprietary dock, you can use any USB-C cable to connect it to any device."
Conference Room Ready
With all-in-one solutions like videobars and highly advanced in-ceiling speaker and microphone systems, are speakerphones still an optimal choice for larger conference rooms? Joel Mulpeter, director, product marketing for Crestron, explained that Crestron Flex Pods were designed for this purpose. "For a larger space, a flexible, expandable system such as the Flex Pods solution is the ticket," he said. "It’s especially useful for mixed use rooms—conference rooms that need to double as training spaces, for example."
"Traditionally, speakerphones were a fixture of large conference rooms, but today we see them more and more in huddle rooms, collaboration spaces, and home offices," Blalock added. "As a portable, plug-and-play device, speakerphones have become a key addition to many hybrid workers’ work-from-home spaces. They’re also a perfect companion for business travelers that need high-quality audio while working from a hotel or other location outside of their normal day-to-day."
More AI and Beyond
AI is everywhere, and speakerphones are no exception. Blalock admits generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot and Zoom AI Companion are at the core of every conversation when it comes to future enhancements in the conference room and beyond. "How well these AI tools receive and interpret input determines their success in driving productivity. The ability of speakerphones to accurately capture conversation in meetings is critical as even minor AI misunderstandings can impact AI-produced meeting transcripts and action items—and ultimately disrupt workflows and reduce productivity," he noted. "Maximizing high-quality audio in speakerphones will help to better harness the potential of AI companions in the year ahead."
[SCN Hybrid World: Room with a (Wide) View]
Expanding on that high-quality audio, Mulpeter added that in a world of AV-over-IP and audio-over-IP, future enhancements should always be aimed at creating spaces that are easily adaptable to the client’s wishes. "AV-over-IP and audio-over-IP is really the backbone of future integrations," he explained. "It’s expandable, it’s got the potential for broad interoperability, and we welcome a variety of third-party devices into our installations. Microphones are a great example. Our systems can handle a variety of applications, from speakerphone conversations to videoconferencing, all with very simple and intuitive controls."
Now that you know what features to look for, here are several speakerphones to consider for enhancing your conference room or hybrid meeting experience.
Atlona Captivate AT-CAP-SP100
The Atlona Captivate AT-CAP-SP100 speakerphone, which is USB and Bluetooth-ready, provides 360-degree coverage to capture voices within a radius of up to 16 feet. Its six-element microphone array focuses on audio pickup while suppressing background noises, allowing individual meeting participants to be heard clearly. Advanced acoustic echo cancellation and noise reduction further enhance voice intelligibility by eliminating unwanted sounds.
AVer FONE700
AVer’s FONE700 offers advanced audio technology with noise suppression, double-talk detection, and de-reverberation, ensuring clear, echo-free communication. Its full duplex system optimizes meeting experiences, while a single USB connection simplifies setup and reduces clutter. Equipped with three directional and 18 omnidirectional microphones, and supporting up to four speakerphones, it can capture voices within a 131-foot range. The FONE700 adapts to various room sizes and is certified for Microsoft Teams, Zoom, RingCentral, and Barco.
Biamp Speakerphone
The Biamp speakerphone is a combination of its TesiraFORTÉ X 400 DSP, Parlé TTM-X tabletop microphone, and Tesira HD-1 dialer hardware. The combination provides both telephony control and PoE with a dial pad from the Tesira HD-1 Dialer. The TesiraFORTÉ X 400 offers easy setup via Biamp Launch software, featuring AI-based automated startup and room tuning. The Parlé TTM-X mic is a low-profile 4.7-inch tabletop microphone with Beamtracking technology to focus on persons speaking anywhere in the room across four 90-degree audio zones for full 360-degree room coverage.
Boom Collaboration Boom GEMINI
The Boom GEMINI offers 48kHz wideband audio with a four-microphone, 26-foot, 360-degree omnidirectional range. The included expansion unit connects easily to extend the audio and microphone capacity for medium to large meeting spaces. The Boom GEMINI twin speakerphones are designed with enhanced features such as dynamic noise reduction, automatic echo cancellation, and USB plug-and-play capabilities.
ClearOne CHAT 150 BT
The ClearOne CHAT 150 BT was designed with simple USB and Bluetooth connections to personal computers, mobile devices, and desk phones. Its steerable microphone array with first-mic priority intelligently activates the microphone closest to the talker, reducing ambient noise interference. With features such as advanced noise cancellation, full duplex distributed echo cancellation, and automatic level control, the CHAT 150 BT offers intelligible, natural audio and is compatible with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet.
Crestron Flex Pods
Crestron Flex Pods are a tabletop wireless audio solution that provide flexibility in how users deploy Crestron microphone and speaker solutions across an organization. Crestron Flex Pods include built-in microphones, speaker, and audio controls that wirelessly connect to a UC room solution such as a Microsoft Teams Room. No matter where people are in the space, the solution Flex Pods can be moved to ensure optimal range and reach so everyone can hear, and be heard, clearly.
Jabra Speak2 75
The Jabra Speak2 75 is a personal pocketable device for the coffee-table-conferencing, dining-room-dialing, and hotel-hot-desking meeting rooms of today’s hybrid world. The next generation of Jabra’s Speak Series, the Speak2 75 includes a 65mm speaker, super-wideband audio, full duplex audio for the most natural conversations, and four beamforming microphones. It features an intuitive microphone quality indicator, as well as both USB-C and USB-A connectors on the same cable.
Logitech Logi Dock
Logitech’s Logi Dock is an all-in-one docking station with one-touch meeting controls and a built-in speakerphone to simplify the personal workspace and improve the video meeting experience while decluttering the desktop space by providing a single connection point for desktop devices. Logi Dock is built with enterprise-grade audio and includes features that enable users to leverage the noise-cancelling speakerphone. For private conversations, users can automatically switch audio to another headset or earbuds—and switch to music from Logi Dock’s speaker once the meeting concludes.
MAXHUB BM35
Designed for use in small to mid-size meeting spaces, the compact MAXHUB BM35 Bluetooth teleconference speakerphone features an eight-microphone array and 360-degree omnidirectional audio algorithms to capture voices up to 19 feet away—enabling meeting participants to be clearly heard, while reverberation suppression minimizes distractions. With automatic gain control, intelligent algorithms adjust the volume of participant voices dynamically, keeping fluctuating volumes to a minimum., Bluetooth provides the ability to Connect two BM35s via Bluetooth for larger groups.
MSolutons MS-SP10
The MS-SP10 is a USB smart conference speakerphone with an embedded architecture design for use in meeting spaces of all sizes. It adopts the combination mode of main microphone plus extension microphone, capturing audio nearly 33 feet away with 360-degree omnidirectional pickup. The MS-SP10 integrates a diverse set of AI audio algorithms to accommodate noise reduction, echo cancellation, reverberation suppression, and automatic gain. The MS-SP10’s high and low-frequency speaker design plays music rich in bass and treble, and delivers clear and natural voices.
Sennheiser TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker
Optimized for small Microsoft Teams rooms, the TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker’s intuitive design is intended to give teams a way to collaborate in hybrid meetings as if everyone is in one place. Intelligent solutions such as integrated voice recognition software and automatic meeting notes make an equitable meeting experience possible for remote and hard-of-hearing participants. The speaker offers an omnidirectional speaker and covers a 7.5-foot radius with seven integrated beamforming microphones.
Telycam SONO
Telycam’s SONO AI-enhanced wireless speakerphone is designed to improve the way participants experience audio during videoconferences in personal workspaces, as well as small and medium-sized rooms. SONO incorporates a 1.75-inch speaker and eight omnidirectional microphones, with its direction-of-arrival recognition algorithm adjusting pickup toward the current speaker. A pickup distance of 16 feet ensures that everyone in the room can be heard. Additionally, SONO’s AI-driven noise reduction algorithm continuously learns and adapts dynamically to filter out noise such as keyboards, chairs, air conditioning, and other environmental sounds while ensuring that voices remain natural and clear.
Yamaha YVC-330
The Yamaha YVC-330 speakerphone, with SoundCap technology, provides clear audio in open workspaces and remote meetings by creating a 3-foot “audio bubble” around the speaker. This feature blocks background noise, ensuring only voices within range are transmitted. With additional capabilities like far field noise reduction and human voice activity detection, the YVC-330 filters out irrelevant sounds for enhanced call clarity. Compact, USB-powered, and ready for instant use, it easily transforms any space into a professional meeting environment, making it ideal for flexible or remote work setups.
