Shure Wireless Conferencing Technology Enables In-person Meetings with Social Distancing

The coronavirus pandemic has affected many areas of private and public life, forcing people to rethink established organizational structures and to adopt new working methods. This naturally also includes politicians, who make important decisions from the federal government down to the local level.

An example is the district council of the Bad Kissingen region in Germany which was unable to meet as usual in the conference rooms of its town hall. In order to comply with social distancing regulations, the officials had to find an alternative for the council's 60 members. The AV specialist der Kohl UG ensured seamless communication between council members, as well as clear intelligibility in the press and public visitor areas, in the converted gymnasium with the Shure Microflex Complete Wireless conferencing system.

Due to coronavirus safety regulations, each council member had to sit at their own table. These were placed in the gymnasium in six rows of ten tables each, with sufficient distance between them. Additionally, it was necessary to ensure free movement of all participants, some of whom had to leave their positions for voting and to take seats at a central conference table.

The company responsible for the conferencing technology, *der Kohl UG*, relied on the Shure Microflex Complete Wireless system, with 64 wireless MXCW640 conference stations and MXC416DF/C Dualflex gooseneck microphones. Taken together, this combination of microphone, loudspeaker, and touchscreen in an integrated portable unit for each individual council member, met all requirements for audio quality and freedom of movement.

An MXCWAPT Access Point Transceiver served as the central control unit, handling both audio routing and frequency management with automatic channel switching. The sound reinforcement of the press area and public seating was provided by temporarily installed loudspeakers, which were connected to a PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring system with one transmitter and two receivers.

The response of the council members has been extremely positive -- especially regarding the excellent speech intelligibility in the acoustically challenging gymnasium setting. The council members also praised the simple operation and uncomplicated mobility of the wireless microphone units, enabling their discussions to run as smoothly and effectively as usual.

For upcoming sessions, participants will also use the digital voting functionality of the MXCW640 wireless conference units rather than the traditional show of hands seen at the first council meeting. These new job requirements have also proven to be a complete success for *der Kohl UG*: The rental contracts for the upcoming district council meetings have already been agreed, providing all parties with the necessary flexibility and planning security in uncertain times.