Designed with a focus on sustainability, Zurich’s Tessinerplatz Coworking Lounge is a new co-working space promises ‘ahigh-quality work environment [with] an immediate sense of well-being’. Part of its aim is achieved throught he use of state-of-the-art media technology, including TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphone array for high speech intelligibility during video and audio conferences.

With more than 500m² of floor space, the Coworking Lounge Tessinerplatz offers plenty of space for innovation and inspiration designed by konzeptS. The venue offers various coworking spaces alongside meeting rooms suitable for larger gatherings and space for events and workshops. A coffee bar that is open to the public (‘Coworking, coffee, community’) as well as meeting spaces and recreational areas are also key elements of the services provided.

The largest room available is called Mercato, a versatile 53m² of floor space equipped with large touchscreens with smartboard functionality and video conferencing facilities. In addition to a camera, screen, codec and line array loudspeakers, the equipment includes a Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphone array, which is suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the room, which was was supplied, installed and set up by Swiss company Supravision.

The acoustics, light and room climate in the Mercato room are highly impressive, as are the furnishings, which can be freely arranged as required. Quality ‘with no unnecessary frills’ was the top priority of the planners. Equally exquisite is the media equipment, in which the Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 plays a key role.

With its 28 pre-polarized electret condenser capsules, the microphone array provides coverage of the entire room, no matter where the meeting participants choose to sit. Its unobtrusive appearance supports the clean and elegant design of the work environment – the speakers’ faces are not obscured by microphones during video conferences and the desks are not cluttered with microphone units and stands. There are also no cables lying around for people to trip over. Interaction with the line array loudspeakers installed at the side of the screen takes place without feedback, and speech intelligibility is always described as excellent by video conference participants at the other end of the video link.

With hygiene now a key concern, TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is a shrewd choice. Mounted to the ceiling, it does not require constant cleaning as table microphones would, and the fact that it reliably covers the entire room without the need for any re-adjustment allows for participants to sit at the recommended distance from each other.

‘Selecting the best microphone solution was difficult for us because we really have no idea about audio technology,’ explains Fabio Donnaloia, co-founder in the Coworking Lounge Tessinerplatz. ‘We simply wanted the audio system to work properly and to provide good quality. The Sennheiser ceiling microphone was recommended to us as the benchmark for conference room audio. Speech quality is superb and it fully meets the high demands that we have at Tessinerplatz for our clients at the top management level.’

‘We often hold online meetings in Mercato,’ says Viviane Mathieu, Assistant to Head Real Estate Portfolio Management at Swiss Life Asset Management, who is a regular user of the facility. ‘As the microphone array covers the entire room, those taking part in the meeting can move around freely. Even when they are working at the digital whiteboard, the audio quality is never impaired. And it makes no difference whether there are two or twenty people in the room – it simply works.’

Co-founder Fabio Donnaloia points out that, in his opinion, a conference room is always well received if it works according to the plug-and-play principle: ‘You go into the room and don’t need to waste any time because everything works straight away. In the meantime, we have clients at the Coworking Lounge Tessinerplatz who have become real fans of the ceiling microphone – their initial scepticism quickly gave way to the realisation that the product has a very high quality and is extremely easy to use.’

‘Feedback on the video conference from the participants at the other end of the video link has been very positive throughout,’ Viviane Mathieu confirms. ‘They can always hear us loud and clear, even if two people are speaking at the same time – the audio quality is not impaired in any way.’

‘Business partners on the other end are usually surprised at how well they can understand us – which, by the way, is not always the case in the other direction in every situation…’ Donnaloia says. ‘For us, Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 is the first choice for conferences.’

More: www.sennheiser.com