The ABCs of MXA: An Overview of Shure’s Microflex Advance Ecosystem

Posted by Laura Strommen - SoundPro on Mar 21st 2024

Estimated Reading Life: 7 Minutes

Upgrade your conferencing audio-visual setup with Shure’s award-winning Microflex® Advance™ series. Comprised of professional-grade ceiling and table array microphones, audio interfaces, and control software, MXA offers a comprehensive AV conferencing ecosystem that integrates seamlessly into your space while providing the tools you need to communicate clearly and easily. In this article, we’ll explore the “ABCs” of MXA: the ideal Applications for these ecosystems, the Benefits that set this series apart, and an overview of the individual Components in the series.

APPLICATIONS: CORPORATE SPACES THAT DEMAND QUALITY AUDIO

The MXA series is specifically designed to meet the AV needs of corporate environments, delivering unified communications, intuitive IT management and control over your conferencing setup, and a polished professional result from even the most demanding spaces. This ecosystem is ideal for a wide range of applications including corporate offices, educational facilities, and government buildings. Because the components are built to be powerful but unobtrusive, MXA is easy to integrate into spaces of all shapes and sizes, from huddle rooms to boardrooms and beyond.

BENEFITS: HOW MXA OFFERS SOLUTIONS TO COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES

MXA microphones allow you to adjust coverage in your space so you can capture the audio you want while rejecting unwanted noise. They deliver natural speech to ensure clear, confident communication. Designed to accommodate myriad mounting options such as on the ceiling, wall, or table, their discreet form factors enable you to seamlessly incorporate them into system architecture from contemporary to classic and connect using standard network infrastructure—great for IT managers looking for simple integration solutions.

MXA’s Defining Features Include

Advanced array mics and DSP deliver natural speech without distracting noise or echo
You can place microphones in practical locations to cover the entire room or specific areas, depending on what works best for your application
Discreet form factors integrate with the architecture and connect using standard network infrastructure
Programmable capacitive-touch mute switches ensure simple user operation and customizable mic settings
Set up your meeting quickly, efficiently, and successfully using browser-based control software to adjust parameters via polar patterns, templates, and presets.
AES-256 encryption between Shure devices in the room protects your content
Send talker position data to your camera control system or control mics remotely with your room control touchpad
Certified for use with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco, and other leading collaboration software

Achieve instant clarity. A defining feature of the MXA series is the industry-leading Intellimix® Digital Signal Processing Suite. This intelligent DSP capability handles audio processing and enables compatibility with third-party video codecs. Effortless to deploy, Intellimix also helps MXA to be easily scalable so it can grow and change with your environment.

Within the onboard IntelliMix DSP Suite, Shure’s proprietary Steerable Coverage™ technology deploys up to four discrete audio channels, enabling incredibly accurate control of audio capture in any location of a meeting space. For example, if you set up a tabletop microphone in the center of your conference room’s table, Steerable Coverage puts an innovative “toroid” (ring-shaped) polar pattern into action, providing 360-degree horizontal coverage andcapturing intelligible speech from everyone sitting at the table while rejecting unwanted background noise from sound sources such as overhead HVAC or projector fans.

Dante™ Audio Networking protocol is integrated throughout the Microflex Advance microphone lineup, streamlining your audio control and power signals through a single standard Ethernet cable connection, while you can also seamlessly integrate MXA with other third-party preset controllers including Crestron and AMX.

Boasting a sleek, industrial design, most MXA microphone models come in black, white, or aluminum finishes, or can be painted to match your space’s aesthetics or company’s branding. For their ceiling-mount models, on-ceiling, in-ceiling, and suspended accessory options are available to suit different ceiling types.

MXA is designed to work in harmony with available leading collaboration platforms to make your meeting spaces more productive. Each model is certified for use with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco, and other leading collaboration software. Compatible accessories including Microflex mute buttons, IntelliMix DSP devices, or loudspeakers are also available separately to complete your setup. Explore Shure’s Designer System Configuration Software to find the perfect combination of MXA ecosystem components for your space and application, as well as fine-tune and deploy the system once it’s set up.

COMPONENTS: THE MXA PRODUCT

Now that we’ve outlined the ideal applications for Microflex Advance and the features that make this ecosystem a great solution for conferencing spaces, let’s look at the individual members of the MXA family.

The MXA310 Table Array Microphone

This multichannel networked boundary mic is designed to make your meeting space more productive by capturing high-quality audio and offering flexible functionality. It features independent gain control to exercise individualized control over each channel. Integrated automatic mixing activates channels when speech is detected to provide clear voice reproduction with minimized background noise. The MXA310 can be positioned on top or (using the optional A310-FM accessory sold separately) installed flush-mount into a conference table.

The MXA710 Linear Array Microphone

The sleek, linear form factor available in two sizes and three colors, the MXA710 allows for placement virtually anywhere in a meeting space, including on a wall, around a display, ceiling, or into a conference room table. The built-in IntelliMix® DSP and Autofocus™ technology provide processing for echo and noise-free conference audio.

The MXA901 Round Conferencing Ceiling Array Microphone

Compact and stylish, the MXA901 complements almost any space. Offering 20 by 20 feet of coverage, use a single mic to cover smaller to medium-sized spaces or use multiple units to cover a larger room. Single Zone Automatic Coverage™ technology and automatic gain control ensure every speaker is heard clearly, while a built-in automatic mixer delivers a pristine mix to your favorite videoconferencing software.

The MXA902 Integrated Conferencing Ceiling Array Microphone

Pulling double-duty, the MXA902 also boasts a wide-dispersion loudspeaker functionality. Single Zone Automatic Coverage™ technology captures audio from a 20 by 20 foot (6 by 6 meter) area, allowing you to achieve optimized speech intelligibility and accurate audio reproduction throughout your space.

The MXA920 and MXA920W-S Ceiling Array Microphone

With next-generation Array Architecture for better sound capture than ever, the MXA920 is even easier to use and faster to deploy than its MXA910 predecessor. With a 30 by 30 foot (9 by 9 meter) coverage area, it effortlessly and automatically picks up every speaker’s voice no matter where they’re located in your space. It’s available in either round or square form factors.

Microflex Compatibility with Q-SYS

Q-SYS is a cloud-manageable Audio, Video, and Control platform built to meet the demands of a wide range of contractor-integrator applications—some of which overlap with MXA ecosystem applications.With this in mind, Shure and Q-SYS have collaborated to develop plugins that intuitively control a variety of their products, including select microphones and multi-channel digital receivers such as the MXA920 Ceiling Array Microphone. The Custom Q-SYS Control Plugin equips you to configure a scaled-back version of all the features available on the MXA920, connect via IP address, view network configuration, reboot the device, and change mute status. Metering information is displayed for individual channels so you can mute individual channels, load existing presets, and configure LED settings. This plugin also lets you use Q-SYS Designer software to view and monitor the status of the MXA920.

PUTTING TOGETHER YOUR IDEAL MXA ECOSYSTEM

In addition to individual components that you can mix, match, and scale to your specific space’s requirements, MXA is available in bundles with pre-compiled components that help you get started on your setup straight out of the box.

To learn more about implementing Shure’s Microflex Advance ecosystem into your application’s space, reach out to SoundPro via e-mail at info@soundpro.com or call 800.203.5611 to speak with an MXA-certified Account Manager.

For more information on how to optimize your professional audio spaces, check out our previous article, Conference Room Miking.

Laura has been on the Sound Productions team since 2021. Her passion for the written word extends to reading, writing, and reading about writing.