News Release Details

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – August 16, 2024 – ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO), a global leader in conferencing, collaboration, and network streaming solutions today announced that Utah Business and Foley & Lardner, have awarded ClearOne’s BMA 360 beamforming microphone array the 2024 Business Innovation award in the Consumer Products category. 

The 2024 UTAH Business Innovation Awards, presented by Foley & Lardner, pay tribute to the innovative spirit permeating Utah companies and the talented people working to alleviate complex problems with elegant solutions. Nominees are evaluated by leaders within Utah’s business and academic communities, who vote to select the finalists and award winners. Nominees in the Utah Innovation Awards program undergo a strict evaluation process by peers and leaders from the state’s business, civic, and academic communities. Pioneering innovations — whether products, services or processes — are judged on their novelty, market need, economic impact, and disruption of the status quo.


“We are honored to be recognized by Utah Business,” said ClearOne CEO Derek Graham. “New and evolving challenges continue to shape the future of meeting spaces, ushering in an era of combined in-person and remote meetings where traditional meeting rooms have been replaced by hybrid work environments. We developed the BMA 360 to offer an innovative audio solution that meets all remote, hybrid and in-person needs, enabling better meetings in practically all situations. This recognition validates our commitment to developing innovative solutions that deliver cutting-edge features, exceptional performance, and unmatched value”

The ClearOne BMA 360 is an advanced microphone in the form of a ceiling tile designed for high-quality audio conferencing and sound reinforcement in various settings such as boardrooms, conference rooms, and other professional environments. The BMA 360 is a beamforming microphone array (BMA) and is the first truly frequency-invariant beamforming array. The ultra-wideband beams are frequency invariant across the audio spectrum and also have deep sidelobes. The frequency-invariance (FiBeam™) and deep sidelobes (DsBeam™) sets it apart from any microphone array on the market. FiBeam provides uniform gain response across frequencies and DsBeam gives superb noise rejection and dereverberation outside of the beam coverage.  

Through its software interface, the BMA 360 offers a range of beams (1-12), three beamwidths, and a multitude of beam layouts that fit any room. In addition, custom beam layouts and beam placement are available through the software interface. The BMA 360 also has Echo Cancellation, Noise Suppression, Beam Silencing, and Voice Lift creating a high-quality audio experience. 
 

The BMA 360's key features:

• FiBeam™ Technology: Delivers frequency-invariant uniform gain across the audio wideband spectrum for natural and full-fidelity sound.
• DsBeam™ Technology: Deep Sidelobe Beamforming provides superior rejection of reverb and noise, ensuring superior audio clarity and speech intelligibility even in challenging acoustic environments.
• 6th Generation AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancellation): Delivers exceptional full-duplex audio performance. Advanced processing algorithms like noise reduction (up to 25 dB), filtering, and Automatic Level Control further enhance audio intelligibility and reduce listener fatigue.
• Beam Silencing Algorithm: Allows for unwanted areas to be silenced or blocked. 
• Voice Lift Technology: Provides a simple and powerful way to create multiple mix-minus speaker zones, allowing everyone in the meeting to hear every word clearly.
• Precision Beamforming with Adaptive Steering: Offers impeccable coverage of each participant and supports voice-activated camera tracking for a more engaging experience.
• Easy Menu Beam Layouts and Custom Beam Placement: Several beam pattern layouts to select and customize beam locations.
• Versatile Mounting Options: The BMA 360 microphone supports four mounting options to blend aesthetically with office décor.  A patented ceiling tile form factor allows installation in a commercial drop ceiling by removing an existing ceiling tile and dropping in the BMA 360.

The ClearOne BMA 360 offers a combination of features that are not available in other microphone array units on the market.

Unrivalled Audio Performance
BMA 360 is the industry’s only ultra-wideband, frequency invariant beamforming mic array (FiBeam™) with uniform gain response across all frequency bands. Deep sidelobes (DsBeam™) are also frequency invariant and remain low across the wideband. Three beamwidths are available and achieve the same performance goals.  With FiBeam™ and DsBeam™ technology, participants experience natural and full-fidelity audio across all beams and within a single beam. 

Preset and Custom Beam Patterns
Convenient preset beam patterns for common room layouts or custom beam patterns for unique floorplans, combined with adaptive steering, provides impeccable coverage of every conference participant.

Voice Lift and Camera Tracking
Due to the exceptional accuracy of the beamforming and adaptive steering technology, voice lift and camera tracking functions have remarkable performance. Voice lift amplifies the sound of a local presenter’s voice into the same room so that local participants located at a considerable distance from the talker can hear clearly. This is helpful in large auditoriums. Camera tracking uses information from the BMA 360’s active beam to help the camera point to, and track, the active talker. 

Connect up to three BMA 360 units 
For very large spaces, up to three units can be daisy chained together.  The same performance is achieved, and camera tracking is supported too. 

Standard to ClearOne solutions, the BMA 360 supports all leading collaboration platforms, including Microsoft Teams®, Google Meet®, Zoom®, and WebEx®, ensuring seamless connectivity for in-person and hybrid users regardless of their personal system, ensuring meeting equity.

Learn more about the BMA 360 here.