German Centre Shanghai, located in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in the heart of Pudong, Shanghai, is a 33,000 sqm international office and service complex that offers modern facilities, commercial space, conference and meeting facilities as well as networking opportunities and advisory services for its tenants and partners. It is now home to nearly 130 companies, including small and mid-sized German companies and international corporations.

 

 

 

The German Centre Shanghai faced significant challenges in meeting the evolving demands for hybrid meetings and events, particularly due to the pandemic. Their existing audio setup was outdated, inefficient, and posed hygiene risks due to the need for staff to pass microphones around the large conference rooms. Additionally, the glass ceiling in the conference rooms caused sound reflection and extended reverberation time, which negatively impacted speech intelligibility.

 

 

 

To address these challenges, German Centre Shanghai installed five Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 (TCC 2) array microphones across their conference rooms. The TCC 2's adaptive beamforming technology and TruVoicelift functionality automatically detect and follow the active speaker, ensuring clear speech intelligibility regardless of room configuration. This technology eliminated the need for passing microphones, thereby improving efficiency and hygiene. The system also effectively handled the complex acoustics created by the glass ceiling, thanks to its super narrow 30° automatic beam. Additionally, Sennheiser's Control Cockpit allows users to manage exclusion zones to reduce background noise and prioritize speech pick-up areas, enhancing the overall audio experience for hybrid meetings and events.

 

Due to the pandemic and the increase in demand for better audio solutions to support hybrid events that are becoming increasingly popular, German Centre Shanghai decided to install five TCC 2 array microphones to meet the needs of its tenants and partners.

 

"With the large meeting space and capacity that we can accommodate, we often needed to cater for staff to be on standby to pass microphones around the meeting hall. This is not only time consuming and inefficient, but also poses hygiene risks in the current climate.  We realized that our old setup was outdated and due for an upgrade,” said Mr. Christian Sommer, CEO and Chairman of German Centre Shanghai.  

 

 

 

TCC 2’s adaptive beamforming technology and TruVoicelift functionality can automatically detect and follow the active speaker, which greatly increases speech intelligibility, regardless of the room configuration, and allows participants to be heard clearly from every corner of the room. This flexibility proved to be the perfect solution for the modular event space. Speakers now have freedom of movement and can interact with participants without barriers.  

 

One of the highlights of the conference rooms is the semi-automatic glass ceiling, which is stylish and allows natural light into the meeting rooms. However, the large area of glass on the ceiling also added many layers of complexity to the integration and audio solution design process. Glass causes sound reflection and extends reverberation time, which can affect speech intelligibility. Thankfully, TCC 2's super narrow 30° automatic beam can perfectly pick up sound from the direct audio source and significantly increase speech intelligibility. 

 

With Sennheiser Control Cockpit, users can also define advanced exclusion zones to eliminate unwanted background noise, as well as priority zones within the meeting room, for focused and uninterrupted speech pick-up.

 

 

 

The workflow of TCC 2 is simple and straightforward. IT managers and end users can easily operate the system with no prior technical knowledge. This is in line with the mission of Sennheiser’s Business Communication division to become the first choice for advanced audio technology that makes collaboration and learning easier.

 

“With this installation, we truly had a taste of Sennheiser’s highest standard of professionalism, service standard, as well as quality advanced solutions. This project has helped to modernize and improve our offerings and our customers’ experience. We hope that, in the future, more of our partners will get to experience Sennheiser’s professional audio solutions,” said Christian Sommer. 

 

German Centre Shanghai is very satisfied with this collaboration with Sennheiser and believes that its tenants will continue to benefit from the elevated and fuss free audio and conferencing experience that it delivers. TCC 2 is compatible with leading video collaboration platforms and is certified for Tencent Meeting, DingTalk, Zoom as well as Microsoft Teams when deployed with Microsoft-certified DSPs.