Tech Tuesdays - Shure MXA: Application Overview

The MXA310 is a tabletop mounted microphone, which makes it ideal for rooms where wall and ceiling access isn’t possible or wanted. Offering all standard microphone pickup patterns, configured in Shure’s Designer Software, the microphone adapts to any seating layout, whether a small round table or extensive boardroom layout. The toroid pattern is the most unique pattern offered by the MXA310, offering a donut-like pickup in 360 degrees around the mic, but complete cancellation directly above it, making this pattern ideal for rooms with noisy HVAC. We see these microphones working well in huddle spaces especially, but they are a great option for any room when access is limited, as they can run off a single Cat5 cable with PoE/Dante out of a floor box easily. The MXA310 is a great all-round microphone, adapting to any demands of a table layout.

The MXA710 is the next model in the range, offering 2 sizes, the 2ft and 4ft. These have an optimal coverage of a 5m and 6m radius respectively. With diverse mounting options, including wall, ceiling and tabletop mounting, this microphone suits many types of spaces. These are great all-round microphones which achieve blanket cover using slice-like lobes as shown in our video. These microphones do very well with classrooms that are adopting distance learning, as their pickup radius means they can capture both audience and lecturer with ease and without adding hardware to pass around. Although they to not have the same level of control that the next model offers, these microphones are simple to use, setup, and capture audio in any system.

The MXA910 is the flagship model in this range, boasting 8 configurable lobes with up to 6m radius of crystal-clear audio pickup. The precise coverage on this ceiling-mounted model makes it suitable for just about any space, but going beyond the standard meeting room, the MXA910 offers exceptional audio quality at distance. The fine tuning of each lobe means that this microphone does well in acoustically challenging spaces, be it lecture theatres for distance learning, boardrooms with glass and plaster walls, or divisible spaces with the potential for audio bleed. Have a look at our case study with University of Birmingham as an example.

Because of its precise coverage, this microphone is well suited for extra demanding systems including camera-tracking applications, especially when using the QSC Automatic Camera Preset Recall plugin. Using this we can define up to 8 locations which are allocated with the MXA’s lobes. Not only this, but the MXA910 excels in voice-lift applications, you can check out our case study with Institute of Acoustics to learn more about their use of the MXA910s and voice-lift using the QSC Core.