In the current work climate, most of us have to cope with background noise while conducting calls on a regular basis. Whether we work in an open workspace, where other people are constantly speaking, printers are printing and phones are ringing; or at home, where our kids bark and our dog cries (or is it the other way around?) – superb noise-cancelling capabilities are becoming critical for our headsets and speakerphones.
SoundCap, Yamaha’s patented NC technology (currently used exclusively in their YVC-330 speakerphone, pictured above), is a unique development offering an original approach to this issue.
I sat down with Holger Stoltze, Senior Director of Technical Sales and Marketing at Yamaha UC, to get a deeper understanding of how this very cool technology works.
Your Very Own Sound Bubble
SoundCap is currently implemented in the company’s YVC-330 open spaces speakerphone, and it functions exactly as its name implies: it’s a “cap” creating a type of closed circle around the device. The cap keeps any noise made beyond a defined reach (10 feet or three meters) from being heard by the far end of the conversation. This way, only participants from within the circle are heard, which results in a controlled noise-cancelling effect.
“In fact, when you have a YVC-330 on your desk, and you’re talking to it and slowly going backwards – you will reach a threshold where the far end can suddenly no longer hear you,” explains Stoltze.
This is done using a unique AI-based technology, which calculates, based on audio arrival, where the audio comes from. This way, it can determine which part of the audio belongs inside the circle, and which part doesn’t.
“We have users who reviewed the product while working from home, and it works fantastically well,” Stoltze shares.
“The SoundCap technology within YVC-330 can be manually turned on and off. So you see users sitting at their desk with the TV on in the background, switching SoundCap on and off – and you hear the TV one minute, then don’t hear it the next minute. It’s amazing.”
Another feature provided by SoundCap is a complete automatic switch-off of any audio pick-up when no-one within the conversation-circle is speaking.
“While SoundCap does a wonderful job cutting out most of the background noise, it can’t completely cut out everything,” says Stoltze.
“So when it identifies that nobody inside the circle is speaking, and there’s only irrelevant noise coming from outside – it actually cuts off the microphone entirely, to really make the silence come across to the far end. This really helps to eliminate any unwanted disturbances so that people can concentrate better”
Automatic Volume Adjustment
In addition to its NC capabilities, SoundCap offers another useful feature that actually has to do with the speakers rather than the microphone.
As background noise is dynamic – people walk in and out of the room, other conversations start and stop, etc. – the level of noise outside the circle varies. When we participate in a call, we tend to adjust the volume of our speakerphone according to the level of noise around us: the noisier it is, the louder the volume. However, as Stoltze points out, “when the noise level goes down outside the circle, you don’t necessarily reach back to your speakerphone to lower the volume there as well.”
This may ultimately turn your conversation into somebody else’s background noise, interrupting others sharing a workspace with you.
SoundCap’s automatic volume adjustment takes care of that for you.
“When it becomes noisier outside the circle – SoundCap makes sure that the volume goes up. When noise from the outside decreases – it makes the speakerphone’s volume go down, as there’s no longer a need for it to be this loud,” explains Stoltze.
More to Come?
Currently, Yamaha’s only product using SoundCap is the YVC-330, but the sound expert may decide to implement it in more of their products in the future.
“We are definitely reusing the technologies that we develop in more products over time,” says Stoltze. “If we find that SoundCap is a good fit for any of our future products, we’d love to reuse it, as it is proving itself to be extremely effective for our customers.”
