By Amber Hickman |
Shure was founded in 1925 with the goal of redefining and reshaping audio technology. Now, as the firm approaches its 100-year anniversary, it is reflecting on the rich history that continues to influence its work today.
“Our culture is focused on building the best audio products and that continues to grow every year,” says Tyler Troutman, manager of strategic market development at Shure. “It’s easy to say that we’ve just come out with new devices such as a wireless microphone system, but we’ve been building wireless microphone systems for 70 years. It’s not a new kind of vertical for us and our history has driven us to where we are today.”
Workplace collaboration and communication is one of Shure’s key focus areas. Over the years it has launched a variety of solutions to support employees wherever they are working, from home office microphones to ceiling arrays and loudspeakers designed for boardrooms.
At ISE 2025, which took place in Barcelona, Spain, at the start of February, Shure exhibited some of its new solutions designed for various collaborative scenarios.
For example, the new series of IntelliMix Room Kits are complete Microsoft Teams Room systems that are designed for small to large meeting rooms to help users hold virtual meetings and support every participant, no matter where they are located.
“We want to make sure that we’re not just building products for the sake of it,” says Troutman. “We aim to build products that solve problems our customers are facing in the real world, and make sure that we’re enabling fantastic audio not just for office collaboration space but for remote employees too.”
Other new solutions showcased at ISE included the Microflex Loudspeaker lineup designed for conference rooms, and Shure’s next generation of wireless microphones featuring the Microflex Wireless neXt 4 and 8.
“It’s always so fascinating to walk through the booth at events and see all these new products and how they have developed over the past 100 years,” says Troutman.
The way we work and collaborate has evolved over recent years, and it is likely to continue evolving further as new technologies and tools are developed.
According to Troutman, this presents an opportunity for organisations to invest in their collaborative spaces and create an environment that encourages employee communication and connection.
“We’re all used to meeting on our laptops, but getting into a room and collaborating alongside other people is such an important experience,” he says. “However, this raises the question: how can we help our customers to scale their environments as quickly as possible?”
Part of Shure’s mission is to make it easier for organisations to create high-quality collaborative spaces by incorporating features such as out-of-the-box functionality and customisation.
“The room kits are a perfect example,” explains Troutman. “They are a scalable solution that can fit into rooms of varying size, yet with minimal setup needed. This means there’s no new learning curve for users, little to no training and no major construction costs.”
Investing in collaborative spaces and high-quality audio solutions is also beneficial as the use of AI on platforms such as Teams grows.
For example, organisations can use Copilot in Teams for tasks such as meeting transcription. However if the audio quality within the meeting isn’t high enough, it’s more likely that Copilot will not pick up, or misinterpret, words, leading to an inaccurate summary.
“Copilot plays a part in most of the work we do nowadays, but we are seeing the return on investment in Teams especially,” says Troutman. “However, we must consider what technology we are using in that space and whether it is going to supercharge these AI tools to ensure we are getting the most out of it.”
Between a milestone anniversary, new product releases and a range of events, what’s next on the agenda for Shure?
“Launching these new products was just the start,” says Troutman. “There are so many features and enhancements we want to deliver that will streamline deployment and bring flexibility and ease to our customers.
“We’re going to be heading to more events, including Infocomm which is taking place in Florida, USA, in June, to showcase some of these tools and help users really supercharge their collaborative experiences.”
Discover more insights like this in the Spring 2025 issue of Technology Record. Don’t miss out – subscribe for free today and get future issues delivered straight to your inbox.