0 May 2004. ClearOne Communications, formally Gentner, have a long history in high quality audio integration in conference rooms and a reported 50% of the high-end market. They have now turned their attention to the conference room table phone and produced both a wired and a wireless version.  ClearOne has dropped its videoconferencing line and is now focussing on what it does best, which, of course, is audio.

ClearOne has integrated years of professional-quality audio technology, including adaptive noise cancellation and proprietary Gentner Distributed Echo Cancellation, into two new affordable, plug-and-play conferencing phone which provide crisp, clean sound. The product is called Max and costs in the United States $699 for the wireless version and $549 for the wired version... and a bit more outside the U.S. They have been shipping since December 2003 and everyone who tries them is impressed with the sound quality.

 My demonstration unit is the Max Wireless which is an alternative to the tangle of phone and power cords running over and under the conference table. ClearOne has put a lot of thought into how best to fill this gap in the conferencing phone market.

For example, Max Wireless, unlike its competitors, has been designed to work as a wireless unit around the world and not just in the United States. The unit operates on 1.8Ghz DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Communications) or 2.4Ghz WDCT (Worldwide Digital Communications Technology) which, between them, comply with the Radio Frequency standards of most countries.

My wireless security concerns are satisfied
Security, of course, is something you start to think about when you use wireless products such as this and Max Wireless makes a good job of dealing with the problem by using spread spectrum technology. In simple terms, this is frequency hopping – there are 120 channels in the DECT 1.8-1.9Ghz range, and the Max Wireless cleverly spreads your conversation across them by sending small (fractions of a second) sound bites on each one. Listening in on this conversation would be pretty complex.

Frequency hopping also brings a couple of other advantages to the party – if there is any interference on a channel, it can easily be avoided and, because the frequency shifts are unique to each base/phone pair. Multiple Max Wireless units can be deployed in the same office without risk of interference (up to 15 actually).

Opening and installing the Max Wireless
The Max Wireless consists of two components — a wall unit that plugs into a power outlet and a phone jack,  and a sleek, battery-powered table top phone that can be placed up to 150 feet from the wall unit. This makes Max Wireless a mobile solution that can be moved from room to room. The battery offers 8 hours of talk time and recharges in 4 hours. Alternatively, the phone can be powered on AC.

The delivered unit is stylishly packaged and contains the main conference unit, rechargeable battery, base station/pager, two power supplies, a quick start guide and a CD manual .... (I think  this type of product should have a real paper manual – CD’s are OK for computer geeks, but not the general public).

Installation was quick and simple. The first thing you have to do is insert the battery in the main unit in its compartment on the underside. Then connect the main unit to the power supply and let it charge. The pager/base unit is placed near an analogue phone line (you can also use digital lines with an adapter if necessary) and has its own power supply.

This done, sit back and make a call … it’s that simple.

Operating the Max Wireless
The unit itself is dark grey/black in colour with a hexagonal shape. It has a central speaker cone and microphones distributed on three corners to provide 360-degree coverage. When activated, three bright green LED’s illuminate on the top of the unit. The keypad and LCD display are neatly positioned on one of the six sides, with firm, no-nonsense buttons.

To make a call, simply press the On/Off button in the top right corner of the keypad, you should hear a dial tone. There are a number of other tones which indicate if the unit is out of range, base station not powered, etc. Once you have a dial tone, simply dial the number and wait for the connection. Of course you can dial the number first (in standby mode) and then press the on/off key if that is your preference, or, the unit also has a 10 number phone book which operates by pressing the phone book key, a number between 0 and 9 and then the on/off key.

The Max has superb audio quality
As you would expect from ClearOne, the audio from this phone is excellent. The volume can be driven pretty high with no ill effects for the person you are talking with. The full duplex operation is smooth and unnoticeable, which is how it should be in a good quality conference phone. The unit also features noise reduction, which does a good job of ridding the line of extraneous background noises such as fans, computers and air-conditioning.

Overall, I would say this phone will cope adequately with 4/5 people. Pickup on the microphones is good, but it does drop off quite quickly at around 2m or so.

The wireless connection is reliable
Of course the main selling point of this particular phone is it’s wireless capability, so I spent a good while running up and downstairs in my offices throwing this phone into just about every nook and cranny I could find and having conversations with a (rapidly getting fed up) colleague. The unit performed flawlessly, and the only time I managed to get out of range was when I went over the road to the pub (shame!).

For the sake of completeness, I took the unit home with me and tested it around the house, even in the kitchen during one of my gastronomical extravaganza’s - ‘haricots sur le pain grillé’ or beans on toast to the rest of us. Throughout all of this, Max Wireless did not let me down. And I have no problems with recommending this unit to anyone who wants simple, easy flexibility with a conference phone.

Try out the wired version as well
Finally, although I have not tested one, ClearOne also offers a wired version of Max -Max EX. The big advantage with Max Ex is the ability to have up to 4 units cascaded from one master. This, judging by the Max Wireless performance, will give you incredible audio quality and coverage even in the largest boardroom.

Conclusion
Max Wireless is a solid conference phone with very high quality audio and the long-awaited wireless technology. It is a must for all businesses with several conference rooms, and a definite must-have toy for the Chief Executive.

Overall appearance and packaging:  10
Manual and Documentation:   7
Ease of installation by dummies: 9
Ease of operation by dummies:   10
Set of features for video:   n/a
Set of features for audio:   8
Set of features for data collaboration: n/a
Video quality:    n/a
Audio quality:     9
Data image quality:    n/a