Recording in-person meetings
Not every meeting is a video call. When you sit together in a room, a microphone in the middle of the table takes over the bot's role — the rest is the same path: transcript, speaker separation, minutes, tasks.
It costs nothing extra. A recorded hour is a recorded hour — whether it comes from a video call or from a meeting room. There is no second allowance and no surcharge.
How it goes
- 1
Announce it
Say at the start that the meeting is being recorded, and put the device in the middle of the table where everyone can see it. Recording speech that is not spoken publicly requires everyone present to know about it — a device on the table is easier to overlook than a bot in the participant list.
- 2
A round of names
Five seconds per person at the start (“I'm …”) cost nothing and achieve more than any pricier hardware: they give speaker separation clean anchor segments.
- 3
Record
Microphone into a phone or laptop over USB, recorded with any recording app. Never over Bluetooth — there the microphone is forced into telephone quality, and that costs noticeable recognition accuracy.
- 4
Upload
Upload the file to Protoki. Transcript, speaker separation and minutes come about the same way as for an online meeting.
- 5
Assign the speakers once
“Speaker 1” becomes a name — set once, it holds throughout the minutes and in every task.
Protoki Mitte
Our requirement profile for a table microphone — around 100 €
We do not sell hardware. Instead we say what matters, so that you can source a suitable device yourself — if in doubt, one that is already in the building. Four requirements, and that is all it takes:
Connected by USB, not by Bluetooth
Over Bluetooth a microphone is forced into telephone quality (mono, 8 or 16 kHz). Over USB you get 16 to 48 kHz — the single biggest difference in recognition accuracy.
In the middle of the table, not at the edge
The distance to the speaker decides, not the number of microphones. A single microphone close to people beats an array at the end of the table.
A battery of its own
A microphone that draws its power from the phone is the most common cause of recordings that stop halfway. Ninety minutes of recording costs 20 to 40 per cent of the battery anyway.
Signal processing off wherever possible
Noise suppression and aggressive automatic gain are tuned for telephony and turn the quieter second speaker down — exactly the information speaker separation needs.
Devices that meet these requirements
Orientation, not a buying recommendation and not a sales partnership: we earn nothing on any of these devices, sell none of them and are liable for none of them. Prices are approximate and change.
Audio-Technica ATR4697-USB · around 30 €
Boundary microphone with USB-C, expressly meant for smartphones as well. For four people at a compact table. The cheapest way to try out whether the quality is enough for you.
Anker PowerConf S3 · around 60–120 €
Six microphones all round, its own battery for about 24 hours — it draws no power from the phone. For four to eight people. Being discontinued: if this device, then soon.
Jabra Speak2 55 · around 99 €
Four microphones, USB-C and USB-A on the same cable, permanently stocked by German retailers. Plenty of organisations already have one in a cupboard — then trying it costs nothing.
What you can realistically expect
A microphone in the middle of the table hears less well than a headset right at the mouth. In measurement series the error rate of speaker separation sits around 19 per cent for close talking and around 22 per cent for a single room microphone. For minutes with tasks that is good enough — for a word-for-word record it is not a recording situation.
Two things help more than pricier hardware: the round of names at the start, and the speaker assignment in the minutes, which you correct once and which then holds everywhere.
On retention we say it precisely: an uploaded file stays until the speakers have been assigned, but at most seven days — after that it is deleted. That is not the same as “deleted immediately”, and we would rather write it down than have you find out later.
Easier soon
We are working on a Protoki app for the phone that handles recording and uploading in one step. Today the path runs through any recording app and the upload page — complete, just with one more move. An automatic start from the calendar is something in-person meetings will not get, by the way: mobile operating systems deliberately do not allow a microphone recording from the background. Somebody has to tap.
Questions about it? Write to us — we will tell you whether the effort is worth it for your room.