AKG PCC170 SW Supercardioid Boundary Microphone with Programmable Switch

AKG PCC170 SW: Talker Control on a Boardroom or Lectern Position

The AKG PCC170 SW is a half-supercardioid boundary layer microphone fitted with a silent-operating programmable membrane switch and a status LED in the housing. Acoustically it is the Phase Coherent Cardioid boundary design with 22 mV/Pa sensitivity, 22 dB-A equivalent noise, a 72 dB-A signal-to-noise ratio and a published 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz bandwidth, running on 12 to 48 V phantom power. What the SW version adds is authority: the person speaking decides whether their microphone is live, and the system never announces that decision with a thump. In boardrooms, lecterns, churches, courtrooms and council chambers, that is the difference between a microphone people use properly and one they cover with a hand.

Setting the Switch Behaviour With a DIP Selector

Mode selection lives on a DIP switch on the underside of the microphone, which is a deliberately unglamorous but important detail. An integrator commissioning a room chooses between touch on/off, where a press latches the microphone open until pressed again, momentary on, where the channel is live only while the pad is held down, and momentary off, where an otherwise-live microphone is muted for as long as the pad is held. Because that choice is made on site, one microphone part number covers a boardroom that wants latching behaviour, a debating chamber that wants push-to-talk and a broadcast position that wants a cough switch. Putting the selector underneath also means a participant cannot casually change the room's operating model, which is exactly where that control belongs.

Open Microphone Count and the Real Reason to Switch

Muting is usually explained as a courtesy feature, but in a reinforced room it is a gain-structure tool. Every time the number of open microphones in a system doubles, roughly 3 dB of available headroom disappears, because each open channel adds its own share of room sound and loudspeaker energy back into the mix; eight open microphones around a table therefore give up around 9 dB compared with a single one. Keeping only the talking position open recovers that headroom directly, which is why a silent per-position switch does more for intelligibility in a council chamber than almost any processing decision. Combined with the half-supercardioid pattern, which is inherently the most selective in the surface-mount range, the switch turns a difficult multi-microphone room into a manageable one.

RFI Suppression and a Table Full of Phones

Radio-frequency interference is the most common complaint against older conference microphones, and it has a specific cause. A mobile phone transmitting a few inches from a microphone radiates bursts of RF energy that the microphone's internal circuitry can rectify into audible buzzing at the console, and the effect appears regardless of how well the audio cabling is shielded because the pickup happens inside the microphone. AKG builds RFI suppression into this model so that phones left on the table alongside it, which is what happens in every real meeting, do not put a stutter through the reinforcement system. That immunity matters more, not less, in a room with a switch on every position, because a participant who has just muted themselves will often pick up their phone.

Bass Tilt, Boundary Mounting and Wiring

Low-frequency behaviour is adjusted at the microphone by a three-position bass-tilt switch aimed at subsonic noise, which in a boardroom usually means air handling and structural rumble transmitted through the table. Boundary mounting itself is what gives the microphone its smooth response, because a capsule sitting in the surface receives direct and reflected sound at effectively the same instant and sums them in phase rather than suffering the delayed reflection that makes a stand-mounted table microphone sound hollow. Electrically the microphone presents a 150 ohm balanced output and draws 12 to 48 V phantom power, so any phantom-capable console, stage box or room processor channel can drive it. Its 15 ft (4.6 m) cable runs from a 3-pin locking mini connector on the housing to a 3-pin XLR male and detaches for service, which is essential when the microphone is screwed to a table.

Choosing Between the Switched Versions

Two switched variants exist and the distinction is worth understanding before ordering. This model provides local switching and local indication, which is everything a room needs when the audio system alone is responding to the switch. Where a control system, automixer or camera processor must also know which position is live, the PCC170 SWO adds a pair of extra leads in the cable for isolated remote sensing of the switch closure. A boardroom with a simple mixer and no automation is well served by the SW, while an integrated room driving camera presets or tally indication needs the SWO instead.