Crowd Mics

Crowd Mics was established to address a common issue in live events: the inability for audience members to be clearly heard. Founded in Mesa, Arizona, in February 2014 by brothers Tim and Sean Holladay, the company developed a system to transform smartphones into wireless microphones. The idea originated when the brothers were in a meeting and couldn't hear questions from other attendees, prompting Sean to question why he could FaceTime someone across the world but not hear a person in the same room. Tim Holladay's background in the mobile AV industry and as a DJ provided the necessary technical and industry knowledge, while Sean's experience complemented this with a focus on customer experience.

The core of the business is an audience engagement platform that allows attendees at live events, such as presentations, lectures, and corporate meetings, to use their smartphones as microphones that broadcast over the venue's PA system. This is facilitated by a hardware appliance called the ATOM, which connects to the room's AV system and serves as the central hub for the system. The platform supports up to 1,000 participants and is managed through two separate applications: one for attendees and one for moderators. Beyond the microphone functionality, the system enables audience interaction through text-based questions and live polling, with results that can be displayed on presentation screens. Moderators retain control, with the ability to select speakers, manage a queue, and mute microphones.

The business model initially involved a licensing fee for event organizers, while the application remained free for audience members. The company gained early traction by demoing at conferences like the LAUNCH Festival and securing clients such as PayPal and Salesforce. After raising approximately $1.2 million in funding from investors including Arizona Tech Investors and Keiretsu Capital, Crowd Mics was acquired by Biamp Systems in January 2018. Following the acquisition, Tim Holladay joined Biamp to aid in the product's further development and launch under the Biamp brand. Biamp has since continued to develop the technology, integrating it into its suite of professional AV solutions.

Keywords: audience engagement, live event technology, smartphone microphone, event polling, Q&A platform, conference technology, audience interaction, mobile AV solutions, event app, wireless microphone system, Biamp, Tim Holladay, Sean Holladay, ATOM hardware, presentation tool, interactive response system, text-to-screen, live polling app, corporate events, lecture technology