Trying to reduce feedback with wireless mics for a board meeting

[Jo Llereza]

Hi Dan,

Yes, that’s pretty funny how you trained them and then within the first hour they went back to their old habits…Omg when you posted this, I was reliving the past.

I had this same problem more than 10 years ago, and we have 10 microphones plus the podium microphone..now we stream our meeting live..

Our nightmare was that the boardroom had 14 ft high ceiling speakers throughout the room pushing sound downwards towards the microphones. Whoever the acoustics engineer hired in the boardroom design either disregarded or didn’t know that 10 twelve inch long gooseneck tabletop condenser microphones were going to be utilized for the monthly board meeting. Our meetings are videorecorded and we also have a separate recorder for audio recording only for backup.

You probably already do this, but for every board meeting after setting my gain structure, I “ring out” the room of the nasty feedback frequencies. I only have the secretary, board and vice chair’s microphones set at 0db, the rest of the mic levels are set at negative 10 db or some completely muted like you for the one’s that don’t speak much.

The board members had swivel chairs that reclined, and sometimes when they talk they recline their chairs and forget there is an audience of 90 people and it is video/audio recorded, so I really feel your pain. I really hate when someone from public comes to the podium and they are standing 2 feet away from the microphone…

We finally broke down and had to get a shure SCM 810 automixer and DBX driverack 260, which is not cheap, but purchasing that and educating them on good microphone techniques greatly minimized our problems. You’ll still have the same old people that don’t practice proper mic techniques.

I’m glad you found something that works without having to spend money on equipment, but reinforcing or reminding them to practice proper mic techniques and muting mics that aren’t used frequently is the most cost effective plan.

Thanks for sharing.

[Ty Ford]

Jo,

Nice post!

Dan, one of the things I try to use in these situations is…

“People make judgements about you by how good you sound. You can sound really good if you are always around six inches from your mic. If you don’t really care how good you sound, that’s OK, but I just thought you’d like to know a little secret.”

Maybe that’ll stick with them, maybe not.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Jo Llereza]

Thank you Ty!

You’re definitely spot on with speech intelligibility at a distance of around 6″ or so from the microphone, especially when you have set your gain and recording levels at around 0db for each mic.

Thanks for the little secret Ty!

[Ty Ford]

Thanks,

and if they ask, “how’d I do?” afterwards… If little or no improvement…..say, “better”……..with a little lift that lets them know there’s room for improvement.

If they really did improve, tell em even if they don’t ask. “Hey you were really right on it and it sounded great!”

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Peter Groom]

Im curious why speaker / amplification is neccesary at all in a room that small with so many mics. Its like oil and water – doesnt go.
Is there a big seating auditorium we cant see?
Peter

Post Production Dubbing Mixer

[Ty Ford]

Perhaps not in this case but

1. Recorded for legal posterity?
2. So people attending with bad hearing can hear them?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Peter Groom]

Perhaps.
I think everyone will have bad hearing after the inevitable howl round.
Record it by all means but i doubt they need amplifying.
Peter

Post Production Dubbing Mixer