Malabaristo
Well-Known Member
I have a high school theatre system with a Biamp Tesira DSP that uses a few inputs set up with AGC to act as an automatic mic mixer. The idea is that a non-technical person can use 1-2 handheld wireless mics and/or a couple wired mics without much training. That sounds reasonable in theory, but the A/V contractor did a terrible job on almost everything, so I've been slowly going through the whole system to make it actually work as intended.
I found a combination of settings on the AGC that behaves nicely across a wide range of people speaking, and in general it works better than just setting a static level and hoping people know how to talk into a microphone (spoiler: they don't). However, when there are a bunch of kids making noise and someone tries to talk loudly into a mic to get their attention, the AGC just brings it back down to a good speaking level. This obviously frustrates the user, and then they complain to me about it not being loud enough.
So, I'm struggling with finding the right balance. If I set the AGC target high enough to be heard over a crowd, then it's way too loud for normal use. If I disable the AGC and set a static level, then either it's nearly always wrong, or an operator is required to keep it in a good range as the mic gets passed around--which defeats the goal of simplified automation.
If this were only a lectern mic, I'd be tempted to stick a momentary, "Make me really loud" button on it, but since the person may be wandering around with the handheld wireless, there isn't a good spot to put that button. Also, today I had a situation where the crowd just never quieted down through the whole 45m presentation, so a momentary override would not have solved the problem.
I found a combination of settings on the AGC that behaves nicely across a wide range of people speaking, and in general it works better than just setting a static level and hoping people know how to talk into a microphone (spoiler: they don't). However, when there are a bunch of kids making noise and someone tries to talk loudly into a mic to get their attention, the AGC just brings it back down to a good speaking level. This obviously frustrates the user, and then they complain to me about it not being loud enough.
So, I'm struggling with finding the right balance. If I set the AGC target high enough to be heard over a crowd, then it's way too loud for normal use. If I disable the AGC and set a static level, then either it's nearly always wrong, or an operator is required to keep it in a good range as the mic gets passed around--which defeats the goal of simplified automation.
If this were only a lectern mic, I'd be tempted to stick a momentary, "Make me really loud" button on it, but since the person may be wandering around with the handheld wireless, there isn't a good spot to put that button. Also, today I had a situation where the crowd just never quieted down through the whole 45m presentation, so a momentary override would not have solved the problem.