Board Meeting Sound System

[sdauditorium]

I've been asked to put together a sound system for our district's school board meetings. All meetings are videoed and uploaded to be viewed on-demand online. The issue (read: complaint) is that when people watch the video that not all presenters or board members can be heard due to the distance between the camera and board. I'm pretty confident in what I'm proposing but want to present it to the brain trust to see if any of you can find any other things I should consider.

At this point, it is not the goal for any live sound reinforcement. However, I am building in the capability to do so if needed in the future. Here's the equipment list:

1. 1x - Soundcraft GB2R 12.2 Rackmount Mixer
2. 8x - Shure MX418D/C - Desktop Mic 18" Cardioid
3. Mic cable/snake/mixer case/accessories as needed

The camera has an XLR input, so no worries there. Unless I'm missing anything else glaringly obvious, the only thing I'm debating is whether a cardioid pattern is fine or if I should go with the supercardioid for a tighter pattern.

 

[Footer]

Without having a PA in the room or some type of monitors for the "talent" having random dynamic mics laying around is going to be pretty pointless. Added to that without really good comps or a dugan processor your not going to like the end product. The talent just won't use the mics and won't care because they will be getting no feedback from the audience in the room. Get some good room mics and get them closer to the board. For our board meetings we do the same thing... and we have to have them available to stream as well. We use a pair of AKG 451's in a stereo pair about 10' away from the board table. It works rather well. Audio is not perfect but it is understandable.

 

[FMEng]

Having 8 mics fully open at once will pick up too much noise, ambience, and have comb filtering. I would go with an automixer, which will intelligently gate mics on and off as they are needed. Many allow you to set whether mics go on/off or just get attenuated 10-15 dB. The latter would be more subtle for TV. Another feature I would look for is "last mic stays on" so all audio isn't cut off when nobody is talking.

There are quite a few auto mixers available now. A few examples are the Audio Technica ATMX381, the Rane AM2, and the Shure SCM820. Note that many of them are designed for professional installation, so they have terminal strips or DB connectors, not XLR connectors, so be sure to get one that you can hook up.

I would choose cardioid mics, as people won't position them well and stay on mic. Cardioids will be more forgiving.

 

[AlexDonkle]

What FMEng said. Ditch the Soundcraft board and get an auto-mixer, this is basically what they were designed for. Shure SCM820 works very well.

Gooseneck mics are the best choice for this application, that's what we use in most board rooms. Permanently wire them into the table with rubber grommets protecting the drill hole edges.

 

[n1ist]

You will also need to train people to leave the mics alone. In our city council (and similar) meetings, the speakers pull the gooseneck mikes towards themselves to talk, and push them to the side when they are done, so we are constantly hearing the gronking noise of the gooseneck bending. Maybe small mic stands would be better, but then there's more of a risk of mics walking.
/mike

 

[sdauditorium]

Thanks for the feedback on pattern choice; going with cardioid makes sense in those terms. Also, auto-mixer makes sense as well. Thanks for the feedback, and it should go a long ways.

 

[sdauditorium]

Unfortunately, they use the high school library for board meetings, so the mics can't be permanently mounted to the tables, so I have to resort to the desktop version with base.

 

[Mwchris]

The feedback you are getting is really for two different types of audio mixing.

1) With sound reinforcement - Get an Automixer and table mics with NO off switch.

2) With NO sound reinforcement - Set up one or two directional mics and send the feed into the camera or audio capture device. You can boost / reduce the audio in post. No worries for feedback because there are no live speakers.

To be fair the auto mixer will help in both situations. Also, for my district they intentionally want the mics to have on and off buttons so you really need to train the speakers to use them. My board has this and I've seen them other places, but there is a "recording On" light located in the members viewing area so they know when they are being recorded. Not a requirement, but helpful.

Also, since this is a portable set up I just read the new Behringer XAir digital mixers/snake offer an Auto Mix also. I do a lot of audio for "panel" discussions and the this looks very interesting to set the XAir under the table, run my wired mics and one xlr return to the camera and now I can mix from my iPad while shooting.

 

[sdauditorium]

There won't be any reinforcement, so that's one less thing to complicate the picture. However, due to how they arrange the tables (think extended horseshoe), I don't feel as if a couple dynamics will get what I want. I do like going with the condensers yet and running it through automix. I likely won't be there for meetings after the system is tested and up-and-running and would want the process and simplified as possible. Also, the automix would be great if they ever decided to do something with live reinforcement in the future.

 

[sdauditorium]

Update: after re-considering, they now want to have a duplicate feed that will provide live reinforcement to those in attendance and add two additional microphones (10 total) in addition to at least one line input for computer audio. What I'm planning to do now is utilize one Rane AM2 Automixer (8 mic inputs) cascaded into one Rane AM1 (4 mic inputs) and the needed aux input. Any drawbacks of going this route compared to the Shure SM820? Also, I noticed there is only one output which will go towards the camera/video feed. What would be the easiest way to provide a duplicate feed that would run to either powered speakers or an amp/passive speakers?

 

[Footer]

You are going to want more gear to do proper reinforcement. You will want PEQ and Graph control, seperate outputs, all that kind of stuff. You would have to do some research, but the X32 is supposed to have an automixer in the next release. Might be time for an X32 rack or compact or an X-Air 16. Keep in mind, I don't think the Dugan function is out yet but they claim it will be. Might be worthwhile to sit for a bit and get something you want vs ganging two things together.

 

[sdauditorium]

You are going to want more gear to do proper reinforcement. You will want PEQ and Graph control, seperate outputs, all that kind of stuff. You would have to do some research, but the X32 is supposed to have an automixer in the next release. Might be time for an X32 rack or compact or an X-Air 16. Keep in mind, I don't think the Dugan function is out yet but they claim it will be. Might be worthwhile to sit for a bit and get something you want vs ganging two things together.

One of the problems is that I won't be there to run it, so I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible (both setup, teardown and the actual operation). But with getting these increasing needs, it may obviously necessitate a more complex solution. Ideally, I'd like to get the web streaming (video/audio) portion of it perfected and operational first, and then tackle the reinforcement portion. I want it done right the first time.

Here's the streaming portion setup as it stands now. Let me know if that portion should be good to go?

10 Shure MX418s and 1 aux input (computer) --> AM2/AM1 --> Camcorder --> Blackmagic Intensity w/ Thunderbolt --> Mac --> Stream online