Microphone for Providing Reference Sound to Booth in Auditorium

[Amogh]

Hi Everybody,

Our auditorium's control booth is soundproof, which makes it difficult for us to tell if the levels outside are correct. Normally, we used to run events with the door open and have a member of the crew stand outside to tell us if the levels were correct, but now the admin wants us to have the doors closed so that the audience can't walk through the booth. So, our drama director and myself are considering purchasing a set of stereo microphones which would be placed outside the booth to give us an idea of the levels and the quality. Do you have any suggestions for a set of microphones that would work well in this situation? Also, if possible, we would also like to use these to record audio from events such as concerts/performances. Lastly, if any of you have a different solution, please feel free to voice that too. I would like it if the pair wouldn't exceed a price of $750

Thank you so much!

 

[StradivariusBone]

Other members, particularly those that are vendors, will be able to give you a better idea for microphones for this application but nothing is going to directly emulate what being in the house is really like. Is there no way to remove a window or even put a window that can slide open in the booth? Alternatively, is there any way to relocate the booth to the house?

Our sound booth was originally designed in a similar fashion, upstairs in the cat walks and was spec'd to be placed behind glass with Ramsa monitors for reference, but they nixed the glass at the last moment (in fact the glass pane has been sitting in our storage for about 20 years now). When I took over we built a new booth in the house and got a digital board and ran Cat5 to relocate it. No matter how much you spend on mic's having your sound op in the house is going to trump it every time. I think you need to have a frank discussion with your admin on this point.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

It is simply standard and normal to locate sound control in the house, near center and not under any balcony. Audiences are use to it and expect the quality and subtleties that in house mixing provides.

 

[Aaron Becker]

My honest advice, save the few hundred on the mics (or a few thousand to probably do it correctly) and move your FOH console into the house. What type of arena/theatre is this? Are you always sold out? If not, you can probably spare the 10-15 seats it would take to set up your mix/FOH over some seats in the back couple rows. Mixing where you can't accurately hear the room, the arrays/clusters, ambient sounds, is never going to result in a good mix. Also, this can just be a temporary set up for shows, the console does not need to be left in the space when a show is not running (and probably shouldn't be).

EDIT: added info.

 

[RonHebbard]

Crown SASS-P (Stereo Ambient Sampling System - Phantom) if it's still made.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[MNicolai]

My preference is the Shure VP88 stereo mic, but you won't pick up that mic, reference monitors, and processing to tune them to the same frequency response as your mains for $750.

Ideally you should move your console into a house mix position.

But you should also have a house mic to feed an assistive listening system for the hard of hearing, often required for all assembly spaces with sound reinforcement systems. Seeing as you're in Hong Kong, your local accessibility requirements will vary.

In short, you need more money. If this is a school, it would be appropriate for your director to elevate this to a higher administrative level to request funding for this.

If you can't get more money, the easiest solution is beg borrow or steal enough cables to get your console moved out of the booth and into the seating area.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

You advocate feeding the hearing reinforcement from a mic, not from the main mix?

Expand?

 

[themuzicman]

It is simply standard and normal to locate sound control in the house, near center and not under any balcony. Audiences are use to it and expect the quality and subtleties that in house mixing provides.

I'd kill to never be under a balcony, or at center, but 90% of the mix positions in any theater are under balconies and to L/R of center - just a thing you learn to deal with. Under balconies aren't bad if you have a near-field delay speaker focused on your position tuned like the rest of the system.

You advocate feeding the hearing reinforcement from a mic, not from the main mix?

Expand?

I always feed ALD's on plays from a room mic, and post-fade from the RF on musicals.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

The implication was "a separate mic, out in the house, picking up direct and reinforced speech and music"; that's what I was questioning.

 

[chausman]

The implication was "a separate mic, out in the house, picking up direct and reinforced speech and music"; that's what I was questioning.

Unless you're micing every source and no source is heard without amplification in the house, the mains are not going to be an appropriate representation of what the audience is hearing.

 

[Amogh]

View media item 122View media item 121Hi guys,

Thank you for all your replies, I have attached a couple of pictures of our auditorium to give you guys an idea of our setup. After reading all the replies to this post, I will ask the admin if we can leave the doors open for smaller events such as panels or meetings and setup signs/barriers so that people don't walk in. Regarding musicals, we normally do have an auxiliary mixer for the microphones which feeds into the mains from the balcony, and we will see if we can do the same this year.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I'd kill to never be under a balcony, or at center, but 90% of the mix positions in any theater are under balconies and to L/R of center

I'd kill to never be under a balcony, or at center, but 90% of the mix positions in any theater are under balconies and to L/R of center - just a thing you learn to deal with. Under balconies aren't bad if you have a near-field delay speaker focused on your position tuned like the rest of the system.



I always feed ALD's on plays from a room mic, and post-fade from the RF on musicals.

All I can say is I believe every auditorium I've worked on has a good in house mix position. One is a little under the balcony at insistance of School.

 

[cdiamondz]

If you had an Allen & Heath GLD 112 I would have said to just run more Cat5 to your I/O box. Best of luck for all of your upcoming events!