Microphone systems for a high school

[godd2]

Hello,
I need some profession advise/experience. I work in a high school so high school kids are using the wireless body pack microphones we have. There is an "argument" between a few of us and others to what we should do to purchase more mics. Some have suggested that all the high schools go in together and buy high quality mics and then share them in the district. i would assume they would want seinhauser so we are looking at 1000 to 1200 a unit for the receiver, transmitter and small microphone. My school in the past has bought shure slx series mics. these are running around 800 now. Recently I have bought a company call Mipro. I have really liked these. they have nice small mics and a good receiver. These go for around 450. Now I realize there is sound differences as you go up but from what i am hearing with the Mipro and Shure it isnt noticeable to a normal person.

So with all of that background, i guess i have a few questions and looking for opinions. First of all, are mics like seinhauser built to with stand more abuse than a shure type quality? we deal with high school kids so they are very bad on how they treat the connectors to the body back or crimping the cable so we get many shorts around that connection area. will a more expensive unit be able to handle that better? for me it is a numbers game, i can get 2 Mipro for 1 shure basically, so when they go down i have more. Am I looking at this right?

Are seinhauser's sound that much better than a shure or even this Mipro for a high school production for the money they cost and the beating they take?
or am I not realizing that the higher money units will actually last longer and take the abuse better?

In the end, i feel that most of our sound issues are not the unit but how the unit has been treated and how much knowledge I or the board operator have.

anyway, thanx for the suggestions.

 

[chausman]

I would vote for getting fewer Sennheisers, then getting a lot of MiPros that may not work as well. The Sennheisers are amazingly tough from what I have seen using them.

I would be cautious sharing Mics within the district. Make sure you know where each mic is at all times, and not just assuming, "Oh the other school must have it".

 

[Footer]

If you are sharing mics, odds are the use will double, triple, or quadruple vs what you use if you just had your own. Sennheiser mic packs will take some abuse. They are all metal from the get go. However, rarely do mic packs from any manufacture go bad... usually the mic element/cable dies way before the pack ever will. For every 8 mics I have out, I figure I will lost at least one mic element per 2-3 shows. When I taught down in Atlanta, I had 25 countryman mics for my 18 body mics and usually 5 mics were in for repair at any given time.

I don't think a sennheiser mic will take 4x the abuse as a mipro. I also don't think that the sound quality will really be noticeable while using a standard HS PA.

 

[godd2]

If you are sharing mics, odds are the use will double, triple, or quadruple vs what you use if you just had your own. Sennheiser mic packs will take some abuse. They are all metal from the get go. However, rarely do mic packs from any manufacture go bad... usually the mic element/cable dies way before the pack ever will. For every 8 mics I have out, I figure I will lost at least one mic element per 2-3 shows. When I taught down in Atlanta, I had 25 countryman mics for my 18 body mics and usually 5 mics were in for repair at any given time.

I don't think a sennheiser mic will take 4x the abuse as a mipro. I also don't think that the sound quality will really be noticeable while using a standard HS PA.

i agree with what you are saying and that has been my arguement. I agree the body pack has not went bad, we still have some from 15 years ago but the mics do get killed and I feel that buying something that is 4x more will not solve that. i think the board operator is the problem, which is me and i admit i am not knowledgeable in this area. other issues are simply the mics.

 

[BillESC]

I'd suggest looking at Audio Technica's ATW 3000 series of wireless mics. With their current mail-in rebate your cost may be less than the Mipro's. Excellent quality with nice feature set.

 

[avkid]

Know what you're talking about before making broad generalizations.
I've been a diehard Shure fan for years and just started using some MIPRO systems, I honestly find the build quality to be superior and feature set at least equivalent.

 

[jowens]

I also would say get the Sennheisers. We typically look for a package that comes without the lav, and then go buy some Countryman B3's to go with them. If you call a company like B&H, or AllProSound that does super high volume and give good educational discounts, you'll be able to do some 1 stop shopping and get some really good prices.
I'm in a high school, we spent a couple of years getting a few units at a time (make sure you pay attention to the frequency ranges when you make a new order). Over the course of 7 years, I've been able to bring our total up to 28. They are shared between 3 buildings, usually at least 2-3 shows/building in the course of a school year. (One high school, One Middle School, and yes.. one elementary school).
The Sennheisers are rugged, the packs take abuse (our 12 year old packs still work great) , and yes.. be prepared to keep buying lav mics. So far, the b3's have been the most cost effective. (last longer)

My question to the thread... WHERE do you go to get these lav mics repaired? How much does it cost you?

 

[waynehoskins]

I worked on a school recently with Mipro wireless and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure how well you'd do with a large number of them in a metro area since, at least on the series this school had, the radios weren't truly frequency-agile; they just had some number of selectable preset channels in each bandsplit. In an area where tight coordination and interference-fighting aren't issues, they could do well.

What impressed me most were the mic elements. Decent quality, decent construction (a la MKE2 or B3), and dirt cheap.

I'm generally partial to Sennheiser, a major reason being they do use metal bodypacks. Virtually indestructible. With whatever system you choose, do budget some amount for recurring element replacement or repair. They will get damaged at some point, and you will want a few spares on hand and the ability to repair or replace the damaged ones. If possible, I'd prefer to outright replace them; and then, if the damaged element can be repaired, fix it and relegate it to the "spare" pile -- over the years you can accumulate some "free" spares.

 

[waynehoskins]

My question to the thread... WHERE do you go to get these lav mics repaired? How much does it cost you?

For me, it depends. If it's a break in the cable near the connector, I'll tackle that one myself. I had one at the church break mid-cable, so we replaced it, and I was able to do a repair inline and get a free spare out of it. Countryman will do all sorts of repairs to theirs, and for cheap if under warranty, so that's where I'd send those.

 

[Footer]

My question to the thread... WHERE do you go to get these lav mics repaired? How much does it cost you?

I had countryman ISOMAX headsets, so the all just went to countryman. Usually repair was around a hundred a unit. B3's can have the cable replaced onsite pretty easily.

However, in a HS situation I really prefer the disposable WL93 (SM93). It can be bought for 65 bucks and sounds great. Its no B3, but for the cost you really can not beat it.

 

[Dreadpoet]

I have a mipro system. I like that you can get a quad channel reciever that takes up little to no space in your rack. The system takes no intelligence to set up and run. I would suggest getting that system...reciever, 4 modules, and 4 body packs . I would suggest you get your mics elsewhere...perhaps b3 lavs from contryman or some sort. As to the discussion on longevity, stuff will break (chances are it will be the mic..not the body pack) with this setup stuff is cheap enough to replace..you might not find the money lying about to make replacements of Senn or even Shure. As to the sharing...I don't like it, toys get broken when friends "play" with them...but then I never played nice with others

 

[Jsamuels201]

My school runs 12 Shure SLX2 wireless recievers/transmitters. We haven't had any problem with the transmitters at all, the only issues we've had are with our mics. we have these Samson — SE10. Ther're great cuz they're easy to get on the actors, they're cheap, and they come with all the major connectors but we have issues with the cables breaking. If you buy a few extra its no big deal because you can just send someone backstage to swap it out if one goes down during a show, but if you're in a district like mine where buying extra in case one breaks is considered wasteful I'd get something more reliable. As far as sound quality goes they're pretty good for a high school system and I'd spend more time making sure u have students that know how to mix than having the best equipment in the world.

EDIT: The cables cost about $30 to replace which isn't bad, but it adds up when actors break 4 a show. forgot to put that in before

 

[godd2]

Know what you're talking about before making broad generalizations.
I've been a diehard Shure fan for years and just started using some MIPRO systems, I honestly find the build quality to be superior and feature set at least equivalent.

i agree with the build with Mipro...i am not knowledgeable enough to speak of sound quality but i cant tell the difference

 

[lchslightech]

so im a manager of my High School Auditorium we had seinheiser mics until we discovered schure..... its way better seinheiser is crap.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

so im a manager of my High School Auditorium we had seinheiser mics until we discovered schure..... its way better seinheiser is crap.

Sorry, but you're a high school student who your teachers have given (or you've given yourself) a title to make you feel important. Sennheiser is definitely not "crap" - I couldn't tell you how many professional theatres use Sennheiser worldwide but it will be a lot - certainly at least 50% of the theatres I've worked in have had Sennheiser gear. I've used it extensively and it's always stood up to pretty much everything we could throw at it.

 

[waynehoskins]

so im a manager of my High School Auditorium we had seinheiser mics until we discovered schure..... its way better seinheiser is crap.

Care to elaborate? That's quite an unfounded generalization. Both are respected manufacturers who make a wide range of microphones and radios.

 

[MilesDenison]

so im a manager of my High School Auditorium we had seinheiser mics until we discovered schure..... its way better seinheiser is crap.

I've run with a wide range of Sennheiser products over the last few years - currently running 18 beltpacks, and four handhelds. They're more bulletproof than anything else I've used for the most part, and I haven't had any problems with them that couldn't be fixed with a little patience and time. The sound quality of the 945's that I use is absolutely superb as well.

As for the original thread, I can't speak to the Mipro gear seeing as I've never had any experience with it. But as others have said before me, the transmitters will very probably be the last thing to break (never had one break - save the two run over by an RV on pavement), the mics you choose will probably be broken first. That being said, if you're careful you can really make them last. I don't actually run with any lavs anymore for most productions, and all of the countrymen are still working (or I've managed to fix them) after two years or so.

But I'd most certainly love to hear your reasoning behind this.