Re: Bamboo Blog - A New Type of Conference

JamesHarrison — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:37:12 -0000

Outside events tend to be incompatible with good audio, as wind messes up a lot of things- you get noise on the microphones, the sound from the speakers is disrupted, etc. Doing radio mics that Just Work doesn't have to be expensive if you know what you're doing!

All you need for each room is Enough Speakers (preferably 2- doing more gets complicated fast if you're doing things properly as you need to do split delays and so on, and it tends not to sound as good as delay is never perfect in more than one place), a halfway decent mixing console, a decent amplifier, and some proper radio microphones; Sennheiser or equivalent. You have several antennae in different alignments to remove the chance of a deadspot, and you spend an hour or two testing them properly. And for the love of all that is holy, dynamics boxes are cheap these days even for good ones. Get a gate, a compressor, and learn how to use them properly or get someone in. There's all the horrible clicks and pops removed, as well as any hiss when the presenter isn't talking, and everyone is now at the same level. You'll want some EQ so you can make people sound better (nobody enjoys a presentation given by someone with a really itchy/squeaky voice; soften it out and make everyone happier!), and of course some sort of feed off to a PC running Pro Tools or similar to record the audio feed for the video.

If, as you suggested, you record in realtime then you either end up making things a lot more expensive in terms of recording harware (you now need a video mixer, monitors, more recording gear) and getting a decent result (though you'd probably do another edit later on to get it perfect), or you only record off one camera at which point you'll miss things, not be able to do audience camera shots if needed, etc.

One of the most crucial things people miss with video is lighting- a bit of thought beforehand and some rented lights can make a world of difference to a video of a presentation, especially if it's not held in a conference center (but even then, some distinctive lighting can make the atmosphere much more vibrant and add something more to your presentations than the usual boring conference lighting.

An indoor event would be fine imo, but have stuff outside even if the talks are indoors. You get the benefits of sunshine and fresh air while keeping the actual talks somewhat enclosed against the elements. And you're not entirely scuppered once the rain breaks out.

Not having Powerpoints is a noble principle but some demos do just work better with some documentation. Powerpoints should be succint and short- title slides, with the occasional code snippet or flowchart if you really need it. Flipboards are great till you try and record them for after the talk; unless you use a really thick pen they won't show up on video too well, either.

I love the sound of an arena presentation, as well as the lightning pitches and speaker feedback cards. An event like this would be fantastic, and I'd certainly attend if the price was right and the speakers were good. Bonus points for a location somewhere in the UK! And if you're ever looking for a Rails-developing-theatre-lighting-live-music-mixing audio/video/light tech to help do this sort of thing, drop me a line...

Re: Bamboo Blog - Working the Mic

JamesHarrison — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:10:30 -0000

Omnidirectional mics are somewhat more tricky to find; typically, proper omnis require multiple elements (3 with polar pickup patterns is the norm), so the impedance across the microphone can be higher than normal directional/polar/cardioid microphones. The other problem you might find is that omnis tend to be condensers, which require a 48 volt 'phantom' power supply to function. You can't unfortunately get that on a 3.5mm jack or USB. You could get a small preamp such as the M-Audio AudioBuddy (http://www.m-audio.com/prod..., or you could go for a proper audio card like a M-Audio MobilePRE USB (http://www.m-audio.com/prod... or Digidesign MBox Mini (http://digidesign.com/index.... Those are certainly at the prosumer level, but that's really what you want for good results, and that still doesn't break the bank too badly. The Mbox Mini has inputs rated to 9.6kohms impedance, which would be fine to run that omni.

In 2009, unfortunately, computer microphone manufacturers still try to sell small, cheap, microphones on 3.5mm jacks and without phantom power. In reality, microphones should be fairly chunky things rather than small microphones you can buy today, with a proper pickup pattern and a large diaphragm to pick up all the noise. Preamps are more or less a requirement for any audio system that involves a microphone and isn't low-quality. Trouble is that audio electronics and hardware tend to be analogue and chunky, as well as needing shielding from interference- hardly easy to pack into an average PC! And of course if you're dealing with a preamp you end up with transformers or power supplies to create the +48v phantom power.

Hope that helps you on your hunt for a preamp.

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Re: Bamboo Blog - A New Type of Conference

Re: Bamboo Blog - Working the Mic