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What classroom microphones do you use?
Hi All!
We've received some questions from customers regarding classroom audio equipment, specifically, classroom microphones.
What kind of microphones are you using in your classrooms to pick up classroom discussions and questions?
We're looking for equipment in all price ranges and complexity.
Have you tried any devices that you would or would not recommend to other users?
Do you use a single recording device for the whole room or do you have multiple devices throughout the room?
Any feedback you can give would be much appreciated!
Thank you,
Andy
Panopto Support
We've received some questions from customers regarding classroom audio equipment, specifically, classroom microphones.
What kind of microphones are you using in your classrooms to pick up classroom discussions and questions?
We're looking for equipment in all price ranges and complexity.
Have you tried any devices that you would or would not recommend to other users?
Do you use a single recording device for the whole room or do you have multiple devices throughout the room?
Any feedback you can give would be much appreciated!
Thank you,
Andy
Panopto Support
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Inappropriate?We are planning to tap into the existing AV infrastructure where possible for fixed installs, these generally consist of wireless lapel/handheld microphones, or lecturn mounted ones,
Where there isn't any AV infrastructure we're about to trial the Revolabs X-TAG USB wireless lapel microphone - we've heard some good reports about this - this obviously will only pick up the speaker but the advantages are that (unlike normal radio mics) you can run multiple mics in adjacent rooms without conflict.
Boundary microphones are simplest when you want to pick up a roomful of speakers, especially when they are seated round a desk (Samson make a good USB one - UB1) but these only are generally useful when the room is small and there is little or no background noise (projector fans can ruin a recording quite easily in this regard)
There are some other clever tracking devices out there which we haven't tried, but I don't imagine they'll work anything like as well as close-up mic'ing - the more microphones closer to the action the better, -
Inappropriate?We're just starting, but so far we are happy with the Revolabs X-tag @ $200. And we bought some small pelican cases for them at @ 20 a piece. -
Inappropriate?I would suggest looking for a mic with an omnidirectional pickup pattern. Something like this Behringer B-5 which can be located in the center of the room or overhead. These are decent inexpensive mics.
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Inappropriate?Our classrooms contain ceiling mounted AKG CHM-21 mics processed with a clearone 840T, This allows for multiple mixes (Video conferencing with echo cancellation and Session recording with a Full Mix) -
Inappropriate?If you can't go through an existing mixer and have to drop in your own mics, the issue is less about mic quality and more about input to the capture station. Most PCs (especially laptops) have awful audio circuitry.
We recommend a USB mixer such as Sound Devices USBPre which takes mic level inputs via XLR, provides phantom power, boosts the audio level, provides level controls and VU metering, and does not require *any* PC configuration. So what you hear on headphones is what you get on the direct-to-disc recording.
For mics we've had good success with Audio Technica podium and boundary mics. I'm not a fan of wireless lapel mics. -
Inappropriate?Interesting idea using the USBPre, but a bit expensive for lots of rooms - we've had a reasonable amount of success using ART CleanBOX's as interfaces from the balanced out of the mixers to the PC's sound card input. Whilst not brilliant the sound quality is more than adequate for most purposes if it is setup before hand.
My only concern is how to prevent users fiddling with the sound level settings and potentially affecting it for the next user (e.g. muting the record input), although I'm investigating the idea of a batch script that resets them to a default everytime a user logs in.
Podium mics are good, but lecturers never stay put where you tell them and you can't use boundarys in large theatres (likewise really for mic arrays, which are also an expensive option) - hence we tend to stick with lapels.
