I'm crossposting this here, because of the amount of friendly knowledgeable
answers I see posted all the time...

Parabolic mics. Can they be useful in a live situation? A local theatre
group is asking me
about these things. I'd likely try my hand at making one, it really
doesn't seem like rocket surgery, err, brain science I mean....

gigabit wrote:

Parabolic mics. Can they be useful in a live situation? A local theatre
group is asking me
about these things. I'd likely try my hand at making one, it really
doesn't seem like rocket surgery, err, brain science I mean....

There is a discussion in the FAQ. Basically, you get no directivity below
a certain point (which is set by the diameter of the reflector), and you
get lots of narrowband resonances above that point.

If you need to pull a voice out of the muck and don't care that it sounds
like it's coming through a bad telephone, the parabolic mike can be a
handy thing.

If you actually care about voice quality, it's no good. But for things
like football games where you need to be able to mike the ref from a
distance, it can get you intelligible voice in places where you otherwise
wouldn't have anything at all.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

They are probably hopeful that they can have one person with a shotgun mic
pointing at whoever is speaking rather than putting out a lot of cash for a
bunch of lavs or headworn wireless mics. Unfortunately like Scott said they
are pretty much out of luck with their bargain plan.

Tell them they need to put out for decent quality wireless which isn't a
very cheap solution (cheap wireless stuff works like crap or not at all) and
as well they will need someone who knows what they are doing to run
everything.


"gigabit" wrote in message
.. .
I'm crossposting this here, because of the amount of friendly
knowledgeable
answers I see posted all the time...

Parabolic mics. Can they be useful in a live situation? A local theatre
group is asking me
about these things. I'd likely try my hand at making one, it really
doesn't seem like rocket surgery, err, brain science I mean....

news.west.cox.net wrote:
They are probably hopeful that they can have one person with a shotgun mic
pointing at whoever is speaking rather than putting out a lot of cash for a
bunch of lavs or headworn wireless mics. Unfortunately like Scott said they
are pretty much out of luck with their bargain plan.

The shotgun mike doesn't work indoors very well either. There is really
no substitute for getting the mikes into proper position.

Tell them they need to put out for decent quality wireless which isn't a
very cheap solution (cheap wireless stuff works like crap or not at all) and
as well they will need someone who knows what they are doing to run
everything.

Better would be a stage with a back wall that is properly designed to
provide support, and performers who know how to project. Theatre went on
in large auditoriums for thousands of years before Western Electric sold
the first PA rig.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
news.west.cox.net wrote:
Better would be a stage with a back wall that is properly designed to
provide support, and performers who know how to project. Theatre went on
in large auditoriums for thousands of years before Western Electric sold
the first PA rig.
--scott

That would be best but good luck convincing most people that acoustics are
the way to go.

Jay

That would be best but good luck convincing most people that acoustics are
the way to go.

Jay


That's kind of where I am right now, I'm surprised that in this particular
theatre projection is an issue. They do have a number of lav's , finding the
budget for a tech on their productions is a different story. Perhaps the
answer is more lav's and an upgrade to the console. Main reason I'm
searching around is because "the customer is always right" and I know squat
about parabolic mic's and their true performance. Thanks for the input ,
all...

"gigabit" wrote in message
.. .
I'm surprised that in this particular
theatre projection is an issue.

Sometimes it's really not an issue at all and people simply think it is.

I do AV for business meetings, you wouldn't believe the tiny rooms people
think they need mics in and at the other end of the scale large rooms where
they need mics and they want to either go without or without enough of them.