Audio Production Group of San Carlos, CA, which serves events ranging from outdoor music festivals to business meetings for corporate clients, has seen heavy deployment of its Countryman B2D directional lavaliere microphone and Type 10S and Type 85S stereo direct boxes (DI).
“Corporate events have become increasingly complex, incorporating live webcasts, a phone bridge, and in-room sound reinforcement of the company’s CEO and several employee presentations,” explains Andy Heller, co-owner of APG. “In addition to audio from a presenter’s microphone, we also need to accommodate PowerPoint presentations with audio from a laptop.”
“Recently, we worked a town hall meeting event in a very live space, where we knew from past experience that an omnidirectional microphone would not work well,” he continues. “This is precisely why we chose the directional Countryman B2D, with its hypercardioid pattern. Being a directional lavaliere microphone that can easily be positioned on a person, the B2D enabled us to eliminate any surrounding ambient noise while, at the same time, maximize gain before feedback.
“The result was clean, clear audio signal with all the level we required. We were able to feed the sound reinforcement system with an optimized microphone signal and this was a significant factor in providing a high level of speech intelligibility. The B2D sounded great in the house, over the phone, and on the webcast.”
The town hall meeting involved a number of laptop computer-sourced presentations and, for these aspects of the meeting, audio quality was equally important. “Video and audio play a huge role in a well-planned presentation,” says Heller. “If the picture and sound quality aren’t up to par, the audience’s ability to process information is severely compromised. This is why we placed two Countryman DI’s—a Type 10S stereo direct box and a Type 85S stereo direct box—into service.”
The Countryman Type 10S and Type 85S DI’s both served as laptop audio interfaces for the event. These units enabled the laptop computer’s unbalanced audio feeds to be converted to balanced signals while also providing electrical ground isolation—thus eliminating the possibility of inducing noise, hum, or other audible artifacts, especially when long cable runs were involved.
“By inserting these DI’s into the audio chain, we were able to maximize signal to ensure the best possible audio quality through the sound system and over the Internet,” Heller adds.
“I’ve always wanted to see RCA and mini-jack inputs on a DI,” he notes. “With the proliferation of iPods, iPads, and laptops being used in corporate presentations, it makes it much easier to use a DI to take the audio and get it into the mixing console without having to use several adapters in the process. We also like the fact that the Countryman team is open to suggestions regarding their product development. This is precisely why their equipment fits so well into a myriad of audio environments.”
Heller knows well about using audio gear in different environments—he has also regularly used these DI boxes for live sound reinforcement of bands playing at outdoor music festivals. There, rather than interfacing a laptop to the DIs, he uses them on bass and acoustic guitar, keyboards, and any other instruments going direct, “The high input impedance of Countryman DIs makes them ideally suited for a wide range of instruments and pickups. I never need to worry about the DI loading the instrument, and changing the character of the sound.”