Many challenges in professional audio can be addressed with more than one solution. A good example is microphones – there are so many options and so many ways to deploy them.
Let’s take a look at a variety of mic solutions that have come to be considered “installed” in their nature, but the truth is that many of these products and solutions can produce great results in several sound reinforcement applications.
GOOSENECK
These are also called lectern or podium microphones, and have a small unidirectional condenser mic capsule on the end of a flexible boom about 6 to 18 inches long. A unidirectional polar pattern reduces pickup of room reverberation, feedback, and background noise.
The latest models are slim and elegant, and their boom arms adjust silently, unlike the creaky goosenecks of yesteryear.
The small mic capsule is sensitive to breath pops, but this can be eliminated with a foam pop filter and a high-pass filter set around 100 Hz.
Goosenecks tend to be popular boardrooms and council meetings, and an upside is that they’re less sensitive to paper-shuffling noises than surface-mounted mics.
Features to look for include redundant mic capsules; on/off switch, shock mount to prevent pickup of lectern thumps, high-pass filter to reduce thumps and breath pops, RFI suppression, interchangeable capsules with different polar patterns, mounting options, Atlas AD-11 flange, XLR connector, or desktop base.
Gooseneck Applications
Lecterns both installed and portable, church, boardrooms, council meetings, tele/videoconference, courtrooms, distance learning systems, talkback in studiosExamples
❚ AKG CS 2 and CS 5 conference systems, GN series, 99er, AMS, Architectural Series
❚ Audio-Technica AT808G, ES905CL, ES915C, ES915SC, ES935C6
❚ Audix ADX12/18, MG Series, Micropod
❚ beyerdynamic MCS 20, MSC 50
❚ CAD (Astatic) GM10VP variable pattern
❚ Countryman ISOMAX 4RF
❚ Earthworks FM and FMR Series
❚ Electro-Voice PolarChoice podium and desktop
❚ Shure MX405, MX410, MX412, MX418
TABLETOP
Small, inconspicuous boundary mics with a cardioid or supercardioid polar pattern. As their name indicates, these sit on top of tables and pick up the voices of people speaking. Inside the mic housing, a tiny directional mic capsule aims horizontally across the surface.
Because the mic capsule is small and lies on the surface, it picks up table sound reflections in-phase with the direct sound from the source. This prevents comb filtering caused by phase interference between the direct and reflected sound waves.
The unidirectional polar pattern reduces pickup of room reverberation, feedback and background noise. Some models are miniaturized – about 1 inch long. Others are about 1/2-inch in diameter with omnidirectional pickup pattern, and these can be flush-mounted in the tabletop, resulting in a clean appearance.
A few models have interchangeable capsules with different polar patterns. It’s common to use multiple mics on a conference table, either one mic per person or one mic between every two people, about an arm’s length away.
These can all be run with an automatic (gated) mixer, which turns off all mics except the one in use, which reduces the number of open microphones, resulting in a clearer sound with less feedback.
