A new audio challenge...

I will second the choir mic idea with the caveat (sp?) that they would be omni and not hypercardioid or cardioid. Because people are facing eachother a directional mic might also need to be facing each side respectively. Therefore, you might get phasing issues with directional pick up patterns. If you go with hanging mics, go omni to avoid that problem. Good luck.
 
auto mixers

auto mixers

I rent the auto mixers from my friendly audio rental house appropriately named Audio Quip. This is in the Minneapolis, St. Paul Minnesota area. I don't know where you are located but you should be able to find them to rent if you're in or near a good sized metropolitan area. I have a number of friends in the mixing business that own them that I can rent from if needed as well. You could contact Shure to find out who has them to rent if you have trouble locating them as well. The pickup pattern of the choir mics could be omni or directional in my opinion. Phasing really shouldn't be an issue if they are placed properly. Directional mics would be less roomy sounding but would not be as forgiving if people are off axis. Omnis would be more forgiving but might pick up more room sound than you might like. My concern for you would be if you have to mount them on the ceiling adjustments would be difficult to make quickly and your breakout sessions would be hard to plan for. I've done similiar shoots with the mics on short stands on the floor with the mics shooting up towards the seated participants. If the framing of the shot is right, the mics don't have to be seen too much. The down side here is if the room has noisey air conditioning you are aiming the mic toward the ceiling but you would have far more flexibility.
Regards,
Bernie
 
The ZOOM H4 could work well, it's designed to pick up decent audio at a distance, and I've used it for a pre-school concert with GREAT success.

- Derrick
 
Sorry to be so long since replying to this thread, but the result was, no budget to rent the extra pzm mics and needed mixer, nor would the facility allow for overheads...so I was stuck using a parabolic...sounds terrible tinny echoey...but you can understand what they're saying. If desired, I'll see about posting a sample so you can feel my pain in having to listen to it, but at least its intelligible.
 
I know it's a little late, but here's my idea.

I don't know specificaly what they're called, but I remember seeing a large boundry mic in my local music store many years ago. It was a PZM, but it was mounted on a large sheet of plexi, probably 2 feet by 3 feet. The salesman said it was for picking up the audience. I haven't seen them in years, but a rental house may know what they are.
 
I see, so a giant PZM! That would probably be much more effective than "el radar" as I was known at the group! Plus, not that a parabolic is that heavy, but after 8 hours...

For this course I've been recording, its a similar setup, with a U-shaped table arrangement and a lecturer at the top of the U. I put a Zaxcom ZFR100 with COS11x on him and used a AKG 414 set in omni mode in the middle of the U at audience face level. While not ideal, it gives me usable sound. I have one of the classes up at http://historybyhoward.com/History_by_Howard/Sample_Class.html I believe somewhere in there is a person asking a question, some reverb but at least for the most part intelligible.
 
PZM's love large hard surfaces so mounting on the wall is a really good place, carpeted floor not so much. If you stick them on the wall you don't need to have the big plex sheet, but if you want that you can make one if you get the PZM's where the "finger" is screwed to the plate, just get a bigger plate and drill the appropriate holes. The ones I would look for are the ones that Radio Shack used to sell for $49. They are made by Crown and can easily be modified for balanced outs and higher sensitivity. Other than CL the place to look is local theatres and indi recording studios. Theatres used to have crates of the things, for monitor mics general recordings and if they did any musicals you would run a stack of them on the stage lip. Project studios used/ still use them for room tone and for "real" reverb. They are always in phase so you can run a line of them down an empty hallway and stick a speaker out there and get a very cool "real" reverb. I saw one studio that literally had a trunk full (40-50). Also the studio ones are likely to have been modified already. Either of the above would probably rent them VERY cheap or maybe barter? Or just loan them, if they get to know you. I used to loan them out all the time. I have three or four myself and I loan them out. They are about as indestructible as an SM58.

Also you can make them more directional by putting something soft around the areas you don't want. We used to put a bit of rolled carpet on the audience side, doesn't need much.

But the choir mics would quite possibly be a better choice, especially with a carpeted floor.
 
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