We have to film reality show style show. In some scenes we have to film a conference room meeting with at least 5 people present. We don't have enough lav's to mic everyone. What would be the best method to capturing the audio of everyone? Again, this is similar to a reality show style so we don't know who or when people will speak. The room is a typical office conference room, no windows, one large oval table that everyone sits around (can hold 20 people comfortably).
capturing audio in conference room with multiple speakers
- Thread starter lhdor
- Start date
Steve House
Veteran
How about a couple of boundary mics on the conference table
Alexander Miles Burstein
New member
I just did something that sounds exactly like this. It was a conference room filled with 16 people, speaking at any time. Because it was reality and no one knew when a parent would speak, it was very messy. I was over the shoulder booming with an MKH 50, and knew that if I had one other boom operator I would be able to do the task no problem at all. One boom op on each side of the table/room covering what I could not. I mic'd up the moderator as well so I didn't have to worry about him.
If there's a PA system and they already have mic's their speaking into just patch into the mixing board. And in my environment we couldn't turn off the AC in the room, so it would intermittently go on and off. Had to grab a track of that after everyone left. If your able to, have 2 boom op's! It'll be great!
If there's a PA system and they already have mic's their speaking into just patch into the mixing board. And in my environment we couldn't turn off the AC in the room, so it would intermittently go on and off. Had to grab a track of that after everyone left. If your able to, have 2 boom op's! It'll be great!
Hi
I do this type of shot a lot. Try to use the PA system, or invest more money in lavs, or set up mics around the room. If you are not prepared or well set up on this type of shot, you will have a headache in editing and may loose out on some good footage.
Yes, 2 boom op's would be great.
I do this type of shot a lot. Try to use the PA system, or invest more money in lavs, or set up mics around the room. If you are not prepared or well set up on this type of shot, you will have a headache in editing and may loose out on some good footage.
Yes, 2 boom op's would be great.
Steve House
Veteran
Shotguns would be a poor choice unless the room was acoustically conditioned such as a sound stage. Hypercardioids might work out as you suggest though.
paulears
Veteran
From above, with a reflective surface (the desks) sounds poor. The desk always creates a reflection and makes the real voice sound hollow. A few PCC boundaries shared between pairs of people would be my choice in a conference setting. I used to often use multiple shotguns until I discovered PCCs, and have never used them for this purpose again.
recordingwhiz
Well-known member
I actually design video teleconference systems for a living and work in the corporate board rooms pretty much daily.
I would first ask how the room was treated if at all?
how big is the table?
how tall are the ceilings?
how reflective is the room?
is treating the room an option?
These questions will direct you to the proper gear choices.
but the best way I have found to do this is to use multiple mics set up thru a DSP processing auto mixer such as a 'Clear One' sound structure or BiAmp Audia or Nexia or even a BSS London, Clear One acctually has some hanging mics that are specificaly designed to work well in these environments and stay out of the shot, they consist of 3 Hypercardioids in one pendant and 2 or 3 would work well in this scenario as well.
all the mics connect to these boxes and offer all the right signal processing to do this successfully. and give you a nice auto-mixed and dynamically protected signal.
some of the larger rental houses do offer these for rent as part of a videoteleconference packages,
Dont re-invent the wheel, tons of time and money has been spent to do this well in the business world, take advantage of that. Hope that helps,
Feel free to PM me and I can go into very deep detail on gear and set-up as well as DSP programming.
Cheers
I would first ask how the room was treated if at all?
how big is the table?
how tall are the ceilings?
how reflective is the room?
is treating the room an option?
These questions will direct you to the proper gear choices.
but the best way I have found to do this is to use multiple mics set up thru a DSP processing auto mixer such as a 'Clear One' sound structure or BiAmp Audia or Nexia or even a BSS London, Clear One acctually has some hanging mics that are specificaly designed to work well in these environments and stay out of the shot, they consist of 3 Hypercardioids in one pendant and 2 or 3 would work well in this scenario as well.
all the mics connect to these boxes and offer all the right signal processing to do this successfully. and give you a nice auto-mixed and dynamically protected signal.
some of the larger rental houses do offer these for rent as part of a videoteleconference packages,
Dont re-invent the wheel, tons of time and money has been spent to do this well in the business world, take advantage of that. Hope that helps,
Feel free to PM me and I can go into very deep detail on gear and set-up as well as DSP programming.
Cheers
Pedantic Sound
Member
That is the way I've done it at conventions. We didn't have the time or the amount of lavs to mic 6-8 people on the panels so we just got a PA feed.
Steve House
Veteran
What makes you think there IS a PA feed? The OP said they were shooting 5 people around a table in a typical conference room. I wouldn't expect there to be a PA in use in such a scenario.