Microphones (Re: DISPATCH Virtual Meeting )

[Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]>]

On 2020-03-25, at 17:16, Deen, Glenn (NBCUniversal) <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> It would be helpful if we could identify particular brands/models of microphones that work really well and share that info.   While they may be hard to get currently, many of us do calls as a regular part of the day and having good gear is a kind gift to everyone else on the calls.

When I started working on videoconferencing over the Internet in 1992, it was clear that you needed a headset with a microphone to participate.

In 2020, that is no longer the case.  Using a good quality laptop, you can use the built-in audio system.  Echo is no longer really a problem because CPUs are fast enough to do the echo compensation processing (and mass conferences like our WG meetings have most attendees muted anyway).  The experience for your peers might even be better than for a head-mounted microphone because there will be less popping and breathing noises, so they can actually hear the speech.  And your experience might not involve "hot ears”, for once.

I personally like clip-on lavalier microphones to complement the laptop audio system, in particular if you need to be typing while speaking.  (Whether a lav provides an improvement depends on the room characteristics [2] as well as the quality of the laptop audio system.  It probably helps that I like wearing shirts, so I can clip them somewhere:  The important point about lavalier microphones is that they need to be out of the way of popping and breathing noises.)  Since lavalier microphones essentially are electret capsules, and these are really cheap even when good, it is not hard to acquire inexpensive ones (expect to pay ~ $15, but €4 shipped is likely to work well already [3]; the difference is in the quality of the clips, the tendency of the cable to make movement noises, etc.).  [Panic buyers don’t seem to have completely bought them up yet, either.]

You might have to buy a “game splitter” [4] if your laptop only has one 3.5mm socket and isn’t quite pro enough to allow the audio system to play to its speaker system while using an external microphone.

Grüße, Carsten

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavalier_microphone
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_distance
[3]: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00QUMQTSO/vielekoechver-21
[4]: https://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00KSV8YCM/vielekoechver-21
Wow, Amazon is totally broken at the moment, I hope you can see these.