Conference and Meeting Sound Systems
Recently we have been involved in assisting our local City (Neighborhood)
Council put together a portable sound system for use at their monthly meetings.
Their requirements included a portable Public Address system, individual mics
& monitors for each Board Member, an over-ride system for the Chairman, wireless
handheld mics for audience, and future options for recording/playback or
teleconferencing.
And, of course, it had to be economical as well as not too complicated to set
up and operate!
The solution that we came up with met all of their requirements to the tee.
Note: As a result of our success
with the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council, we have also been called upon to
create similar systems for some schools and other municipal organizations.
The heart of the solution was the Bosch Conference System 800 series(wired
solution). Note that both Bosch and Audio Technica offer excellent wireless
meeting solutions, but they were both out of budget for our client.
The Bosch System consists of a number of Delegate Consoles all daisy chained
together. Each Delegate Console features a gooseneck mic (we opted for the long
gooseneck) that illuminates when active, a personal loudspeaker monitor (as well
as earphone jack), and a push on/off mic activation button.
Somewhere along the daisy chain would be a Chairman Console, which is exactly
like the Delegate Consoles except for having a second button. This button
controls the Chairman OverRide, which immediately mutes all of the other mics so
that only the Chairman's mic is open.
The daisy chain plugs in to a Control Console that, in turn, feeds a Public
Address System. The Control Console features a feedback suppressor, inputs for
Aux Mics (in this case, two Audio Technica wireless mics that we put out for
audience participation), connections for external record/playback, connections
for teleconferencing, and line output to the P.A. system. The Console also has
settings for Master Volume to the individual speaker monitors, headset feeds,
and settings to determine how many mics can be open simultaneously during
discussion.
We fed the signal from the Control Console to a Fender 250watt portable sound
system, which provided sound reinforcement to the audience. (Board Members have
their own individual loudspeakers in their consoles.)
In this instance, our client, the Mission Hills (Los Angeles) Neighborhood
Council wanted the option of having two Chairman Consoles in the chain. Not a
problem, just plug one more unit into the loop. No special engineering required.
The Control Console can accommodate up to two daisy chains (or legs) of up to
25 units per leg.
We also figured out that teleconferencing would be as simple as plugging the
audio output into a laptop computer equipped with a webcam, and just using the
Skype software to connect to another computer.
Attached to this article is a PDF copy of the Set-Up Instructions that we
prepared for the Council, based on their regular monthly meetings. It serves as
a simple example of how the whole thing comes together.
Click here for PDF version of Mission
Hills Neighborhood Council Basic Set-up.
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