Audience Questions

[JTilling]

HI Everyone

 

I am a relative newbie to the AV world. Although there is quite a lot I do know this is one thing I cant seem to come to any conclusion on.

 

I work a lot of conferences doing sound. Mostly just a couple of lapels and a couple of handhelds etc. nothing to big. Anyway the audience are often asking questions to the people who are talking. The guys up on stage can sometimes find it hard to hear them if the venue is of a larger size or if the person asking is softly spoken. I wondered if there is a way that is better than trying to get a hand held to the questioner quickly to enable the guys on stage and the rest of the audience to hear better.

This all has to be relatively cheap as it would be something not included in the quotes for the clients and also has to be something quick and painless to set up. It is usually hard to suspend anything from the ceilings as most conference venues don't have any suspension points in them.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out.

 

Regards.

[revbobuk]

Catchbox- it's not cheap, but it does hit all the other points you mention. We've talked about them before, and you may be able to make something similar yourself from a foam football...

[Shez]

Having a couple of runners with hand held radio mics is the approach I generally use. Depending on the layout of the stage / PA, you might want to be able to route them to small on-stage monitors as well as the PA for the benefit of the presenters.

It wouldn't seem unreasonable to charge a bit more if audience interaction is expected and everyone needs to be able to hear everything.

[David Lee]

It is always a problem, you can:

 

1) Ask the mic handlers to get there asap and prompt the person to use the mic (rarely happens as the mic handlers are usually just staff who happen to be free at the time)

 

2) Ask the Chair - if you have one - to insist on the use of handheld mics and moderate the whole session I.e people with questions can raise their hand - mic is given to that person and then the chair invites them to speak.

 

3) Get speaker to repeat the question (if they can hear it) for the benefit of the rest of the audience.

 

4) Place handhelds in mic stands in convenient locations and the Chair insists anybody with a question has to go to the mic (more often seen in AGMs)

 

5) Give up as the buggers will always ignore the mic. If they don't they will either whisper into it or shout into it. They also use them as pointing devices or hold them down by their knees.

 

To be honest, you can only suggest these things to the organiser or Chair, it is really up to them how they want to handle Q & A sessions.

[Bobbsy]

David Lee has summed it up very well. On various occasions I've used all the options he mentions and I'll add a number 6:

 

Give the mic handlers long fishpoles with mics at the end, the length being determined so that they can reach any seat standing in the nearest aisle (obviously no good in Wembley Stadium but workable in most small/medium venues.

[Robin D]

The best I saw was earlier this year at a seminar I atteneded for I would guess 150. Someone came onto the 'stage' with a shotgun mic. They'd obviously done it before as they were able to watch the chair indicate who he wanted to ask the next question and find the speaker. I think it helped that people were also asked to stand up to speak, but not all did. It obviously needs someone with a bit of nous on the shotgun though.

[Wilflet]

Handhelds and a few people running them round is the most accepted way of doing it- I can see certain clients thinking the throwing ball type mics to be a little too kooky (but others might love them).

Its quite common you'll get some audience members insist they are loud enough and will speak before the mic gets there whatever you do- if your only dealing with the pa in the room then either you hear them or you dont and thats given the mic time to arrive for the second attempt, if your dealing with broadcast and/or recording feeds too then you either need to insist every one uses the mic or have a chair/presenter who knows to repeat the questions, otherwise you get a recording that makes very little sense.

[top-cat]

Handhelds and a few people running them round is the most accepted way of doing it- I can see certain clients thinking the throwing ball type mics to be a little too kooky (but others might love them).

Its quite common you'll get some audience members insist they are loud enough and will speak before the mic gets there whatever you do- if your only dealing with the pa in the room then either you hear them or you dont and thats given the mic time to arrive for the second attempt, if your dealing with broadcast and/or recording feeds too then you either need to insist every one uses the mic or have a chair/presenter who knows to repeat the questions, otherwise you get a recording that makes very little sense.

 

A good addition to that can be table tennis bats. You have a number of mic runners in the room, obviously the more people in the room the more runners you have. Runners each armed with 1 wireless mic and 1 table tennis bat, with a big number stuck to it (IE "1" "2" etc) in laminate paper. Or just coloured paper if you like. As long as it's big and obvious.

 

Then somebody puts their hand up, the mic runner can run straight to the audience member, hand them the mic, and then stand next to them / at the end of the row, and hold up the numbered bat. The panel are then aware there is a question waiting, the audience member doesn't get an achey arm, and the mic will get there before they start asking the question. The bat doubles as being useful for the sound engineer, as long as he can see it, he knows which mic to turn up, which means you don't have to rely on the runners pressing the on/off switch when handing it over.