USB Radio Mics

[OldHollow]

Hi all,

 

 

I'm in the market for a Lavalier radio mic with a receiver that will plug straight into the USB port of a laptop for lecture streaming etc. Any recommendations? Lower end budget-wise ideally...

 

Thanks,

 

David.

[pete10uk]

Hi David.

 

I’m not sure usb mics are a thing, I’ve not seen anything out there. I would think your likely to find something which is Bluetooth.

 

I would get any microphone and run it through a usb audio capture device. I use a black magic web presenter, which does video as well. Not cheep but there are many audio only budget options out there.

[ninjadingle]

Hi David,

 

A few rough and ready options include using an XLR to USB converter cable, thought this will add a significant amount of latency to the signal and you may have issues with audio sync. Or a USB boundary microphone might work, or if movement isn't an issue there are USB lavalier mics?

 

Otherwise a USB audio capture is what you need as Pete mentioned. We've started looking at the Art USB Dual Pre which has worked well, but there are many others depending on how much control you want to give the users.

[MarkPAman]

Well they certainly exist. Here's one:

https://www.amazon.c...B/dp/B07F3KLX14

and I've seem several similar.

 

I've no idea if they're any good though.

[Shez]

Ideally you'd connect whatever kind of mic to the camera audio input as that'll guarantee sync. As soon as you use completely separate video and audio devices, you'll run in to sync troubles - video always has higher latency than audio.

[sandall]

Receiver into the laptop is the easy bit - plug its Line Out into any cheap USB sound card. Behringer UCA222 or similar work well, but there are plenty of Chinese "nasties" for peanuts which may or may not work with your particular laptop. Choice of radiomic kit (UHF, VHF or even digital) depends a bit on what other kit might be occupying your local airwaves. Unless there is no possibility of another radiomic being used in the vicinity I would avoid anything single-channel. Have a look at the budget Trantec & Sennheiser Freeport range.

[ninjadingle]

Shez - as David mentions its for Lecture Capture there may not be any cameras involved - it may be a narrated powerpoint as one example (indeed most of our lecture capture systems record only projector screen content and audio, very few rooms also capture video).

[Stuart91]

Have a look at the budget Trantec & Sennheiser Freeport range.

 

FWIW the Sennheiser Freeport range has been discontinued, the closest equivalent that they do now is the XSW-1 series.

 

The Trantec S4.4 series is more or less identical (I think Trantec actually manufactured Freeport for Sennheiser) and is still a good budget option.

[sunray]

Well they certainly exist. Here's one:

https://www.amazon.c...B/dp/B07F3KLX14

and I've seem several similar.

 

I've no idea if they're any good though.

I came across one on a job where they asked if we could also pick up the signal IIRC the frequency range was something like 650-730MHz I tried a scanner but quality was poor but I don't know what it sounded like into the PC.

 

[Simon Lewis]

I had a system at work that comprised a base station with USB cable and a small clip on mic about the size and shape of a lip salve tube. Communication was (I think) 2.4GHz or DECT. Audio quality wasn't up to much, but it was far better than lecture capture using a small mic in the ceiling.

The mic sat in the base station and recharged.... I can't for the life of me remember the make!!

[david.elsbury]

I had a system at work that comprised a base station with USB cable and a small clip on mic about the size and shape of a lip salve tube. Communication was (I think) 2.4GHz or DECT. Audio quality wasn't up to much, but it was far better than lecture capture using a small mic in the ceiling.

The mic sat in the base station and recharged.... I can't for the life of me remember the make!!

Revolabs

[bruce]

I had a system at work that comprised a base station with USB cable and a small clip on mic about the size and shape of a lip salve tube. Communication was (I think) 2.4GHz or DECT. Audio quality wasn't up to much, but it was far better than lecture capture using a small mic in the ceiling.

The mic sat in the base station and recharged.... I can't for the life of me remember the make!!

 

Sounds like Revolabs.

 

One nice thing about them was the “alarm feature” - if the mic got out of range of the base, then the mic would start beeping, reminding the wearer that that they need to put it back in the cradle before leaving.

[Simon Lewis]

Sounds like Revolabs.

 

That's the badger.... thank you...!

 

They weren't particularly good, but were much better for lecture recording than the mic mounted in a ceiling tile, usually next to the lecture room's air handling unit outlet.

 

One other idiosyncrasy was that they were two way... I couldn't work out why I lost audio playback from the lectern system when the USB mic was plugged in, but found that there was a 2.5mm jack on the clip on mic, to which my lecture slide audio was being happily transmitted....

 

As for the Alarm feature - it was really annoying, as I carried my unit to each lecture room with the thing burbling away....!

Edited September 2, 2020 by Simon Lewis