Tech Forum

Hello. I have several questions related to building audio. Our stake center is about 10 years old. I'm not sure if that matters in terms of technology used but I share in case it does. I have several questions that I'll post here.

Second question.

Does the sound system have a type of "input weighting?" I'm not sure that's the correct term for what I'm getting at. The idea is this -- there is the podium mic and X others plugged into the available XLR jacks. Does the system prioritize or give more "weight" to the podium mic than the others?

The reason I ask is that we had Stk Con this weekend and had several musical numbers with someone singing at the podium and other instruments mic'd through the other connections. The system "seemed" to push the podium mic stronger than the instruments. Just listening in the room it was hard to tell becasue you could hear the instruments live as well as reinforced from the system. In the broadcast though it was pretty clear.

thoughts, ideas?

Thanks

Carlton
Lewisville TX stake

In my previous stake, the cultural hall sound system would lower the gain of all other inputs as the sound level of each input was raised. When you spoke louder into one mic, the gain of all other mics and aux inputs was lowered. They have tuned the system to prevent feedback when multiple inputs are actively used. The only way to prevent this action is to run all your inputs through a mixer - then send one output to the PA system.

The chapels that I've seen in my area that were built or expanded around 10 years ago didn't have any automatic prioritization of sound input, but I think I remember the XLR inputs were set at a lower volume then the pulpit mic and some chapels were set so low you could hardly hear anything out of them.
I know the chapels in my area that have recently been built or had their Sound and Video systems upgraded are configured so if the sound system DSP detects any sound coming from any sound inputs (including satellite, HDMI, AUX or XLR inputs) it would automatically lower the volume of the pulpit microphone to avoid feedback. For the Stake Centres with large enough rostrums, the only inputs that wouldn't lower the pulpit mic were choir mic XLR inputs as they have a control knob that allows me to adjust the volume during a meeting from the overflow.

Could it be that the singer at the pulpit may not have been hearing themselves with the instruments playing and was singing louder and/or may have moved closer to the pulpit microphone?

One way I've tested the levels in the past to see which microphone is louder or softer, is by playing a general conference video off my mobile into a microphone and have another mobile or my laptop playing at the same level (a different talk) into the pulpit microphone. I then use the hearing assistance headsets to try listening to see if the sound is different. If the chapel doesn't have any hearing assistance headsets, I then try using the AUX Out with a mixer with headphones, or a TV with a headphone port to see or if the chapel doesn't have any video system, I just go into one of the overflow room or parents rooms that have speakers.
You could probably check with your FM to see if they know what configuration or setup for the chapel is suppose to be.

For me I prefer to be able to control the volume and get it right, so i run all my inputs into a mixer like CalS201 mentioned and then have that go into the chapel sound system.

Thanks for the replies.