Wireless Microphones

[drepouille]

Correct. Our FM has about six wireless microphones, which he loans to each stake in the metro area whenever they have a visiting GA for stake conference.

[quintonrhq]

For the record, these are the instructions that the FM groups have received. Also a stake is authorized to have one wireless microphone. Steve Poulsen provided this link:
http://aec.ldschurch.org/aec/standard_p ... -10-11.pdf , extracting item #4.

Item 4: Requests for Technical Equipment for Ecclesiastical Training

General authorities or area seventies on occasion make requests for non-approved technical equipment and/or for quantities of equipment above the authorized amount, for use in training. The Managing Director of MFD has commented that the First Presidency and the Presiding Bishopric are not supportive of extensive retrofits to our meetinghouses or the purchase of excessive equipment for infrequent or one-time occasions.

Often those making the requests do not comprehend the cost involved. Recognizing the pressure FMs are under when out of boundary requests are made by a stake president, and that the pressure is even more intense when the request comes from a general authority or area seventy, the recommendation is that RFMs and FMS work with the APFM and DTA to address specific out of boundary requests.

[jbejar]

There are a lot of people who have hearing loss, and will suffer silently. It is esp. difficult for them if there are people or kids who are noisy nearby--even if they have hearing aids. https://www.ncoa.org/adviser/hearing-ai ... tatistics/

[dellijo]

A dream come true IMO!

The problem:
I've been an A/V tech for our ward, for our Stake, and have been used as a tech expert by ward and Stake members for many years. I've always thought the mic systems we've used in our church buildings were big, clunky, and often frustrating. The wireless microphones (including the Audio Technica ones provided by FM) were crackly, spotty, and wasted hundreds of dollars in batteries over a few years. Wired microphones ALWAYS had issues with crackling, bad cables and connections causing mics to cut out completely - and clumsy trying to run around the room for people making comments or reading out loud, etc. Our ward bought its own wireless mics that eventually had to be phased out due to transmitting on a frequency no longer authorized for this kind of use. The replacement wireless mics cut out when further than 30 feet from the receiver. What a pain all of this tech mess is.

The solution:
Our ward's Relief Society purchased the DJI Mic Minis. The DJI Mic Mini standard product comes with the receiver, two mics, a charging-station case, and a couple of adapter cables. I hooked their receiver up to the EMTech EJ-8 converter we already had in our building, and plugged it into the XLR jack in the wall. SUCCESS!! Now we have a compact wireless-mic system that literally cost under $100. it sounds amazing. With a little more research, I found you may also be able to connect the receiver to a Rode VXLR+, which costs $30. So, total solution for two tiny microphones and the adapter/converter can literally be $100.

The DJI Mic 2s are mics I already own and tried out in the Relief Society room as well (I think I got them for $189 on sale on Amazon). They work fantastic. They come with the receiver, two mics, and a charging-station case. The advantage of these over the Mic Minis is that each transmitter has a 1/8-inch/3.5mm jack on them. I plugged my Sennheiser MKE600 (a high-end professional studio/shotgun mic) into it and instantly had studio-quality audio that was now wireless! No need to run wires and to tape stuff down for special musical numbers, etc. You can also use the jack on the transmitters to run a lavalier mic for additional concealment.

The DJI Mic 3 costs $250 on sale, which is over double the price of the DJI Mic Mini currently, but not only comes with the receiver, two mics, and a charging-station case, but also has the ability to connect two additional DJI-brand Mics (including the Mic 2s or Mic Minis) for a total of four microphones!! Say hello to easy-setup panel discussions, General Authority wireless-mic requests, etc.

All of these microphones are tiny (less than about 1.5 inches x 1 inch or smaller). They can be clipped onto a lapel or dress or attached via the included magnet. Their range/distance between the receiver and mics is incredible - even through a concrete wall or two)! They're rechargeable, last up to 10 hours each, and automatically charge in the case. You can buy replacement mics individually if one breaks, gets wet, etc without buying a whole new set. You can connect them to cameras, computers, phones, and (with adapter/converter) the XLR jacks in the wall.

Setup:
1. Remove the receiver from the charging case. It turns on automatically.
2. Remove the mics/transmitters you want to use from the charging case. They turn on and sync automatically to the receiver.
3. On the receiver, turn the gain all the way down to -12. If you have the Mic 2s or Mic 3s, also turn the volume all the way down on the receiver for each microphone volume displayed on the little touch screen (it's separate from the volume).
4. On the wall, turn the mic volume all the way down.
5. Plug the XLR converter/adapter into the XLR jack in the wall.
6. Plug the receiver's headphone jack or line-level jack into the 3.5-mm/1/8-inch jack on the converter/adapter.
7. Put on one of the mics and talk while directly under a speaker in the room while having someone gradually turn up the sound on the Relief Society-room wall or at the pulpit. If you start to hear echo or feedback, inch the volume back down a little.
8. If the audio on the wall is all the way turned up and audio is still too quiet, then begin turning up the sound on the EJ-8 convertor or other converter. If you start to hear echo or feedback, inch the volume back down a little.
9. If the audio is still too quiet, then start turning up the mic volume on the receiver.

From there, you can fine-tune the audio levels on the receiver gain and volume and on the converter if a volume level knob exists there until you have the best sound with no echo or feedback.

[russellhltn]

You post reminds me of what showed up at a couple of wards: Joyo MW-1

It has one job: replace the microphone cable. One end plugs into the wall, the other into the bottom of a standard XLR microphone. There's only two controls: Power and channel. No gain controls to mess up. It just works. Even our technically-challenged Sunday School president can set it up (once I showed him how to "press and hold" to power off.) No noise like you sometimes get with analog systems and no noticeable delay.

Amazon link for illustration/convenience:
https://www.amazon.com/JOYO-Microphone- ... B0GV4JKPTC