In my last post, I mentioned that the Law School had ordered some new equipment to improve our audio recording capability. Right now, that equipment is undergoing its first field test, recording a conference here at the Law School. I thought it might be useful to colleagues elsewhere in the University to know what equipment we had chosen (with, I should mention, the invaluable assistance of mobile recording guru Eric Butkus).
- SKB Mighty GigRig: A supposedly indestructible, collapsible cart, which we will use to transport the rest of the equipment around the Law School, and (potentially) beyond.
- Mackie 1402-VLZ3 Mixer - This 14-channel mixer is actually so compact that it is too small to fit in the GigRig's mixer space; however, dropping a rack shelf that didn't fit inside on top of the rig instead provides a nice angled mount. The mixer gives the ability to have multiple microphones feed into the cameras of the Chicago Media Initiatives Group or our own digital voice recorders.
- MXL 604 Small Diaphragm Condensor Mic - we use two of these mics to capture audience questions (we mount them on a regular mic stand with a stereo bar). Ideally, we will keep these turned off by way of the mixer until the question and answer sessions of talks, since they are pretty sensitive and pick up a lot of room noise.
- Shure SLX Wireless Lavalier Microphones: These will be the mics for the main speakers; the receivers will be mounted in the GigRig once we have the proper rack shelf. We ordered two mics initially, with the potential of ordering more if the need arises.
- Incidental (but necessary) equipment: Some of the other things you would need to recreate this set-up are XLR microphone cables (two short ones to connect wireless receivers to the mixer, two long ones to connect the audience mics to the mixer) and a power strip and extension cord.