Audio 101: Microphone Selection and Use

As discussed in our previous post, there are numerous microphone models and styles designed to suit specific applications. The appropriate microphone for your space should include frequency response that covers the source’s spectrum, enhancing desired frequencies while rejecting unwanted frequencies. Your chosen microphone should be capable of withstanding the source’s maximum level. The microphone should also have adequate sensitivity, as well as sufficient voltage to the input stage to which it is connected. Microphones should be placed as close as possible to the source, while avoiding saturation or distortion. In general, the distance should be less than the room’s critical distance, as depicted in the following graphic. Proper microphone placement…

Audio 101: Microphones

Microphones have a tremendous impact on sound quality, and different spaces require specific equipment in order to optimize clarity. Think, for example, of a corporate boardroom that accommodates 20 executives, versus a 500-seat university lecture hall. Regardless of type or intended function, all microphones are transducers – devices that convert one type of energy into another. A microphone is a transducer that converts sound (acoustic energy) into electric energy. There are many varieties of microphones available, but dynamic and condenser microphones are the two most common types used in the AV industry. Condenser microphones have higher sensitivity, excellent transient response, and superior frequency response. These microphones can be small and…

The Impacts of Sound

We’ve all probably experienced dinner at a restaurant that’s so noisy you can’t hear the conversation around the table, or been in an airport terminal with announcements so loud you have to plug your ears, or a train station where you had to strain to understand announcements that sound like they’re being made by Charlie Brown’s teacher. Those are all examples of one of the biggest challenges AV professionals face – communicating (OK, selling…) the importance of managing sound effectively within diverse environments to clients who don’t see how audio affects or influences almost every part of our daily life. And expressing the importance of audio is difficult. We repeatedly…

When Should You Use Shielded vs. Unshielded Ethernet Cable?

The core job of DSP is to process signals. In some cases, it’s adding or subtracting from the amplitude. In other cases, it’s enhancing or suppressing parts of the frequency response, and many DSPs are excellent for reducing and/or eliminating noise from the source signal. Unfortunately, the “Garbage In-Garbage Out” theory applies to AV signals: there’s only so much that DSP can do to clean up a noisy waveform. The cleaner the incoming signal, the cleaner it will be going out. Ethernet cables, as well as many other types of cables used in AV, are in essence antennas (thin cross section + significant axial length = antenna). You don’t have…

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