AV troubleshooting

June 17, 2022 9:30 AM

Moderating a conference panel and one of our panelists couldn't come cuz COVID positive. I have a cordless mic, a phone and a laptop. I do not have access to any kind of overhead AV system. I don't expect she'll be able to fully participate but is there a way for me to bring her in for at least her initial presentation?

Like, can I hold the mic to my phone or laptop or will I have massive feedback? Any and all suggesting welcome.

posted by latkes to Technology (10 answers total)

What does the cordless mic go to? Speakers in the room?
posted by Candleman at 9:45 AM on June 17, 2022

This exact situation happened at a conference I was at a couple months ago. They got the person to record their talk in advance (screen captured over slides) and just played the video/audio. She didn't participate other than that.
posted by rollick at 9:58 AM on June 17, 2022

Response by poster: I don't have the ability to like, officially play the talk through the in-house sound system. All I have access to the is the cordless mic. I presume speakers are in the room - in the ceiling I think. I will go scope those out shortly.
posted by latkes at 10:13 AM on June 17, 2022

You can try holding the mic up to a laptop, but it is likely to sound pretty bad, if not totally unintelligible. It would be much better to plug the sound system directly into the laptop. Does she also have a visual component to her presentation? How will you show the audience that?

Are you talking about a room with 10 people, 50 people, 200 people? With a small audience, you might be able to connect some kind of speakers directly to the laptop. Do you have any budget for this? Do you have any hope of accessing the existing audio system? Most conference facilities will have some way to connect an audio source to the speakers.
posted by ssg at 10:15 AM on June 17, 2022

Response by poster: Like maybe 50 people, there is no power point or visual: this was for an interview-style panel. I have the option to just read her kind of intro/opening statement out loud for her but I was wondering if there was a way I could broadcast her doing it instead. I will now go look and see if I can somehow plug audio into my computer.
posted by latkes at 10:18 AM on June 17, 2022

The first thing I would look for is if the AV system or the wireless mic has a 3.5 mm or 6.3 mm headphone jack as an input. You would connect the laptop directly to the sound system with an AUX cable. Involving the microphone is going to degrade the sound at best, horrible feedback at worst, especially if the speakers are near the front of the room, which is sadly often the case. If you have to use the mic, do it outside the room.
posted by wnissen at 10:32 AM on June 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

If this is an a professional conference center, there's very often a small black box with a 3.5mm input that's wired into the sound system someplace near the podium/stage. That's going to be the only really optimal option.

If the system is only designed to boost vocals a little bit (which is common in that size space), you might be able to get away with micing the laptop speaker but it's going to sound pretty bad.
posted by Candleman at 10:51 AM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

For 50 people, plugging directly into your computer or phone is really your only reasonable option unless you have access to a fairly powerful portable speaker systems. Built in audio systems will very often have either a 3.5mm headphone jack or a pair of RCA jacks (red and white) somewhere that you can plug into, then you just need a double ended 3.5mm cable or an RCA to 3.5mm cable, either of which is readily available for a few dollars if you can't find one at the venue.

If you do this, it's a good idea to try it out in advance because sometimes laptops (especially PCs, Macs are generally OK) have pretty bad hum on the headphone jack that can be quite noticeable over a PA system. It may turn out that your phone is a better option.
posted by ssg at 1:34 PM on June 17, 2022

Just chiming in from the audience perspective, I think having you read her statement would be highly preferable to any of the options you have given the tech available. In pre-Covid times I’ve been to panels that tried the hacks being suggested and they almost always either failed outright or sounded so terrible it was hard to follow. (That said, I would also prefer you reading her statement because that at least gestures at the idea that people should rest and not work while Covid-positive; I would feel very uncomfortable and concerned listening to someone with active Covid give a work talk.)
posted by CtrlAltDelete at 10:54 AM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all. I followed the advice and read her statement.. the room did not have equipment that would have allowed this to work. We were sad to miss her but everyone totally gets it.
posted by latkes at 8:27 PM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]