Some time ago we were contacted by the City of Falls City (a small city west of Salem, Oregon) for help with a system to record their City Council Meetings.
After assessing their needs we decided to go with 11 Shure SM58 microphones, a Rane AM1 & AM2 (gain sharing auto mixer), a DBX286s and a Tascam SS-R1 solid state recorder.
Let me break the system down for you:
The 11 Shure SM58 microphones feed in to a Hosa audio snake (we are an authorized Hosa dealer), the snake connects to the Rane AM1 & AM2 (we are also an authorized Rane dealer). The Rane AM1 provides four channels of audio input that is gain sharing. What this means is the mixer automatically turns on the microphone that is in use and turns down mic’s that aren’t. With the Rane AM1 we don’t need a technician sitting at the mixer when you have a number of people that are using many mics at the same time. It is similar to a system that Shure has been making for many years, but much less expensive and WAY more advanced.
The AM2 connects to the AM1 and gives us eight more channels of audio, this allows us to connect the other 7 mics.
The output of the AM1 is then connected to a DBX286s. This lets us compress the signal so that we can make the recordings sound better.
The system culminates with the Tascam SS-R1 solid state recorder. The recorder then captures the audio so that it can be archived as MP3’s. The great thing is that there are no CD’s to convert to MP3’s. Just pop the CF card into the computer, pull off the MP3 file and save it wherever you like.
We interfaced the system with the City’s existing speakers so that the audience could hear the Council better.
The system works well and is easy to break down and set up since the Council Chambers are also used as a Community Center.
Need a conference room system? Contact us.