[Lnc-business] record & stream next LNC meeting

[Scott L.]

If we had wireless mikes on all 4 sides of the square, and everyone kept the
mike directly in front of their mouth when they spoke, the sound quality of
the internet feed would be markedly improved  :-)

 

People who keep the mike 4 or 6 inches below their mouths don't sound nearly
as good on the PA speaker or the audio feed as people who follow my
suggestion above.

 

 

The person who usually does the audio for our ham radio club meetings is a
retired audio engineer.  Even he sometimes has trouble getting a good audio
feed to the Internet.

 

   Scott Lieberman

 

  _____  

From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of Norm
Olsen
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 8:16 PM
To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] record & stream next LNC meeting

 

Hello Wes . . .

 

I cannot accept responsibility for any of these functions.  I have some
experience and know all too well that one cannot be actively engaged in a
meeting and manage the recording/streaming of either video and/or audio at
the same time.  However, as you and some of the other old timers on this
committee are aware, I do possess proper equipment for the audio portion of
this endeavor and will be happy to assist in that regard.  If not requested
otherwise, I will bring only the equipment I need to overcome my hearing
disability.  Should someone else volunteer to take on this responsibility, I
will be glad to bring along additional equipment to assist as requested.

 

I would like to make some points about this effort.  Please excuse me if the
information provided below is already known to the reader:

 

1>     Video quality is of a stream is not that critical, however high
quality audio is a must if your audience is to remain connected.  Folks
don't need to watch to know what's going on.   They do need to listen.  If
listening is painful, only the truly dedicated will continue listening past
a certain point.

2>     Typical Internet connections concentrate available bandwidth to the
download function; only a small portion (~10%) of the bandwidth is available
for uploading.  Unless a special internet connection is made available, it
is unlikely that the desired level of quality will be achievable in
streaming mode.

3>     The primary detriment to the audio quality will be the background
noise level in the room.  Typically this is air conditioning noise.  Allow
me to quote from a recognized governmental agency report.  (Surprise!!! One
of the few government reports I agree with.)  "For full sentence
intelligibility in listeners with normal hearing, the signal-to-noise ratio
(i.e. the difference between the speech level and the sound level of the
interfering noise) should be at least 15 dB(A). Since the sound pressure
level of normal speech is about 50 dB(A), noise with sound levels of 35
dB(A) or more interferes with the intelligibility of speech in smaller
rooms. For vulnerable groups even lower background levels are needed, and a
reverberation time below 0.6 s is desirable for adequate speech
intelligibility, even in a quiet environment."

4>     Recording quality audio for a meeting with 18 participants, plus some
gallery interaction, requires a minimum of three microphones of the
"Boundary Microphone"  variety.  Having an individual whose primary purpose
is to monitor/adjust levels is important to create quality audio.  Thus I
cannot commit to performing this function as my primary function at the
meeting will be to represent my region.

5>     Please note that the above consideration is why everyone had trouble
hearing during the last meeting in Alexandria at the Westin.  My
measurements indicated that the ambient noise level was about 40+ dB(A).  If
you have three or four microphones picking up and feeding the background
noise to the to the streaming/recording device, and a single microphone
picking up a speaker who may be 8 feet away, the speaker is essentially
drowned out by the noise.  All the electronics in the world will not solve
this problem.

6>     I have experience in this area as I am one of the few deaf sound men
in the world :>)

 

Regardless of the recording/streaming effort, please advise the hotel of my
traditional request of having two tables in the center of the rectangular
meeting table upon which I may place the boundary microphones which I rely
on.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

   Norm 

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