Mic recommendation needed for audience participation

camman595

New member
TLDR; The last paragraph asks my true question.

We are holding in-person meetings and we have some people that "Zoom" into the meeting. I operate the Zoom meeting and the soundboard(s). I need a way to get 2-way communication between local and Zoom participants.

We currently have a podium mic (SM-57) and a Peavey USB PLAYBACK INTERFACE (to capture computer sound from videos), plugged into a Behringer Xenyx Q802USB Mixer. The mixer feeds into a PA system. The USB connection from the mixer plugs into my computer (not the same one playing the videos locally).

Normally, the "microphone" for the Zoom meeting is the USB feed that is coming from the mixer. This lets the Zoom participants hear what is coming through the PA system. This has 2 downsides. 1) The sound is 1-way only, so I have to flip a switch on the mixer each time we want to hear one of the Zoom people over the PA. 2) If anyone in the local group askes a question the person at the microphone has to repeat the question into the microphone so the Zoom people can hear it.

By accident at the last meeting, the microphone being used for the Zoom meeting was my computer's built-in microphone rather than the USB feed from the mixer. This inadvertently allowed 2-way communication between the groups. But for an audience member to be heard, they would have to be close to the microphone at the podium or close to my computer. But this got me thinking about adding a mic for the audience. I would need a 2nd mixer so that my computer could separate the microphone USB from the output USB. No problem, I am planning on getting the Berringer UM2 for that. And I would need an omnidirectional microphone so the audience members would not have to come to the microphone to ask their questions.

So I need a recommendation for an omnidirectional mic to be placed in the audience to pick up questions and comments made by the local audience members that would be fed to the Zoom participants. Cost is an issue so I would like to keep this in the $75-$100 range. I was considering the Behringer C-3, but it appears to be sold out everywhere at the moment and I need this setup in about 10 days.
Thanks for your help.
 
I forgot to mention that I have a Behringer ECM8000 mic that I could use? Would that have enough gain? Would it be too harsh?
 
First, I don't know how big the room is, but thinking an omni will mean you don't have to get the mic close(r) to the audience member is not understanding how the mic is going to work. The omni will pick up *everything* and everything closer to it will be louder than things farther away. People coughing next to the mic will be really loud if the one asking the question is 20 feet away.

I would not get another USB device (UM2) - how is that going to work? Get a USB mixer with more inputs and a wireless mic that can be passed around and switched on/off. That's what has always been done in large group meetings (conferences) I've been to, or you have a mic on a stand (if it's not wireless) and people get up and walk over to it.

You can configured Zoom to have separate inputs/outputs, so you might just have it set to use the computer's built-in speakers, and take a short 1/8"-1/4" cable from the computer headphone output to a spare input on the larger USB mixer, too, so the remote attendees input gets fed to the PA. You'd set Zoom to only get its input from the USB device. (Some risk of feedback at the remote end if they're not using a headset, maybe.)
 
The omni will pick up *everything* and everything closer to it will be louder than things farther away. People coughing next to the mic will be really loud if the one asking the question is 20 feet away.

Thanks for the explanation. I will put a mic on a stand in the audience for the guys to use.
 
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