Sound for Live Performance / Stream

[Danp]

I've live streamed a couple of group events over the past couple of weeks and the visual has been fine, but the sound has been the weak point. I have a £30 external mic mounted on the top of the camera, but that was not quite good enough.

 

My current set up is a Canon EOS RP connected to my laptop via USB C which run OBS to stream to YouTube.

 

What's the next stage? This is slightly out of my comfort range, but I'm always willing to try and learn new stuff. In the past I've had a photographer to who has the kit and I just worry about the streaming side.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

How big are the events you're recording? How many people and what size room?

[Danp]

The last one was in our main hall, but that's not that large, bit bigger than a tennis court. We had a few pupils speaking at the front with a wireless mic, a choir of around 20 at the side and a piano. I was in the middle of the room with the camera and the speaker from the mic under the camera. It's hard to explain really!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I wonder if it's because the mic on your camera is unidirectional. It'll pick up well from the front in a limited arc.

 

You might want a usb mic with a better spread that you can put on a stand behind the camera. Then just set your audio input to the mic.

Should work well.

[Andrew_C]

Don't expect TOO much; without a lot of extra work/kit. What you have described really needs several mics, and a mixer.

[Danp]

I wonder if it's because the mic on your camera is unidirectional. It'll pick up well from the front in a limited arc.

 

You might want a usb mic with a better spread that you can put on a stand behind the camera. Then just set your audio input to the mic.

Should work well.

 

Ok, thanks, gives me something else to look at

 

Don't expect TOO much; without a lot of extra work/kit. What you have described really needs several mics, and a mixer.

 

I know I'm at the limit of what my current kit can do, hence looking at other options. If that means more mics and a mixer then so be it. As it stands we are not running a couple of classes by coach to the local church for their Christmas events and plan to live stream them from school. Because of this cost saving, I'm going to spend the money on kit!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

For a professional job, yes. But, it should be possible to get a decent sound with room Mics only.

 

I used to record a busy open mic night (sizable pub, 150 punters, one vocal and a guitar, both through a PA) with a pair of these (https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Behringer-C-2-Condenser-Microphone-Matched-Pair/K3) at the back of the room.

 

All you'd need is a usb equivalent and a free program like voicemeeter banana running on your laptop to route a pair of usb mics to the main output.

[Andrew_C]

But you are talking of "everything through a PA", not little Johnny mumbling his words, into a shared radio mic they won't hold as you tell them, on the other side of a tennis court sized room.

[SamanthaD]

In larger rooms you'd be better taking a feed straight off the mixing desk, if it allows. A post fader aux send works nicely (or FX send if you have one). Using ambient mics, even in smaller rooms, will have a degree of reverb which will do no favours for your stream audio.

 

I'd also feed the audio into your camera if possible rather than straight into the PC - helps with synchronisation.

[Bompalompalomp]

We've swapped to doing all of our events and daily assemblies via livestream, and invested £2-3k in equipment combined with what we already had for live events. I can send you our equipment list/specs if that would help?

 

In short it's a combination of smaller wireless mics going via cameras on an HDMI switcher for assemblies, which can then be upgraded to using an existing mixer and software through OBS if higher quality audio or more than 2 mics are needed.

[Danp]

We've swapped to doing all of our events and daily assemblies via livestream, and invested £2-3k in equipment combined with what we already had for live events. I can send you our equipment list/specs if that would help?

 

That would be great, thank you.

[Bompalompalomp]

Mapped this out for you. Left side of the map is the standard assembly setup:

Rode Wireless Go 2 with audio through the Canon Legria HF G50 camera, to HDMI out to the ATEM Mini which is connected to a dedicated PC for streaming via OBS. (No delay on audio as through the camera)

 

For larger events with more microphones needed we can either connect handheld/lapel radio mics (or our XLR lectern microphone) to our larger 32 channel mixer that we used for live events, or the 16R rackmount mixer that's controlled via the presonus software, audio delay configured in OBS.

 

MistServer Free version used for our internal livestream server.

 

Cameras are around £800 ea.

Rode mics around £250 for the two + accessories.

ATEM Mini was around £250, but stock can wildly vary at the moment.

 

Everything else major was existing owned from when we did live events/assemblies or repurposed.

[slugshead]

Mapped this out for you. Left side of the map is the standard assembly setup:

Cameras are around £800 ea.

Rode mics around £250 for the two + accessories.

ATEM Mini was around £250, but stock can wildly vary at the moment.

 

We've actually rolled out ATEM minis, Rode mics and AIDA cameras in a bunch of our classrooms, simple once setup and the teacher just has to press one of 4 big buttons to switch the angles for students who are learning online

[Andrew_C]

Yeah, an improvement in a classroom, but will still struggle in a big room. You REALLY need mics close to the performers.