Simple equipment for speaking at meetings with roving mic

[Gone To Lunch]

I am seeking recommendations for a very basic set up to provide a couple of roving mics for use by speakers from the floor in a meeting with enough amplification so that all the room can hear the speaker.

[Drew Stephenson]

How big a room? How many people? A self-contained system or something to plug into an existing PA?

[Gone To Lunch]

Self-contained, portable, small meeting rooms, 50 persons max

[MarkOne]

Does the meeting chairperson need amplification too?

I’d suggest something along the lines of a Yamaha stagepass (or something of that ilk) and a couple of wired 58s (one for chairperson and one on a stand to the side and get people to come up to speak. Yes, it might be easier to have a runner taking a wireless mic to folk, but that starts to add complexity and cost.

Or if it’s a one off event, rent something in.

I used to be part of an organisation that had quarterly steering group meetings hosted by various member companies all over the world, and the meetings were around that size and the PA systems were always rented, usually with an operator.

Even then, you’ll struggle for intelligibility and consistency, because most people can’t use a mic for toffee, and you’ll be contending with people holding the mic down at their waist and others booming into it while holding it like a rapper.

[Brian M Rose]

I use exactly that, Yamaha Stagplus, wired mic and a radio mic for the vox pops. 50 people is on the edge of needing a PA system, I seem to remember at school we has classes of 45. And scool assemblies of several hundreds, with no sound reinforecement.

[Wonks]

What's the format? Speaker at the front, with rows of chairs for the audience, or sat at a number of tables, maybe a U-shaped arrangement? Or square with the speaker in the middle? I've seen some weird arrangements in my time.

[MarkOne]

What's the format? Speaker at the front, with rows of chairs for the audience, or sat at a number of tables, maybe a U-shaped arrangement? Or square with the speaker in the middle? I've seen some weird arrangements in my time.

Yes, I’ve experienced all of the above. The meetings I spoke about earlier had to produce hosting guidelines which included layout (classroom) and AV requirements, video projector lumens, no of wireless mics and a sound tech on hand.

The best meeting audio I ever experienced was in the main council chamber of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (or European Travel and Sightseeing Institute as some of us used to call it!) Horseshoe tiered desks, each one with a Sennheiser gooseneck mic with a button to request audio, and headphone jack connected to the simultaneous translation booths at the very back (which we fortunately never had to use as our meetings were all in English) Crystal clear sound, not a hint of ringing. Top stuff.

[Drew Stephenson]

At the budget end, I've used one of these for sessions of that size and it's worked fine: https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Li ... hones/23I4

[tacitus]

You can do a large school assembly with no PA (or could, when I was that age) simply because you can make the little blighters/darlings shut up. As in the old days (i.e. well before my time) hundreds of people could listen to an unamplified concert on a bandstand, simply because they all sat there, totally quiet.

I agree on the mike on a stand at the front. It automatically increases the chance of getting the speaker audible and saves an awful lot of palaver. Tough on giants and midgets, though.

[Urthlupe]

At the budget end, I've used one of these for sessions of that size and it's worked fine: https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Li ... hones/23I4

Yup…… I’ve come across these lately in folk music pub sessions, there are also models with two radio mics and which run on battery modules. Cheap as chips and definitely at the errrrr, budget end! But loadsa features and work fine. The included mic stands however seem to be made from baked bean cans

Loopy

[Drew Stephenson]

Yep, this came with two radio mics (9v batteries needed) but mine didn't have much stands as I recall. Or there were so pointless I binned them.

[adrian_k]

Yup…… I’ve come across these lately in folk music pub sessions….

Sacrilege! They’d be chucked out of sessions round here

[Wonks]

At the budget end, I've used one of these for sessions of that size and it's worked fine: https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Li ... hones/23I4

Just note that a lot of radio mics have quite a limited operating time. That QTX system has mics that work ‘up to 8 hours’, but probably safest to assume it will be a bit less. Others rechargeable mics I’ve seen are often in the 4-5 hour region. If you’ve just got a morning or afternoon conference, that’s not too bad, but all day one, say from 8.30am to 5.30pm, could well be pushing things. So you need to remember to turn the mics off when not in use and hopefully recharge them as much as possible over lunch. I’d certainly have some wired mics with long leads standing by, just in case.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Daniel, Welcome to the forums, but several people have flagged your post as sounding like it's AI generated. Please prove your humanity to us! Let's run the Turing Test...

[Wonks]

Some of the best wireless mics available in the market are the Shure BLX288/PG58 and the Audio-Technica System 10 ATW-1102.

If you knew anything about wireless systems, they you'd know these are far from the best systems available from both manufacturers (basically these are their entry level offerings), let alone systems from other manufacturers like Sennheiser.

Not that the OP is looking for top-level systems.

[Gone To Lunch]

Thanks one and all for your replies thus far.

What about this one?

https://cpc.farnell.com/pulse/pls-12pa/ ... 20mic%20pa

Or how about some of those studiospares boundary mics put on tables, which would need also need powered mixer and speakers?

https://www.studiospares.com/boundary-m ... 449520.htm

And what about feedback if the mics are always going to be in front of the speakers?

[Drew Stephenson]

Both of those options would work, with different costs and quality to consider.
Is this a one-off or likely to be a regular thing?