With the changes to normal life that 2020 has thrown us, we’ve all had to adapt in different ways which can throw up a few surprising challenges which need to be overcome. For Laois County Council, in the Republic of Ireland, overnight they were thrown out of their council chambers due to restrictions around social distancing. Their solution was to turn to the local Dunamaise Arts Centre whose auditorium could easily hold their 20 council members at the appropriate distance from each other.
As great as this solution sounded, issues surrounding amplifying each council member whilst being on the wrong side of the PA became apparent. Nick Anton, Technical Manager for the Arts Centre, in conjunction with Jason Fallon, Director of One Louder Sound, turned to an unlikely candidate to solve the issue, the DPA 4099 CORE Instrument Microphone.
Whilst usually at home clipped to a Violin or Piano, this small, directional microphone, clipped on the back of the chair in front, provided the perfect balance of speech intelligibility and gain before feedback in the most compact and discreet solution possible.
Once patched through to Front of House, the system is automatically controlled using Automix on the in-house Yamaha QL5 making the system incredibly easy to run throughout each day.
Laois County Council were delighted to assist the Dunamaise Arts Centre with their investment in this infrastructure which will benefit the Arts Centre once normality resumed, with a full complement of instrument mics available in house. In the meantime it’s a little island of ingenuity in a sea of COVID-19 problems.