My wife is part of a weekly discussion group; the group feels they need a PA system. Of course they don’t want to spent more than necessary.
—The group has about 30 members. They meet in a low ceiling, tile floor room about 30’x40’. (Think church basement.)
—The members are mostly elderly, some with poor hearing.
—They’ve had bad luck with the visiting speakers using hand held mics. My wife says they’ve had to remind presenters up to 10 times a session to speak into their mic - rather than gesturing with it and using it as a pointer. (So maybe a headset or lapel mic?)
—There’s also a problem hearing comments from the attendees during the Q&A sections. It would be good to have a pass-around mic for people posing questions.
—And if it matters, the group members are entirely female, while the presenters vary. (The only difference I can imagine gender making is that it can be harder to attach a lavalier system to female clothes, since there are often no belts or pockets)
I do audio/video for my church so I have some background here.
Forget the lapel mic. As you note, it’s difficult to attach to a woman (or man) who doesn’t actually have a lapel.
If you use a headset mic, you’ll have to have someone fit it to each speaker. Also, headset mics now go to a transmitter/battery pack normally hung on the speaker’s belt. If the speaker is wearing a dress and doesn’t have pockets, that’s a problem (that’s why our minister always wears pants under her robes.)
Since your speakers sound like they are not professional public speakers, they can’t be expected to know how to use a microphone properly. I recommend getting a floor microphone stand, adjusting it to the speaker’s height and leave it there. For that matter, instead of a mic you can pass around (it will need to be a handheld wireless mic) I’d put another mic on a floor stand in the middle of the room, and have members of the group come to it.
You don’t say what if any equipment you currently have, but if you’re starting from scratch, consider a portable PA system like the ones used for Karaoke. They’re easy to set up and surprisingly inexpensive.
Thank you, Mr. Kent. After posting the OP, I realized I’d not asked my wife what their current system was – that the hand mics were connected to. I’ll find out soon.
Today I was looking at combination mic/transmitters such as the Rode Wireless ME that are tiny and attach to garments with a magnet. But those are just mics, rather than a system.
The Rode and every other wireless mic on that page will need to be plugged into a receiver, which will need to be plugged into an open channel on the room’s existing PA system. Assuming the room has a PA system, you’ll need to find out whether the system inputs require a microphone jack, 1/4" phone jack, stripped wires or something else.
It’s not that any of this is hard, it’s just that there are a half-dozen little details that need to be tied up or you’ll be making the audio equivalent of trips to the hardware store.
I agree with Kent-Clark on the mics – headset type is best for this.
Lapel mics can be difficult to locate except on a business suit, and they often have problems when an inexperienced speaker turns their head to the side to look toward the screen – volume varies a lot.
Modern lapel mics mostly are wireless, connecting to a transmitter/battery pack. Fits nicely in a pocket or clipped to a belt, but not all speakers wear those. To solve this. obtain a small pocket/bag for the transmitter, attached to an adjustable neck lanyard speakers can wear.
In a room like that, with the presenter near the audience, it can be really hard to avoid feedback. That really annoys an audience. Try to have someone right near the amplifier volume control, so they can quickly adjust that when it happens. It may take some experimentation to find where to locate the speakers and where to place the presenter to work best.
And unless the audience is elderly or mobility limited, the floor stand mic in the middle of the room works well.