A book group I’m in has started meeting in person again with a few people connecting remotely via Zoom. It was hard for the zoomers to hear everybody, especially those sitting farther from my laptop, so I’d like to get a mic. I’m open to almost any suggestion but here are some thoughts:
I was thinking of getting a bluetooth mic that we could pass around. That would have the clearest sound and hopefully help prevent people from talking over each other. On the other hand it would be awkward to pass it around. How well would it pick up some back-and-forth between two people?
Maybe a directional mic would be better? Something that I can hold and just point at the speaker(s). Does anybody have any experience in this kind of setting?
We’ve been handing out wired Jabra speakerphones to people. Depending on the size of your group, the fixed location wired ones might work but they also have Bluetooth ones that you might be able to push around the table.
I’ve had great success with microphones from Blue. Specifically, their entry-level Blue “Snowball” microphone has two different modules inside, one well-suited for when you’re close to the mic, and another well-suited for a group of people who are farther back.
It’s very good as a conference microphone and I have literally used one for that purpose.
The only drawback from your requirements is that it uses a wired USB connection, but then you won’t have to move it around once you set it up, so hopefully that will be fine.
Unless you’re talking about a really enormous room, it might be best to just get a cardioid mic with a really long USB lead. Probably the same sort of thing Acierocolotl is talking about.