Ok this is kind of a complicated setup to explain so ask questions if I'm not clearly stating it....


I'm hosting a workshop in a computer lab setting....a room about 25x15. Probably 20 computers in the place, all with internet access. This room is on the 3rd floor of an office building.

The people in the workshop will not be using the computers, just sitting at the desks.

Given the nature of this workshop, I need to have a live audio feed that relays everything being said in that room to a separate room that is 1 floor above, so that observers can hear what is going on, but aren't actually present.

We've tried using a setup where we use 5 polycom voice conferencing phones all working together on a conference call, and the people in the separate room upstairs listen in. This works average at best, as we get a huge echo effect in the computer lab room where the 5 polycoms are.

So I'm looking for a solution to my problem. Budget is a constraint.

I just need some way to record or transmit everything being said in the workshop in the computer lab, to the room 1 floor above.

Any ideas....I was thinking maybe some internet based solution, like skype voice conferencing using MICs hooked in to the computers. But I think skype only supports 1-on-1.

Anyways, I know it's kind of off the wall but I thought I'd check and see if anyone had any brilliant solutions.

Thanks in advance,

-J

This is a recipe for disaster. You don't need to make a computer based etc conglomeration to achieve excellent results.

The send/receive/mix/minus operation of each unit combined with differential acoustic response time imposed by the room acoustics (different for each unit) plus the delays imposed by the conference call setup would deliver a mish mash of sound.

The easiest way is to use a gated mixer unit with external dynamic or PZM mics. The output can be sent via UTP using a balun through the existing phone lines in the building (patched floor to floor in the phone equip. room). Take the UTP signal back through a balun and into the sound system in the upstairs room.. No delay, multiple switching points, differential acoustics from each unit, echos and great intelligibilty. BTW I have done this a few thousand times over the years all over the country. Never had a major issue.

How much for a setup like that?

We're running on a budget like I said, and this is a one time thing....what's the cheapest route?

Thanks,

-J

Cant give you accurate current pricing but you can rent these systems from many pro AV companies. Since this is a one time deal that is your best option.

We started doing this probably 30 +years ago for corporate meetings at IBM in Bethesda Md. They had multiple buildings and drops so we used 600 ohm to 10 k unbalanced line transformers and used their on-premises wiring.

Just check you local pro AV rental houses for automatic mic mixers.

I don't know what your budget is, but B+H AV sells 8 channel 1RU auto-mixers for about 1,100.00. Then you just use regular dynamic mics. These are adjustable in attack and delay so you wont lose the first syllable of each word.
The outputs can be ganged and then tied to the baluns. We also use a couple self powered speakers locally for room fill and monitoring.

Yah not looking to spend that much.

Can we do something lower-tech lower-cost?

-J

Is this a one day session? How many people in the room with the mics. Open mic discussion or one individual speaker at a time?

We have easily done this with regular dynamic mics and a mixer (non automatic) and an operator. Is there a sound system in the remote room? If so what inputs are available?

When does this need to happen? The room to room feed is the easiest part.

I may be able to help you with the balun xformers. Can you get the IT guys or whoever to give you a dry pair between rooms?

Here is a cheap (free) solution do distribute the sound from one room to the other...

Use Shoutcast (http://www.shoutcast.com/download) audio streamer in the first room and connect it to the LAN.

Then any PC (or number of PC's) connected to the same LAN can playback the live audio using Winamp or just about any other media player (except for Windows Media Player)

You missed the point of the requested system. This is to pick up discussion from a group of people mix the mic signals and send it to a room 2 floors up. The ONLY slightly tricky part is the mixer /mic setup. The room feed does not require any software LAN connections or any other computer based hardware. This is a VERY simple setup.