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[Chony Milecki]

I'm curious about the two mics they put whenever the president speaks.

Firstly, why two?

Secondly, how do they manage to put the mics so far from the President's mouth and not get feedback. Does the president not use monitors? Maybe I don't know what I'm doing, but I always struggle with feedback when the mics are more than a foot from a speaker's mouth...

[Dan Brown]

Chony Milecki wrote on Mon, 22 February 2010 18:01

I'm curious about the two mics they put whenever the president speaks. Firstly, why two? Secondly, how do they manage to put the mics so far from the President's mouth and not get feedback. Does the president not use monitors? Maybe I don't know what I'm doing, but I always struggle with feedback when the mics are more than a foot from a speaker's mouth...

Chony,

2 mics because one is the main and the other is a backup

Distance, well the current President Obama speakers fairly loudly and it works ok.  As far as I have seen wedges are normally used.  Somehow it works but you do need to EQ

They provide the mics so it is what you use

db

[Tim A Perry]

Lets say that you had a choice instead of following the orders of the Whitehouse communication department.

What would you do?

The pressure to perform is high. The secrete service is literally standing by your shoulder. 10 or more TV crews plus press and radio are taking feeds. If its local, every local politician and bigwig for miles is there. It is probably the biggest opportunity to publicly screw up you will ever have.

Among other things, you can EQ one mic for the preceding speakers and have one preset for the main event.  

[Andy Peters]

Tim A Perry wrote on Mon, 22 February 2010 17:24

Lets say that you had a choice instead of following the orders of the Whitehouse communication department.

You don't have a choice.

-a

[Derek Shawver]

If I'm not mistaken, he uses two SM57's.

[Mark Strong]

i wonder, does he have his own sound guy?

[michael robertson]

As far as I know he does not have a FOH man. I know the guys that provided reinforcement when the former pres. came to Cat for a visit and they provided everything except for the mic.

[Charlie Zureki]

  Hello,

 These same questions get asked at least once per year.... forum search?....

 And...

You have NO choice in the Lecturn Mics, and if you offered an "opinion", you'd likely be escorted out...the hard way.

You do not touch the Lecturn. It belongs to the White House

The Press Briefing room has an in-house Audio guy

There is some US Navy sound Guys at all gigs to provide "support"

For large outdoor Gigs, many Companies have provided the Sound System over the years/per Event

The Lecturn Mics are semi-custom, and belong the White House.

 Hammer

[Bob Burke]

Monitors - sometimes three.





Mics - not always a 57.

[Randy Pence]

How about international speaking engagements or when not at the official podium?  I handled a head of state last year (G20 nation) and while the expected security presence was there,  he used our wireless handheld, as he was in a seated interview.  He did not have his own audio personnel, but a member of the embassy present to assist me did have a background in audio and we got to talk a lil shop about the 01v I was using.

As far as feedback goes, there was plllllenty of time to ring thigns out, as the security spent multiple amounts of time making sure nothing else could occur.  This was in a ballroom using an overhead system.  Priority was simply making sure nothing could feedback, but the bigger issue was with q&a mics for the audience.  I did some generous compressing of the main guest's mic to smooth out anything out.  If necessary, we could have split the input for pa and press, but it wasn't.  If I needed anything, the embassy guy was there for any communication.

Not quite like handling the U.S. president, I am sure, but probably  just a matter of scale.  However, the U.S president does speak without the presidential podium, so what then?  What would happen if he came through "my" ballroom (given that it is literally next door to the US embassy here, not the most remote possibility)?