Wow, hadn't considered M/S... no idea why. Could be a nice solution. Would still have the audience issues on the center mic, but M/S could work nicely. To the other post from Dave-- the reflection guards behind a figure-8 is actually something I had considered, but would also agree that audience would still be too much a part of those mic's to use as any meaningful part of the mix. Not ruling it out, though.
As far as hypercard's-- that is also a good option-- just would lose some low end at those distances-- could be a little thin-- just not sure. But would cut down on the audience.
Thanks for the ideas, all-- dress rehearsal is Tuesday, when I will hopefully have enough time to try all of these ideas. Though I fully expect to have more restrictions communicated at the rehearsal... just got word from they guy who evaluates physical setup and licensing for the group-- he wants to put our heads together to get the ideal physical setup at the event. That is code for "more restrictions coming"... heh heh.
Jean-Pierre-- hadn't heard your thoughts yet-- would welcome them.
Sorry man had a killer week myself, 9 Piece string with 60 person choir with a full band and 9 Vocals on stage for a Christmas Concert. Was a fun experience but taxing as you can imagine.
Would likely have went with some directional mics quite high up in the end, I mean the inverse square law applies in both the horizontal and vertical planes.
I have always been wanting a reason to try an M/S pair live but never actually bothered since the biggest benefit is the ability to widen the stereo field later if need be and have never really felt that I need that, having a setup like that that is co-incident could be fun though. Ran XY on drums this weekend to see how things go and was relatively impressed, that's to say until I brought up the choir mics and the kit was just as loud in them. so ended up trying to fight phase issues anyway.