Stephen — glad to see you had to McGyver your way around this too.
and Tim, thank you for the hanging mic idea.
With the hanging mics- those who have used..
How high above the congregants heads can the mics be hung and still be effective?
Of course I can experiment with different heights but with logistics in the space moving ladder around etc etc is not as simple as I wish.. So having an idea of how far “up” is too far can give me starting place.
We’re looking to “hear” the congregation reciting prayers and singing along with the choir (a “group feel”) and to provide that ambience feel for the live stream audio.
This needn’t be as dialed in as the choir mics for example…
Appreciate the help… and real world experiences.
My “mic a room”experience is all old school analog recording studios..
I'd think they can go pretty high. Mine are 10 or 12 feet up. THey are cardiod pattern so they higher they are, the more people are "in the pattern".
Remember since you aren't putting these in a PA you can run the gain pretty high to make it nice and audible in the stream mix.
I really think you are over thinking it. Go stick an SM81 on a tall stand somewhere in the room and listen to it on headphones. You'll get an idea of how it picks up literally everything. Now take that mind's eye picture and relate it to mics hanging from the chandeliers and realize, you're gonna be fine.......