Dear Steve: In answer to your amplification question, here is what I use. A=
little set of speakers with their own amp, that plugs into the earphone ja=
ck. I got them from Radio Shack for about $20. You can get a mic and camer=
a combination at Raio Shack made by Logitech that connects to your USB port=
. The setup I use can handle an audience of about 50. If you want more pow=
er the price goes up suddenly and irrationally. The weight of an amplifier =
is an irritation. I have not found a light weight one. If you have access t=
o a mic and a house amp and speakers you can just position the mic to pick =
up on the speakers of the laptop. And then talk into it for your lecture pr=
esentation. Another way is to put your lecture portion into sound clips and=
embed them into your Power Point slides. With Open Source, the procedures =
are a little more complicated.
Steve, I would like the latest version of your bird game.
Also have you looked at the Nat Geographic program Whatbird.com? It allows =
you to use a bird pic and sound database on your latop and also your PDA. T=
hey will handle the Palm Operating system, and I just bought the Treo 755 v=
ersion which has a mini SD card. Check it out.
Robin Aurelius
Ed Harper of Montana uses this in his fieldtrips.
Steve Pelikan <> wrote: Frie=
nds:
Not recording, but presentingplayback:
I'd really value your suggestions on giving a talk about bird songs
and recording of birds to a medium sized audience.
I frequently give talks (used to be slides but now "powerpoint") on
nature/conservation topics --- flowers, insects, birds, threatened
habitats etc. These have gone pretty well connecting my laptop to an
LCD projector.
This spring my topic seems to be natural sounds, recording, and some
details about the biology of song birds and singing behaviour.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Do you have any suggestions about how to play back sounds to the audience?
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
My current thought is to run the output from the laptop's audio card
into an amplifier and hook up two speakers (what I have are smallish,
cheap roughly 8x10" speakers about $100/pair) at the front of the room
and pointing to the back wall of the room at 45 degrees or so.
I can use power point (actually the free OpenOffice version of the
program) to show pictures, text, sonograms and play back sounds as needed.
The whole thing has to be very portable (I carry it, set it up in 10
minutes).
My question is how to get the best quality sound for the audience
given the equipment available or with small additional expense.
Thanks for any and all suggestions!
Steve P.
P.S. One of my target audience is the members and supporters of a
wetlands land trust, "Oxbow" ( see http://www.oxbowinc.org/) that is
very high on my all-time admiration list --- an all volunteer
organization that has protected about 2000 of acres of wetlands in the
last 20 years). So I'd like to give them as good a show as possible!
=
|