naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Audience playback

Subject: Re: Audience playback
From: "Robin Aurelius" raureli
Date: Wed Apr 2, 2008 6:14 pm ((PDT))
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!



                                      =







<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU