Hi Greg and the others who chimed in on this thread,
and thanks for your input. I imagine that some sort of heating system
will need to be used no matter what, as plastic has a tendency to
shatter at sub zero temperatures and I have yet hear of an all-metal mic!
To answer some general questions:
The idea as it has been given to me is to simply reproduce the
experience of standing in the polar region, whether that be wind, snow,
birds, marauding polar bears ransacking our station or pristine polar
silence. The microphones will complement 5 HD cameras which will give a
panoramic projection for an installation of the project. The station
will be manned, for maintenance of the gear as well as changing the
recording media. I'm currently considering the SD 744 as the recorder,
with a (hot swappable?) external FW drive. There is still a lot of
research to do technically, of course.
For those interested, here's the link:
https://www.thepolarproject.com/
And you can get an idea of Svalbard's climate (where first testing run
will take place in Sept/Oct) here:
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~timm/cty/obs/data/obs.Svalbard.htm
Although one of the locations will also be in Antarctica.
Reviewing some previous year's weather data, I found wind speeds up to
18 meters per second, but that was an informal scan and certainly not a
systematic survey... I also have to look and see if "precipitation" in
the above weather reports means snow, rain or both. I can imagine fur
windscreens breaking down in these conditions quickly if they get
ice-clogged.
Thanks much, Greg, for the DPA tip. That's the kind of info I'm looking
for. And I'll certainly be in touch with Bernie Krause about this as
well. Until then, I'm open to more suggestions and out-loud thinking on
this.
best!
Derek
Greg Simmons wrote:
> --- In Derek Holzer <>
> wrote:
>> I've recently been asked to help with a project where 4 channels of
>> microphones will be capturing polar ambiance for 30 straight days.
>
> DPA have some interesting information about using microphones at low
> temperatures. Their 4006 omnis have been used to record Arctic sounds
> at -45 degrees C. You can read about it here:
>
> http://www.dpamicrophones.com/page.php?PID=3D30
>
> Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link
> titled "Glacionauts".
>
> My first thoughts on this align with Micheal Oates' - will any form
> of heating be required? I immediately pictured a recording 'station',
> rather like a weather station or similar, with a bank of appropriate
> low temperature batteries and some Peltier devices or similar to keep
> things warm enough over 30 days to prevent ice forming, and perhaps a
> solar power or wind turbine to prolong the battery life. (The turbine
> might be more effective at generating electricity, but would probably
> be noisy.)
>
> It sounds like an amazing project. Will it be manned or unmanned?
>
> - Greg Simmons
--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbist=
a
---Oblique Strategy # 184:
"Where is the edge?"
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