One of the more challenging facilitation
challenges with Elluminate is to facilitate an event where one
group of attendees is collocated in a conference room, and the
rest of the group is located "on-line." While the video
elements of such a meeting can be managed relatively easily
using an LCD projector, the audio logistics can be difficult.
At LINGOs we have facilitated this configuration of meeting with
success, but needed to ensure that we had three pieces of
equipment to make the system work.
1. A multi-microphone sound mixer
 We
ran the meeting with three microphones - all of them
wireless (either handheld or lavalier.) The
facilitator held one microphone, while co-facilitators
walked the other two microphones around the room.
The "roaming" microphones allowed all conference room
participants to contribute audio to the session without
having to leave their seats.
Most computer systems
do not have the capacity to run multiple microphones
into their input jacks, so we purchased a 4-channel
sound mixer (there are also 8-channel mixers). With the
mixer, you plug the cables supplied with each
Microphone system into the inputs jacks - you then
connect the cable from the microphone mixer to the
one microphone input you have on your computer and
you're all set. Y
We bought the Nady 4-channel mixer from
www.dak.com.
($29.90 ($4 P&H) Order No. 3033)
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2. Handheld and Lavalier Microphones
(and receivers)
 LINGOs
also invested in Handheld and Lavalier Microphones -
using the hand-held microphone when we needed to pass
the Microphone around, or when we preferred to hold a
Microphone in your hand. . The lavalier lapel
microphone for one-person speaking is great for
meetings, seminars or anywhere you want to be totally
hand's free.
The Microphones,
made by Nady Systems and purchased at
www.dak.com, use
a 9-volt battery to power the Microphones and AC power
(adapter included) to power the receiver.
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Depending on the size of the room, the
facilitator can choose to use the computers' built in
speakers, or can use any number of commonly available plug
in speakers. The important point to remember, is to
facilitate participation in the conference room so as to
ensure that the various microphones being used to not pickup
the audio coming over the speakers. This will result
in an echo feedback loop. When facilitating meetings
of this type, it is best to use a radio protocol OR be very
diligent of turning off all microphones in the room whenever
someone else is speaking on Elluminate.
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