Live streaming with a good microphone options? Must be portable and battery powered.

fretmeister

Normally my big band (and a load of other ensembles) would do a Christmas concert but with ongoing Covid stuff the powers that be have decided to live stream a session on Facebook instead.

This is planned to be someone roaming through various rooms where the 20 or so different ensembles are playing.

The easiest and worst sounding option is just an iPhone - but what easily portable options are there that actually sound good?

I've got an Audient ID4 which is USB C bus powered and can power a condenser mic but iPhones aren't USB C, and it's not really portable enough for 1 person to be holding it all. And a condenser might be too sensitive when walking and chatting.

Any ideas?

I've got no idea of the budget (It's a charity) but I'm sure they'll be able to throw a couple of hundred at it if they want to do this sort of thing regularly.

octatonic

Zoom H5.

They are £200.
It has two phantom powered XLR's so you can actually use any microphone you like but also has two onboard XY microphones that sound great.

The advantage is here that you can choose between using any microphone with an XLR connection in some situations or the onboard microphone in others.

Will mount to a camera or a microphone stand.
To get better you will have to get into Sound Devices field recorders which are spendy and bulky,

https://zoomcorp.com/en/gb/handheld-recorders/handheld-recorders/h5/

fretmeister

Can that be used with an iPhone as the camera?

TheBigDipper

My first thought was a Shure MV88. Might not be the best, but it's going to be convenient with an iPhone as the camera. 

goldtop

fretmeister said:

Can that be used with an iPhone as the camera?

Should do, as the IPhone will see it as a class-compliant audio interface, and the camera app should let you select it as the input. Need batteries in the Zoom, as the IPhone will complain about supplying power over USB otherwise.

goldtop

Forgot to mention: from my experience, the Zoom's mics are very sensitive to handling noise and wind noise can be an issue (if relevant). So some form of shock mounting is important (unless you are using external mics with their own shock mounts).

Jimbro66

fretmeister said:

Can that be used with an iPhone as the camera?

Yes. This You Tube vid shows how relatively easy it is to set up. The H5 is a good choice for that requirement.

Edit: BTW if you use the Apple Lightning to USB 3 adaptor, rather than the basic one shown in the video, it will provide not only the USB connection but also a Lightning input that you can optionally use to charge your iPhone while live streaming using a pocketable power bank. The H5’s batteries should last more than 10 hours if not using phantom power.

fretmeister

TheBigDipper said:

My first thought was a Shure MV88. Might not be the best, but it's going to be convenient with an iPhone as the camera. 

I think this is what is going to be bought.

Hopefully it will be an improvement to the regular internal mic.

FreddieVanHalen

fretmeister said:

TheBigDipper said:

My first thought was a Shure MV88. Might not be the best, but it's going to be convenient with an iPhone as the camera. 

I think this is what is going to be bought.

Hopefully it will be an improvement to the regular internal mic.

I think you need their MOTIV apps to get the best out of the MV88 mic. It will be worth having a look at their help pages I think there is some advice about how to get the best out of the mic with FB live.

Online reviews seem to be a bit mixed about whether the mic is better than the inbuilt or not. Perhaps that difference comes down to those who are using with MOTIV and those who are not.