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Sending Voice Levels

In several organizations that I belong to we take "voice votes" on issues. Some of them are only a couple of dozen people, but others have thousands (think of a building roughly the size of a football field) to tens of thousands (think a small college football stadium).

The problem is that the folks up front, near the podium, are heard the loudest and the square-law effect of the folks in the back of the room barely count.

My thought is to put microphones around the periphery of the auditorium so that we can get a quasi-decent average of the whole room. The problem is how to send this mic voltage representing the volume level at that microphone up to a receiver(s) on the podium. I can do the signal processing at the microphone and don't have a problem digitizing the level. My problem is how to send these multiple signals to a receiver or receivers on the podium. I can do all the averaging at that point.

Any thoughts on what technology (in as much detail as you can muster) might do this simple data link? Cheaply (I'm working on my own money for the good of the group)?

Thanks,

Jim

Reply to
RST Engineering
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It's not going to work. Pretty soon they'll find out that those who scream loudest and towards the mikes will win. Next step would be someone bringing an air horn :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Buy some wireless mics on ebay? Use cell phones?

Or use iPads, write an app, send the sound level data over the internet.

My wife, who is a speech therapist, got a free retro-looking sound level meter app for her iPad, complete with fake discrete-LED bar graphs and 7-segment dB diaplays.

--

John Larkin, President
Highland Technology, Inc

jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

Precision electronic instrumentation
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Reply to
John Larkin

There is a good idea,

A tablet/smartphone app or web site that people can log into and vote directly.

No more guessing

Google for "Audience Response systems" to get an idea of how this works.

don

PS: Yes everyone will need a cell phone or tablet.

Reply to
hamilton

Try to explain that to Gomer Pyle in the fifteenth row over on the right. That a cell phone has nothing to do with stem cells and that it might quit working at his gas station, and oh, that it comes with a mandatory two-year contract.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Tell him every 'Shrimp Boat Captain' needs one.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Are these ad hoc groups? Or, formal "organizations"?

Yes, but folks in the back may end up screaming louder KNOWING (*assuming*) that they won't otherwise be heard!

Get wireless microphones (or cell phones) and have them positioned where you would otherwise locate your microphones. Mix the signal in the analog domain *or* analyze it locally and just REPORT IT to

If it is a fixed/chartered group, could they have something that ensures their votes are equal (even if it is a "ticket" that you physically collect). Whether it is a physical token or some "virtual" token depends on the technology you want to avail yourself of.

Reply to
Don Y

No, no, that was Forrest Gump. He won't have to worry about the $50/mo or so because, as he said, they invested him in some kind of fruit company :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

It'll also mean that Barney Fife will get about half a vote while Hulk Hogan gets ten :-)

[...] 
--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Yes -- hence the motivation for my "ad hoc" vs. "organization" question. The latter could be expected to bring to cast their vote (flashlight? -- count the "dots", etc.)

Reply to
Don Y

I would consider using applause instead of voice levels. Do some extreme high pass filtering on the audio and count the transient edges (which hopefully correspond to individual clap events). This approach might stand a ghost of a chance.

Reply to
Ralph Barone

That fruit is now over $500. My wife bought 300 shares at ~$15 and sold at $40something. Musn't get too greedy. :-(

Reply to
krw

I told a guy that I'd dump them, back when Apple was trying to gain market share in the PC market and it was rather obvious that they were doomed. And then he dumped them. That was right before Jobs took over and really cleaned up the place. Could have bitten myself, but I could never imagine Jobs to ever get back in there.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

She bought it pretty close to its bottom in ~2003 and sold a couple of years later.

Reply to
krw

On a sunny day (Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:55:56 -0800) it happened RST Engineering wrote in :

Cellphone SMS voting would do here in Europe. Every body has one.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

work the square law to your advantage a few mics on the ceiling.

--
?? 100% natural

--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to news@netfront.net
Reply to
Jasen Betts

What you actually want are audio dB meters. You could use a log detector to create a DC signal. You can use (slow) ADCs to measure all the levels and create a result.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to
Nico Coesel

Do it like most radio / TV networks do it:

Select the option that is most profitable for the investor, and claim this is the outcome of the vote. Nobody can actually check it.. This works for any kind of voting including SMS.

(In Holland we had a singing talent contest SMS voting for a program that was afterwards disclosed as being pre-recorded..)

Reply to
Blarp

At least on this side of the pond, not everyone has SMS messaging service (4G but no SMS, here).

Reply to
krw

On a sunny day (Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:47:09 -0500) it happened " snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in :

Yea, here it is very common, with millions send every year, It only takes very little bandwidth. A problem could perhaps be if 2000 people all at once were sending a SMS in the same area.... Some people here work for phone companies, maybe they know. I remember something about a TV quiz overloading the mobile phone net here... I have implemented SMS for my alarm system, it tells me when somebody entered illegally. It is possible to send email via SMS here too, making it easy to parse the results on a PC and test for double votes. In case of SMS I would contact the carrier, ask for a provision :-)

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

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