From Tom Gillespie, October 2011:

Hi Program Committee, Celebrants, and interested parties,

Our sound system is not the best in the world but it came to us at no charge and does the job.  It just has to be finessed a bit from time to time.  This Sunday was one of those times.  So I thought I would give the people who use it a little better idea of what goes on with it so you could get the best results when you are up in front with everyone looking at you.

We have two mics, labeled A and B.  B is the best one to use because it is more sensitive to your voice than A is.  That said, it is still not VERY sensitive.  The mic picks up sound from the flatened end of the grill covered head.  It won't get sound from the side of the head.  So it is important to speak so that your voice is aimed at that point and your mouth should be 3-6 inches away from the head.  If you get too close and speak loudly we will hear a raspy voice and your p's will pop and your s's will hiss.  If you speak to softly or to far away from the mic, we won't hear you.

This weekend we had a combination of Doreen with a sweet little voice who couldn't be heard and then Amanda with a big voice speaking too close.  I turned the volume up for Doreen and then it was too loud for Amanda, who was then raspy, hissy and poppy.  Another important thing to remember when you are up there is that you will probably not hear yourself from the house speakers.  It is my experience that the first 3-4 rows of the congregation hear the persons voice unamplified directly from from your mouth.  Behind that everyone relies on the speakers in the ceiling for their sound.  So you at the podium, will think that the mic is not working, but it is.

Another thing you can do is speak across the end of the mic.  This would put your voice at the right place but the force of your voice will not hit the end and cause distortion.  It also gets the mic away from your face so that we can see you without that big knob in front of it.

I hope this helps.

Tom