Cheap wireless mic for a church?

[chmcke01]

A small country church wants to record the audio of the sermons each week so that people who miss the service. We would just want to record the service as an MP3 on a PC in an office 15 ft away (with one wall separating) from where the pastor stands as he delivers the service. We don't want to have to run a cable that far (and in the way and visible) though so we are looking for a wireless mic. They literally do not have anything in the budget for stuff like this so as cheap as possible that works for what we are wanting to do is what is really important.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[jpleong]

A small country church wants to record the audio of the sermons each week so that people who miss the service. We would just want to record the service as an MP3 on a PC in an office 15 ft away (with one wall separating) from where the pastor stands as he delivers the service. We don't want to have to run a cable that far (and in the way and visible) though so we are looking for a wireless mic. They literally do not have anything in the budget for stuff like this so as cheap as possible that works for what we are wanting to do is what is really important.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheap wireless (if I understand your meaning of cheap to be my meaning of cheap) is hit-or-miss -usually a big miss. Something that may do you for a while would be a Revolabs xTag microphone (not sold by Sweetwater so I'm not linking to it but you can find it from consumer electronics retailers).

But, why not just bring the mp3 recorder to the sermon? A portable field recorder like this or this or this can be placed on the lecturn or slipped into a shirt pocket.

JP

[eRoland]

I would give this a try TASCAM DR-40 Portable Digital Recorder with a small lapel mic plugged into it or lay it on podium. usb to computer later.

[flwolf]

If this helps you, you can have my previous wireless mic / transmitter for $50 + shipping. Let me know if you're interested.

[Joe Soundman]

this[/URL] or this or this can be placed on the lecturn or slipped into a shirt pocket.

JP

This is a good suggestion, wireless does not do well through walls, you generally need line of sight from transmitter to reciever, soo you would likely need "unsightlly wires" to get quality audio to the office. A cheep mp3 player like the Creative brand (I have an old Zen Nano) often have a record functon. This cigarette lighter sized device could be put on the podium and activated by the pastor just before he starts speaking (or record everything and edit out the rest).