How Big Does a Parabolic Mic Need To Be?
Have you ever heard that a parabolic microphone needs to be 24 or even 30 inches in diameter to be of any use, or at least to capture a human voice? If you are, you're not alone. That's a common misconception, but it's not accurate.
I want to take you back to 2013 when we were exhibiting our KLOVER MiK 26, the parabolic microphone, seen on many, if not most, sidelines of the football games you see on the weekend. We also introduced our new 16-inch parabolic microphone, the KLOVER MiK 16. It was developed primarily for baseball, but we knew it had many other uses as well.
At that convention, a producer who did reality TV stopped by. He posed the question, "How small can you make one of those and still work?" Well, we went back home and developed a new product called the KLOVER MiK 09, a nine-inch parabolic microphone. It's 9 inches in outside diameter, but the actual working diameter is only 8 inches. So, according to all the formulas, white papers, and everything else out there, it wouldn't work. It's just common knowledge. Fortunately, I didn't know better. So I just built one. And it worked.
So, in 2014, we returned to that same convention and introduced our KLOVER MiK 09. The reaction was very, very interesting. Many walked by without even looking at it. Or if they did, they would snicker and say, “That will never work.” It's too small, I'm not even gonna listen."
Well, we're here to tell you that it does work.
This video demonstrates that audio captured with the KLOVER MiK 09 is clear and well-suited for many applications.
Also available on our YouTube channel ↗
In this video, you can understand me, you can definitely hear what I'm saying, and I'm six feet from the microphone on a very windy day. A shotgun mic would have had a very difficult time with that wind.
We have more sample clips on the KLOVER MiK 09 page.
If you're capturing audio from a considerable distance and can't use a boom pole, or can't put wireless mics on everybody, or can't pass a microphone from person to person to person, please get in touch with us. We'd love to discuss your application and see if we can help you out.