Observing another presentation today. Presenter well above average both in content and delivery. But… There’s always a but.Large audience so there had to be a mic (or at least, someone convinced them there had to be a mic). Presenter had clearly gone to trouble of tying things together and had some points they didn’t want to miss, so they held notes the whole time. I would have preferred to see notecards, but hey, it was PPT complete with the notes page printed out and who can resist such an easy way to get your thoughts across? While starting strong, as the presentation went on the notes were used more and more. Again, nothing inherently wrong with that. But.But the notes were not kept still, and the mic was sensitive enough and close enough that we soon heard every page turn, and most sentence endings as the presenter rolled the pages up and brushed the mic as they went by. Microphones are great to allow folks to get the needed volume to fill a large room and (in this case) to be taped easily. But they present lots of problems when there are things other than a voice to record. Good posture and silent movement, with no interfering gestures or props is a necessity.
When presenting, let (make) the mic pick up only your voice.
