Point Source Audio Lavaliers Prove Their Value at Kings Place

The natural sound of Point Source Audio’s SERIES8 CO-8WL omnidirectional lavaliers is helping the audio team at Kings Place enhance the sound for a huge variety of events. The central London venue hosts a wide range of events every day, from corporate presentations to live music and recording sessions. The new microphones are put to use daily across a wide range of these applications.

“The adventure with Point Source Audio started out with us looking for some new lav mics,” recalls Gerardo Marrone, Audio & Recording Manager at Kings Place Music Foundation. “We had always used a different brand in the past, but we decided to try something else through our long-term supplier, Autograph Sound. We were looking for something that could work just as well but be more contained within the budget. They sent us a lot of options from various brands and quite a few models from Point Source Audio.”

After going through and testing each of the options, Marrone decided to invest in the SERIES8 CO-8WL. The IP 57 rated waterproof lavalier microphone has a low-profile of 4 mm in diameter but delivers all of the high-performance characteristics that are expected from a larger format microphone. It delivers optimal gain before feedback and can handle 136 dB maximum SPL. Other elements such as the interchangeable connectors and variety of color options make SERIES8 lavaliers a valuable tool for any event space.

While the flexibility and feature set were important factors for the Kings Place team, it was the sound quality that really set the CO-8WL apart from the competition. “I fell in love with how natural the omni capsules were sounding for lavaliers,” says Marrone. “The less you stress a capsule to be directional, the better it sounds and you avoid that very annoying level drop when people turn their head and go off-axis. As a live sound engineer, that is very relieving.”

The initial investment was made for corporate events, the natural sound from the Point Source Audio mics has ensured that they are being used in far more applications. “I don’t only use it on a traditional lavalier application for conferencing for panels on stage, I use them for anything that requires zero amplification in situ, such as interviews,” explains Marrone.

Having now experienced the sound quality of Point Source Audio, the next stage for Marrone is to explore the different mounting options to see how they can benefit Kings Place users. “Point Source Audio has a lot of different mic mounting options and I’m looking forward to trying them out,” he states. “We actively look at different types of technology to try and do things differently. People use Kings Place as an experimental location because we offer them a different approach to live shows and sound perception.”

Reflecting on the initial purchase, Marrone clearly believes that the CO-8WL lav mics have been a good investment. “I am completely satisfied with the Point Source Audio mics,” he concludes. “It started out as a budget option but I came to the conclusion that I can actually use them for way more projects than I was expecting.”