Anybody else think the earpiece/microphone is weird?

[surritter]

Our parish bought a new sound system, and now instead of the priest wearing a clip-on mike near his collar, he has the little clear tube sticking down from his ear.

From a distance it’s invisible, but we sit near the front and I just keep picturing a concert with the rock star wearing those headset things!

Am I overreacting? I know there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it; it’s a large church and some sort of mike is needed, but it just seems strange…

:egyptian:

 

[Joe_Kelley]

We have been using it for sometime. No one has commented on it. It seems to work better than the clip on; and is more durable.

 

[RosalieM]

We’ve used it for a while. Some priests don’t wear it, but one does sometimes.
Last weekend while visiting, I wanted to show my sister in upstate NY our live internet feed when the choir performed, as I’m in the choir. Well, you couldn’t hear the choir. The only voice you heard was the priest with the head microphone. I have to tell the choir director tomorrow at practice.

 

[EasterJoy]

Portable mics in general are better than a) hanging a microphone over the altar or b) the people with hearing impairment not being able to hear.

It also allows older priests whose voices are fading out to keep being heard, without straining their voices.

Some priests like the headset kind because they don’t have to be threaded from the pocket through the vestments and out to the collar, like the hard-wired clip-on ones.

We’ve used it for a while. Some priests don’t wear it, but one does sometimes.
Last weekend while visiting, I wanted to show my sister in upstate NY our live internet feed when the choir performed, as I’m in the choir. Well, you couldn’t hear the choir. The only voice you heard was the priest with the head microphone. I have to tell the choir director tomorrow at practice.

The down-side to headsets.
(Which also catch little asides like this dismissal at the end of a nuptial Mass: “All right, now, let’s get going!”

Another downside is that they do seem to cut out more often. I don’t find the looks of them distracting, though. Maybe it is because I have never seen Britney Spears in concert.

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

Our parish bought a new sound system, and now instead of the priest wearing a clip-on mike near his collar, he has the little clear tube sticking down from his ear.

From a distance it’s invisible, but we sit near the front and I just keep picturing a concert with the rock star wearing those headset things!

Am I overreacting? I know there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it; it’s a large church and some sort of mike is needed, but it just seems strange…

:egyptian:

I think it looks better, to tell the truth. Both the Churches I attend use this system. The one I am registered at and serve as EMHC is a VERY LARGE Church. They need a state of the art sound system so people can hear properly. They don’t have an actual “cry room”, so they have a radio station that you can turn into if for some reason you needed to step out of the Church if your kid was screaming, or if you need earphones (deaf or hard of hearing). The other one where I was baptized and Confirmed is smaller, but the little mikes didn’t quite work well. They decided to upgrade when they renovated.

One thing I notice about the little earpiece on my registered Parish’s priest is that it slips sometimes and you can’t hear him that well.

 

[SMHW]

If it seems strange it must just be that you are used to attending parishes that haven’t updated their sound technology recently. Wireless mics have pretty much been the norm around here for years. And the headsets (as opposed to the “lapel” mics) are just what’s available now.