** Photo: Jim Bryant **Pryor, OK – September 2014… Located in Northeast Oklahoma, the Pryor Public Schools has a long and rich tradition of academic excellence and student activities—attributed in large part to strong support from the Pryor community. Pryor High School has a wide offering of courses, including a strong fine arts program. Each year, the school presents a major musical performance in the Herchel Avra Performing Arts Center and, to ensure the best possible audio quality for these productions, earset microphones from Menlo Park, CA-based Countryman Associates are used.
Jim Bryant, Jr is the Manager of the Avra Performing Arts Center. In addition to his responsibilities with Pryor Public Schools for the past three years, Bryant is also the Minister of Music at First Baptist Church in Pryor. Together, he enjoys a very active role in the musical activities of the community. For his work at the Herchel Avra Performing Arts Center, Bryant routinely relies on the strong performance characteristics of a dozen Countryman E6 Earset microphones of both the omnidirectional and directional varieties. He discussed his experience with the Countryman microphones.
“Each spring, we perform a major musical presentation,” Bryant reports. “In 2010, we presented Singing in the Rain, followed by Phantom of the Opera in 2011, Music Man in 2012, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 2013, and in 2014: Oklahoma. For all of these presentations, we used our Countryman microphones to make these shows the very best in sound they could possibly be—and we have never been disappointed. We use our E6 Omni and Directional microphones with Shure SLX UHF series body packs and, together, they make an excellent wireless microphone system.”
When queried about those attributes that make the Countryman E6 Earset mics so well suited to these types of productions, Bryant offered the following thoughts. “We enjoy both the audio performance and the light weight of the Countryman mics,” he said. “These microphones sound wonderful! We never have issues with either speech intelligibility or the quality of vocal production. We are able to hear each student as they say their lines or sing their solos!”
“We’ve also been very pleased with the way the E6 mics fit on our students’ faces,” Bryant continued. “We service elementary students—using the short boom E6S mics for them—and we can also fit our large high school men with the regular Countryman mics. The Countryman mics are very discreet, so they are never distracting.”
For the school’s 2011 production of Phantom of the Opera, Bryant was particularly impressed with the E6’s high gain before feedback, “Even though the Phantom was hidden from sight, we encountered no problem hearing his lines and solos, thanks to his Countryman microphone. With the E6, there was never a feedback issue—regardless of where he was in the house.”
In addition to his fondness for the E6 Earset Microphone, Bryant reports being equally impressed with Countryman’s customer support services. “I appreciate the company’s commitment to continue positive relationships with their customers after the sale, Bryant said. “And you never have to worry about being placed on hold listening to some elevator music— you actually get to speak to a real person who knows the product and can speak informatively about whatever question you may have. They are also very helpful with their suggestions as to making the mics work at their very best!”
Before turning his attention back to the business of the day, Bryant offered these final thoughts regarding his experience with the Countryman E6 Earset Microphones, “I know there are other products out there that could be used in the Performing Arts Center setting, but there are none that are better in quality. I’ve always believed that you get what you pay for, and I am absolutely willing to get the very best for my students and community. In my mind, that means Countryman.”
For additional information about the Pryor Public Schools, go to http://www.pryorok.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Pryor.woa/1/wa/room?id=kYxxw.
About Countryman Associates
For more than 30 years, Countryman has focused on developing microphones and accessories that deliver maximum gain before feedback, with the highest possible rejection of wind, vibration, interference, and other unwanted sounds. The result is warm, clear vocals in speaking and singing applications, delivering natural audio reinforcement that requires almost no attention from the sound engineer or the performer. For additional information about Countryman Associates, visit the company online at www.countryman.com.
###
