By implementing the use of dishes and omni-directional microphone technology, you can virtually capture much more area and expand the array's mass and overall ability to cover a larger amount of area. To do so, you will need to start using more amplification which will drive the array. You may also wish to add more collectors to the array's configuration as seen in (Figure 3).

Presently the NJGR organization is using a very similar type of array when recording external areas such as cemeteries, battle grounds, etc. Our array is driven with a 250watt amplifier, a high performance voice processor and a 30watt pre amp unit. Utilizing an audio array design such as these posted above does take a bit more work during setup, however, doing so has created extremely high quality recording sessions. Furthermore, we have found that in doing so, we have increased our overall recording areas from that of 10 to 15 feet omni-directional to well over 250 feet, omni-directional. Setting up a grid in this fashion is like placing over 25 drop recorders in a 360 degree area with each recorder only offering a 10 foot omni-directional recording area. We have had great success with this technology and will keep advancing it's capability as time passes.