Maybe I should get out more, but I couldn't help noticing that going by the pictures on the TV coverage tonight, it looks like the Pope announced his resignation using an AKG D190.

The "metal bubbles" style windshield has a very distinctive shape. I haven't seen one of these for ages, but I used them regularly for about 20 odd years and it took me right back.

it's shaped like UFO?????

It's the now discontinued original D190 with matching gooseneck. Later versions had an on/off switch. He probably has a cough button elsewhere.

Used a lot by the clergies around the world. The Vatican probably went to AKG and got a quote for many thousands.
Not forgetting the papal discount.

'The last Pope to resign willingly was Celestine V in 1294 after reigning for only five months, his resignation was known as "the great refusal"
and was condemned by the poet Dante in the "Divine Comedy". Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant
to the papacy.'

598yrs since this last happened! Imagine the giant database at the Vatican.

Cheers.

Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant to the papacy.

I wonder if he used a megaphone instead.

To quote NPR: Explosive news at the Vatican today, but no smoke yet.

Just as the Pope announced his resignation the Vatican was hit by lightning, the world's news agencies reported.

I like to think it's part of Gods regular testing, and I trust the centuries old earthing still takes it all in its stride.

Cheers.

Just as the Pope announced his resignation the Vatican was hit by lightning, the world's news agencies reported.

Just another multi-media gimmick.

--

I actually liked those "metal bubble" grilles. They certainly don't rot and deteriorate the way foam wind-shields do. I still have several AKG mics that use that design; they're all going strong.

When I started with my company 26 years ago there was an empty box that one of these mics came in, located on a shelf in the storage cabinet. I never saw any sign of the actual mic though... Maybe there's a best-selling book and a movie with Tom Hanks in the works that will trace the course of this one special mic from my storage cabinet all the way to the Vatican! Either that or someone left it at a hotel sales training meeting and it got pawned for a few bucks...

I still use an old AKG D202E - which must be at least 40 years old - on a regular basis. The similar D222 is still used at the dispatch box of the House of Commons, here in the UK.
Both types have the 'metal bubble' windshield. I think the real term, IIRC, is 'sintered bronze' , but I like the name 'metal bubbles' better!
Super quality mics ... even after all this time.....

I think the real term, IIRC, is 'sintered bronze' , but I like the name 'metal bubbles' better!


LOL

"Sintered Bronze" is, indeed, the correct term.

And the mics used on queenie's speech are gold plated calrec 2050's serviced and looked after by an ex AMS Neve colleague of mine the late Keith Ming of Hebden Sound!