Hi,

I have a problem, maybe not the right forum but I try to ask here

my neighbour is able to to hear very quiet sounds (like breathing) through a drywall between us. I know because he does not keep it secret and makes a "counter noise" each time, some kind of stalking.
So I'm very interested in what he uses. I've tried an el. stethoscope once on a drywall and realized that's not possible with it, you would hear clear spoken conversations but not more, instead loud noise from the whole house eg water pipes.

So the drywall is thin, even without auxiliary means I can hear single loud spoken words on the phone when I'm 3 metres away from the wall and my neighbour uses the phone near the wall, maybe 2 metres away. I can also roughly locate him left and right when he makes louder noises eg. when he tidies up.
The sound might also travel partly through or underneath the two doors which are not on that wall.

So my question is: Apart from bugs in the same room, can a parabolic mic achieve that (ie hearing you breathing or very quietly moving on a sofa)? Usually you are told that you need a sight line for parabolic mics to work but how is that with the mentioned thin wall?
If one can listen up to 100 metres outside with a parabolic mic, I imagine it's possible for a few metres inside, with a wall, but also without any wind noise, I have no idea.

Any help of anyone who has used a parabolic mic would be greatly appreciated.
(if you don't have a drywall, can you hear through doors?)

A customer contacted us with the following questions related to audio surveillance:

I am in a situation where we need to have the house wired for sound - a living room/kitchen/dining room combo open area and two bathrooms and two bedrooms - the bathrooms could be omitted. The need is strictly for audio surveillance. Could you please give me a guesstimate as to cost? Is it something that your people could come and install relatively inexpensively? I have very limited funds, but this is becoming a high priority to get done and I am not a tech person.

We answered these questions as follows:

Although CCTV Camera Pros' specialty is video surveillance, we are also suppliers of surveillance microphones. You can find the one that may be a good fit for the situation that you described here: stand alone audio surveillance microphone.

The simplest solution that we have to offer is to use these microphones with an inexpensive DVR card that supports the number of channels of audio that you require. Our DVR cards can be found here:

http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/NUUO-DVR-Cards-s/298.htm

The cabling that you would use for this can be found here:
http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/RG59-Siamese-CCTV-Cable-s/259.htm

All that being said, I am not sure if a surveillance system is the best fit for what you are trying to accomplish. You may be better off with a home intercom system that has a feature to let you activate or leave certain rooms on (the ones that you want to hear) or be able to select the room from the remote speaker location.

I would actually recommend looking into that first, especially for a residential install. If what you are seeking is more hidden/covert, then you should consider our audio surveillance equipment.

Please post any follow up questions to this forum post.

Thank You.
-Mike