The challenges to energy security in Europe
EU Confidential
Navigating Energy Independence and Strategic Dependencies
This chapter focuses on Europe's energy transition and the risks of developing new dependencies on unreliable suppliers like China and Russia. It emphasizes the need for innovation in battery technologies and collaboration with the global south to secure essential resources and enhance energy security.
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Speaker 3
I think we may have talked about the USB micro or mini one, which is like seventy nine dollars, which doesn't have the gain. So there's
Speaker 2
some I think I think we talked about the other one that this is kind of like the second generation
Speaker 3
of the interface, which is USB C. So I don't believe we have talked about this one before.
Speaker 4
OK, so what this is, it's
Speaker 1
a little compact USB interface for XLR microphones.
Speaker 4
OK, and when I say compact,
Speaker 1
I mean compact. It's like teeny.
Speaker 7
I mean, considering
Speaker 1
what another USB interface looks like, this looks like it's just a little.
Speaker 4
I don't even how would you describe it? It's so small. You just stick
Speaker 7
it on the end of your XLR microphone and then it's got
Speaker 1
little knobs on the back. It's it's kind of like a little extension to your microphone itself. It's it's small.
Speaker 7
And what do you have to say about it? Because I think that you are kind of excited by this.
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, first off,
Speaker 2
it is small and that's nice. It makes it for portable, but it also is powerful. I mean, a 60 dB gain.
Speaker 8
It works with
Speaker 3
the SM 58, which many of us
Speaker 2
already have. And notorious drive hungry SM seven B.
Speaker 3
Used by many podcasters as well. The interface is not cheap, one 29.
Speaker 2
It's more expensive than the SM 58, which is 99.
Speaker 8
It is a little less
Speaker 3
money than a cloud lifter, which the college is normally goes to one 49,
Speaker 2
but the cloud lifter is meant for XLR to XLR connections. And if you have a really good preamp, that
Speaker 3
should still give you better performance than this in
Speaker 2
theory. But
Speaker 3
the advantage of this
Speaker 2
is that it is small and USB C and you can connect your SM 58 to your laptop when on the road
Speaker 3
and get good audio that way
Speaker 2
without having to also bring along a USB preamp with you and a cloud lifter. So this to me makes it really nice for an addition to your mobile. Normally, I'm carrying around with me Q2U. I could take this and my SM 58, which has like almost no noise, hand noise and is really a durable mic and get a little bit better
Speaker 3
performance if I need to have a road mic, especially in a loud environment. The SM 58
Speaker 2
is great for that loud environment.
Speaker 3
So here's some more technical specs, descriptions on this for those that are
Speaker 2
geeky and want to know that stuff. Obviously XLR, USB connectivity with auto level mode right out of the box. It works with dynamic and condenser mics up
Speaker 3
to 60 dB gain, 48 volt phantom power means you can level up any XLR
Speaker 2
mic, headphone monitoring, zero latency, which
Speaker 3
is really
Speaker 2
nice, standard 3.5 millimeter headphone
Speaker 3
jack, Mac and Windows compatible. Thank you.
Speaker 2
Connect your desktop with USB C to USB C cable, which they include. It is small. We mentioned that it's a perfect edition setup
Speaker 3
for mobile and then full control. You can access your mic output via the Shore plus motive desktop app and configure the DSP features such as gain, limiter, compressor, EQ and more. And you can save your presets for quick access translation. You can optimize it for the mic that you're using.
Speaker 2
That's key because you're going to want to have different settings for this SM 58 than you do for the seven, the seven, the SM 7B.
Speaker 1
There are a lot of times when people have and this is not going to work for saving all the money, right? Because again, it's $129 to get this little tiny little device. It's so small and part of that it would be amazing for you to like, let's say, when you're starting a podcast, let's say somebody, you're a new podcaster, you're starting right out of the gate, somebody is willing to give you a microphone or let's say you win a microphone at an event because there's a lot of times, you know, in conferences, there's giveaways, there's all kinds of giveaways.
Speaker 4
But let's say you get like a, you know, an SM 7B and
Speaker 1
you're like, oh, great. Now, I have like this beautiful
Speaker 7
microphone and I have no way to connect it to my computer. Right? With this little thing, you can.
Speaker 1
And then it's like it's literally $129. You know, you won this microphone or somebody gave you an XL on our microphone.
Speaker 4
Now with $129, you can put it in straight into your computer. That is so amazing and you can carry it with you. So now you can travel with XLR microphones, just like Rob said, and you don't have to
Speaker 1
travel with, you know, an ATR 2100X or like a Samsung Q2U. You can get this in there. So I think this is
Speaker 9
so amazing.
Speaker 1
And I'm sorry to keep on harping on the fact that it's so small. But the portability of something like this, especially for podcasters that don't have the privilege of being able to be in one position, like they don't have a
Speaker 5
proper studio.
Speaker 1
It's so good. You don't have to take out a giant interface that usually you have to be putting out all the time. Here's the big question.
Speaker 3
How will this
Speaker 2
work with the new iPhone if it has USB-C? Yeah, that would be really good. I mean, that's what I really want to find out.
Speaker 8
So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4
could you even test it
Speaker 2
with an iPad Pro? Yeah, I have the USB iPad Pro. So again, another thing I can test it with. So
Speaker 3
I haven't hit
Speaker 2
by yet, but I'm going to after we're done recording. So I'm going to have it here probably tomorrow or Saturday because it's in stock. Yeah. And I have to do that and I'll have to do some testing and see how does, you know, how does my mics sound when I connect this to various mics onto my iPad
Speaker 3
Pro? Yeah.
Speaker 2
And but again,
Speaker 3
if it can work with the iPhone 15 and you can take a short SM 58 mic and this and your
Speaker 2
iPhone and you go to a trade show and you
Speaker 3
want to interview people on the trade show floor, oh my. I mean, it just you completely reduced your
Speaker 2
setup
Speaker 3
down to really
Speaker 2
small compact package. And if you walk around CES, for example, and I have to go to the whole trade show and you want to do multiple interviews at trade boots, this could be a huge advantage for those people that are doing any type of trade show floor interviews.
Speaker 5
Oh, totally. Absolutely.
Speaker 1
So good game changers. By
Speaker 3
the way, we're not seeing it works with the iPhone 15. Have no idea. We're speculating it might.
Speaker 2
The potential is exciting. And again, I'm going to order it and I'm going to try it with my USB C iPad Pro and see how it works with it and hopefully if it works with it, then it should work with the iPhone 15. It might not work and we'll let you know that too. But exciting if it does. Yay. So good.
Speaker 3
Love it.
Speaker 2
We love making, you know, you're carrying a phone with you. This is just another way to get out there with a mobile setup whenever you need to record, you know, the best mic is the mic with you. And it's better to have less carry than more. Absolutely.
Speaker 4
OK, and then we have a new podcast. Yeah.
Speaker 3
So this is strike force five
Speaker 2
with Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel, Myers and Oliver.
Speaker 3
So the five
Speaker 2
key late night hosts raising
Speaker 3
money for their staffs.
Europe’s energy system is entering a period of radical change. The net-zero transition will require a significant overhaul of our infrastructure and our supply chains, right when geopolitical tensions are forcing the continent to find new sources of oil and gas and develop new networks of energy collaboration with allies. In this special podcast episode produced by POLITICO Studio for Equinor, we explore these changes and their impact on energy policy across the continent.
Vulnerabilities of Europe’s energy supply range from cyberattacks on energy infrastructure, to securing access to critical minerals – but crises can be turned into opportunities. Building overall energy resilience requires not independence, but interdependence, as countries pool resources to ensure security through international cooperation and diversified energy supplies that will bring them closer to net zero and secure long-term energy supply.
Hear from Alberic Mongrenier, executive director at the European Initiative for Energy Security; Jeppe Kofod, Denmark’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Evan Fuery, senior vice president for corporate security and crisis management at Equinor; and James Appathurai, assistant secretary general for innovation, hybrid and cyber at NATO, on the ambitious steps countries are taking to future-proof their energy systems.
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