Sometimes I use the 442 as a final stage, just for it's sound and limiters. Did that last month on a talk show mockup on a very big soundstage. All extemporaneous talk. We did the best we could to damp the reverb. But it was a green screen shoot and those green wall are hard and bounce the sound around a lot. I used a Shure FP410 automixer to close each mic when not being spoken into, which helped. From the FP410 to the 442 and then out to three cameras.
I know how it is. A location that looks good and a location that sounds good are not usually the same. This video (http://youtu.be/kU6tt-Qaok0) I edited and mixed (but did NOT shoot) was in a place with hardwood floors, plaster walls and lots and lots of glass. The acoustics of the space were so hard and echoing that the drum tracks in isolation sounded like the entire kit was made up of various sizes of snare drums.

Messed up the start of the video guys recording this week. The video people are the nicest ones we get to work with, but they were also doing stills photography - not their choice but the client wanted it. The audio feed from the mixer was forgotten about until the last minute - then he gave us a Sennheiser plug in, which just slotted straight into one of the aux outputs. My sound simply set one of the auxes to unit gain, on every channel we were using, and that was that - BUT the music being played for the audience before the show had the button pushed making the send pre-fade, not post fade, so the show started and although he'd pulled the walking in music fader down, it was still going to the two cameras! Frantic waving from the cameraman didn't work - he wasn't looking that way, and it took 30 seconds for a runner to yell at him. Once the show starts, he wasn't even thinking about the video. He said sorry, but I suspect the first minute or so of the video will have to be from one of the on-camera mics. It's a simple mistake to make, but just shows how easy it is to mess up somebodies video!

Messed up the start of the video guys recording this week. The video people are the nicest ones we get to work with, but they were also doing stills photography - not their choice but the client wanted it. The audio feed from the mixer was forgotten about until the last minute - then he gave us a Sennheiser plug in...
Not familiar with the term. I know and love the headphones, but what type of plug is that?

The radio mic transmitter that that plugs into a normal wired mic - it's a square beast with an xlr socket on the end. It's handy for plugging into the mixer if they have XLR outputs.

Paul,
Thank you for posting that. The "old burned by the post/pre-fade button" trick. I have been there, saw it happen once. So painful you only see it once. Every mixer has a "suck" button on it, that one was yours.

Al Gardner,
If your still around. What you describe is the RIGHT way to do it. Fortunately I have that exact opportunity, sometimes, and from both sides. In the wide ranging world of corporate meetings that kind of communication and cooperation is most often not the case. Especially if video is a low priority afterthought. I think every guy here goes into it with the attitude that he is going to do the best job possible, as he should. But if he is not familiar with the meeting environment it might be a rude awakening. Also, some meeting planners are not professional planners. They hold some other job position in the company and are thrust into the difficult task of meeting planning. They don't even understand why they should give time to some guy that is "just going to point a camera at the stage".

Steve

The radio mic transmitter that that plugs into a normal wired mic - it's a square beast with an xlr socket on the end. It's handy for plugging into the mixer if they have XLR outputs.
Ah, OK. Thanks. Clever idea if you have the equipment and saves having to run and tape cables.

Steve,
OUCH!!! had that happen before. But it's not supposed to happen again. But it does.

I can't stress enough, communication between you and the audio guy is KEY.

Usually I'm traveling so my first time meeting the audio guy is that day or the day before.

On the shoot day I set up my camera and sticks on the riser. Once I'm good, I spend the rest of the time with the AV guy. Usually he has other stuff to do besides me. You guys have probably seen this, one guy trying to sound check 6 or more mics in the room. This is where we become friends. I tell him to sit at the board while I go around and give him a soundcheck. Can't tell you how much they appreciate that.

After that we go over again what I need and check sound to the camera. I always ask the sound guy when we go live to maintain eye contact with me for the first minute or so. If all is good I give him a thumbs up.

I have to say and this is key, on most all of my jobs the client is paying for a record feed as well as a house feed. That means my AV guy is invested in getting it right. In other words that music in the mix would be on him. My client would know that. That said, clients don't usually get upset about something like that, provided it's not 3 minutes long.

One thing about using butt plugs, which I usually don't. When I use a butt plug in a ball room, I always put it on a light stand about 7 or 8 ft up to make line of site clear. I have been burnt by that before, having it at mixer level and out of sight. Just run some XLR up the light stand.

The picture below, you can't see me but I'm off to one side about half the distance. The mixing board is all the way to the back which you can't see either. I had a butt plug in the mixing board. Once the floor filled up all these bodies between me and the butt plug went south with intermittent hits in the audio. So I blew some sound from an awesome blues band as you can see by the crowd. Since then I always raise the butt plug with a light stand.

Al,

I have a Sennheiser EW100 plug. I would never use as a stand alone transmitter because it is designed to use the metal body of any mic you attach to it as the antenna. Your audio hits???

Also, after years of using that mic I just learned here on this forum about Sennheiser squelch settings causing hits in the feed.

I love shooting concerts. especially from the mosh pit. It is cool to turn the camera on the crowd and watch them go crazy. Unfortunately, EVERY time, some idiot is always flipping the bird and ruining the shot so it is not usable. And in a viewfinder with all the waving hands you can't see it until later or the Director is yelling in your headset to give him something he can use. Yes, I-mag at some concerts is supposed to be family friendly, or for broadcast advertising. I have never seen the idiot with the finger get his 60 seconds of fame.

Once just for fun when I knew my camera was safe, I zoomed up Alice Coopers nose while he was leaning over me from the edge of the stage. It was disgusting. I knew the TD well or I would not have done that, when they started yelling, "CAMERA 4 PULL OUT, PULL OUT!!!", I was laughing so hard I could hardly recompose a shot. Headset humor makes this job fun sometimes.

Steve

Steve,
Tell me about this squelch problem? How do I fix it. I have had that problem even in interviews.

Al

Here it is:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/all-things-audio/514728-sennheiser-ew100-problems-sample-clip.html

Gotta love the guys on this forum.

Steve

I love shooting concerts. especially from the mosh pit. It is cool to turn the camera on the crowd and watch them go crazy. Unfortunately, EVERY time, some idiot is always flipping the bird and ruining the shot so it is not usable. And in a viewfinder with all the waving hands you can't see it until later or the Director is yelling in your headset to give him something he can use. Yes, I-mag at some concerts is supposed to be family friendly, or for broadcast advertising. I have never seen the idiot with the finger get his 60 seconds of fame.

Once just for fun when I knew my camera was safe, I zoomed up Alice Coopers nose while he was leaning over me from the edge of the stage. It was disgusting. I knew the TD well or I would not have done that, when they started yelling, "CAMERA 4 PULL OUT, PULL OUT!!!", I was laughing so hard I could hardly recompose a shot. Headset humor makes this job fun sometimes.
I shoot concerts pretty much exclusively, but I usually only have one other operator. But when there is a budget, I'll have handheld down in the pit. Once, when I was shooting Los Lobos, I assigned my beautiful blonde niece that position. Nothing like a hot blonde in the pit to get the musicians to play to the camera.

If people could hear what's on the headset the would either commit us or put us in jail. I live for headset humor especially really early in the AM when I haven't had enough caffine! ;-)

If people could hear what's on the headset the would either commit us or put us in jail. I live for headset humor especially really early in the AM when I haven't had enough caffine! ;-)
I just had to share this classic bit of headset humor. (http://youtu.be/G7EF35MRito?t=2m49s)

Man I had forgotten about that line. Classic. One of the best lines ever to come out of Hollywood! PLUS the delivery was great! Deadpan! Love it. Gotta remember it!

Now that made laugh!!!

No one likes the guy that flips the bird.....the girls that flash the camera...a different story...at NASCAR concerts it happens a lot.

Steve