it is quite used in any italian tv show.

http://i60.tinypic.com/11m436o.png

or watch this 14/11/2013 M5S Barbara Lezzi a Porta a Porta - YouTube

You can post a photo directly in this forum, rather than posting a link to a photo on another website. Any chance you can find a photo with sharper focus? (Or maybe my eyes are going bad.)

I haven't got a direct photo, the video helps better

Those look like pretty large lavs for hosts or presenters ... most of our national TV presenters here have really tiny lavs the size of a matchstick .... maybe similar to the Countryman mics?? Never seen anything with a big cage on it like that on a TV presenter. I would have thought that broadcast people would go for something really tiny so it hardly catches the eye and probably out of us mere mortal's price bracket anyway!!

You're right, the best shot is for a very few seconds, around 09:20 into the video.

It looks a bit like a Sennheiser MKE40, with the factory wind shield, but I can't say for certain. The MKE 40 is cardioid, so it may be some other variation with a different pattern, hiding inside the foam shield. I'd bet a cup of espresso that it's something in that family.

It is funny that a lot of equipment choices in TV are now being made by non audio operators and most of them due to cost restrictions but mostly at the detriment of the visual and audio aspect.

Headset mic's seem to be the flavour of the month here in the Uk but they look and sound dreadful and every ENG crew now seems to have a shotgun with grip, softie and plug in transmitter for in vision work where an RE50 would be more appropriate.

You also find that a lot of TV studios are now owned independently and hire kit more suitable for PA use sometimes gets its way onto the kit list and it may be that the TV crew were having to follow what the PA company that were doing the audience rig for the show were providing.

We just had a general election here and most of the party political husting feeds were provided by the PA companies so most of the audio was coming from cardioid mic's at very low levels as they tend to keep the gain well down to suit the KW of speakers feeding the audience.

tha t pic and that youtube link is about a tv show on RAI 1, and all national tv companies have that setup for interview, so it is not a budget issue.

my main doubt is since I am going to go 6 days with a audio video service for a weekly episode of investigative reports tv show, (with my equipment) does really make sense to bring some sanken cos 11 when the only lavalier in the services arsenal is the low budget sennheiser me2?

this is the standard, in tv studios RAI or MEDIASET lavaliers are the one of the pic but all audio pa companies and services go with sennhieser evolution and me2.

tha t pic and that youtube link is about a tv show on RAI 1, and all national tv companies have that setup for interview, so it is not a budget issue.

Hmmm isn't RAI or Mediaset owned by Mr Murdoch so it may be that everyone was forced into accepting the same mic's that were bought for them.

I have worked for Mediaset and they tend to want everything for nothing and even expect one camera operator to do the job designed for two!

Most mainstream TV is run to a budget these days and an awful lot of audio equipment is purchased by video people and accountants based on cost rather than suitability for the job in hand!

It certainly looks like an MKE40 but it also looks damn ugly on screen so my preference would be an ECM77b.

But there may be a warehouse of those MKE40 mic's as no one tends to use them and they have been offloaded at low cost.

Even here in the UK there is discounting on it: Sennheiser MKE 40-EW Microphone for EW-series (http://www.photospecialist.co.uk/sennheiser-mke-40-ew-microphone-for-ew-series?dfw_tracker=2487-11302&gclid=COqx0en1xcUCFeiWtAodQScAKg)

But compared to an ECM77b there is a big difference if you are buying around 100 of them: Buy - Sony ECM-77B (ECM77B) Omni-Directional Miniature Lavalier (tie-clip) Microphone with XLR Pre-amp (http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/sony_ecm-77b_tie_clip_microphone&gclid=CN6L4YX2xcUCFQnItAodTCEAVg)

I personally have the ME2 and would be quite happy to use it on mainstream broadcast rather than those ugly ME40 ones, just because a mainstream broadcaster uses a particular product it does not mean they have made that choice for technical reasons as I stated above. Indeed I have used my panasonic HPX371 1/3" chip camera with my G2 radio mic's with ME2 on numerous Mediaset jobs in the past and they have not questioned it at any time.

I have never seen those ME40 mic's before and if I turned up on location and clipped one of them on a reporter I would guess that questions would be asked.

Rai is national. public. broadcast company, owned from state, mediased is Berlusconi's, murdoch own Sky, and there also. you see same lavaliers

Rai is national. public. broadcast company, owned from state, mediased is Berlusconi's, murdoch own Sky, and there also. you see same lavaliers

Maybe their suppliers are Don Corleone Audio? ;0)

Seriously I don't think I have ever seen a broadcaster use those mic's before and as I said they just look ugly and being cardioid are not the best tool for the job of TV interviews.

In the UK the sony ECM77b or Cos11, DPA, MKE2 gold etc are the industry standards for TV and the ME2 is the lower budget option for G2/3 radio mic's.

me40 price is quite similar at cos 11 at least here in Italy, I ignore any other technical consideration, does not make sense for me to use a cardioid lavalier whereas there is no sound reinforcement

i have had just a confirm from a gui working in Rai, he says that the 90% of productions have sound reinforcement in studio since the have audience, therefore this is there reason why the me40 became the standard.

Well the same goes for the UK and since the early 80's we have had sound re-inforcement as part of the TV audience with lav mic's.

I have never ever used a cardioid mic just to suit a 100-300 audience when there are millions watching the TV transmission, besides the PA is there to just allow the audience to hear what is going on and not as part of the show you see on screen.

There are other smaller cardioid mic's available such as the ME4 from sennheiser so I suspect a poor choice as it looks dreadful on screen and would not be acceptable if the audio dept were to choose it here.

As for audience PA systems here we tend to favour small speakers such as the JBL control on or HK systems that are focussed and zoned to suit the audience reaction mic's.

I'm surprised they chose them because normally, visuals have so much importance - and they look, frankly, stupid! even if they sounded really good, TV people usually spend quite a lot of energy making their components invisible!

it is quite used in any italian tv show.

http://i60.tinypic.com/11m436o.png

or watch this 14/11/2013 M5S Barbara Lezzi a Porta a Porta - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olTJaowgJ9o)

It's a Sennheiser MKE 40 (http://en-uk.sennheiser.com/lavalier-mikrofon-clip-on-mke-40).

i have had just a confirm from a gui working in Rai, he says that the 90% of productions have sound reinforcement in studio since the have audience, therefore this is there reason why the me40 became the standard.

It is *NOT* an ME 40 - it's an MKE 40 - these are *very* different microphones with a huge price difference.

The ME 40 is a low budget cardioid tie mic. supplied with some ew radiomics and is pretty horrible (IMHO).

The MKE 40 is a professional cardioid tie mic that is very popular in mainland Europe - it is an excellent mic. and vastly superior to the cheapo ME 40.

It is *NOT* an ME 40 - it's an MKE 40 - these are *very* different microphones with a huge price difference.

The ME 40 is a low budget cardioid tie mic. supplied with some ew radiomics and is pretty horrible (IMHO).

The MKE 40 is a professional cardioid tie mic that is very popular in mainland Europe - it is an excellent mic. and vastly superior to the cheapo ME 40.


I am quite surprised at you saying that, is it not the ME4 that is the cheap cardioid lav mic and the ME 40 is a shotgun capsule for the K3u modular system.

Anyway regardless of quality the MKE40 is still a goddamn ugly in vision mic and I have never ever seen one used on TV here in the UK.

I am quite surprised at you saying that, is it not the ME4 that is the cheap cardioid lav mic and the ME 40 is a shotgun capsule for the K3u modular system.

Anyway regardless of quality the MKE40 is still a goddamn ugly in vision mic and I have never ever seen one used on TV here in the UK.

[red face] Yes - you are partially right.

The ME 40 the cardioid head for the K3 system - the gun heads were the ME 80 and ME 88.

Yes - it *is* the ME 4 that is the cheapo cardioid.

I was so concentrated in getting across that the mic. pictured was the MKE 40, that I got the other bit wrong.

Oops

Yes, the MKE 40 is big and ugly compared to the miniature omni mics like the MKE 1, MKE 2 and the DPA 4060 - but it's a high quality cardioid and works well in acoustically unfavourable areas - which is why it is so popular with European TV stations.