Recording speeches audio...

[Paul R Johnson]

There are plenty of ch69 receivers on ebay - now people are realising time is running out. It seems that these hotels don't have a desire to be within the law!

[Rob Cantwell]

hey Ronan,
I got into the video end of things last year and when selecting equipment for audio i considered many of the problems you've outlined, so eventually i got a Sennheiser ew 100 G3 evolution wireless eng pack, which includes a diversity receiver and a SKM 100 G3 radio microphone.
the receiver is mounted on my A cam and the microphone is taped to the event's one either in the church or for speeches at the hotel etc. works a charm, I have full control over the audio.
I was caught out a few times when people spoke from different areas of the church and with musicians in the church, the mic being taped to the one the priest was using, I've since solved that I got 2 yamaha c24's, they're great too for those times when something unforeseen arises. I think clear audio is vital for video especially speeches at events like weddings, poor video can be forgiven but if the client cant hear the audio they can become very annoyed!!
As far as the Bride & Groom refusing to wear mics etc. i have it in my contract that i will not be held accountable if they fail to agree to cooperate with all reasonable requests that would effect the quality of the finished product.
R

[Adrian Tan]

Originally Posted by Ronan O'Conghaile

I've been looking into this over the last few days myself as it's one of the only options I see. I already have a shotgun mic so I've been looking at getting or building a monster of a mic stand that would come much closer to the speakers in the ceiling.

Hi, if you're desperate, check out the Rode NTG8. I actually carried this beast round in my kit for half of last year before I realised how rarely I used it. But your situation might be different.

Can be found cheap. Not a popular mic. But sound is basically the same as NTG3.

[Ronan O'Conghaile]

Originally Posted by Katie Fasel

I can't take credit for this...Don Bloom taught me this...but we recently bought a drum mic to put on a stand directly in front of the speakers. We've only done a few weddings with this set up, but I have to say so far it has been so reliable, and produces GREAT results.

The thing I like most about it is that I always find getting a direct feed, the audio is too stale, therefore requiring me to mix in more room/audience noise. With this drum mic, you get the sound pretty close to a feed, but you can still hear some audience cheers and reactions too. It's really a great find, so far at least.

Now that being said, we are still putting a zoom out at every wedding, and getting a feed when we can too. Backup, backup, backup! That's the name of the game when it comes to audio for us.

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

I can't take credit for the setup either, someone told me about it and I can't remember who but I will say this.
IF you plug into a system, you had better hope that the person running the system knows what they are doing because if they don't, you could be stuck with some really bad audio. I've seen it happen. Just sayin'!

Around here, the DJ or band supplies a wireless HH mic to the folks doing the toasts (speeches) and since I have the mic in font of the DJs speaker AND my Hypercaroid on the camera, if they walk around the room I get audio. As long as I follow them, which I do to keep them in frame, I get both mics giving me 2 channels of sound and with a little bit of touch up in post, it sounds very good.

Thanks guys, I'll give that drum mic a look!

[Ronan O'Conghaile]

Originally Posted by Colin Rowe

As Don says, dont go near the venues sound system, its a recipe for disaster, control your own audio at all times. Keep it simple, you have a wireless mic so you have a couple of options.
1. Simply use one wireless mic and get the speakers to pass it on to the next in line
2. Put the radio mic on a stand in front of the top table speakers, and move it between them when needed.
There is no easy way to do this in an invisible way, if your clients want good sound you need to get in there and organise it, I would only use a shotgun, on camera mic if I was very close to the top table. It doesnt matter how sensitive you mic is, it needs to be as close to the speaker as possible.

Thanks for the reply Colin.

1. Only problem I see is if the speakers forget to pass the wireless mic along, then the audio will be kinda crappy.

2. This could be really awkward as I'm a one man team, but if it comes to it so be it!

[Ronan O'Conghaile]

Originally Posted by James Hobert

Ronan, I don't envy your situation. Sounds like the two companies you work for are disrespectful, unhelpful and ignorant of what it takes to make a great non-invasive video.

To a CERTAIN extent, I can see where they're coming from. A lot of the weddings I shoot are country folk who HATE HATE HATE cameras (only reason they get video is because friends convince them they'll regret it if they don't) The companies don't want to be getting bad feedback about an annoying cameraman hanging around the couple all day.

That said, there really should be some compromise.

[Ronan O'Conghaile]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

There are plenty of ch69 receivers on ebay - now people are realising time is running out. It seems that these hotels don't have a desire to be within the law!

Hotels will not spend a penny unless they absolutely have to. As long as the system is working they'll keep using it, law or no law.

Ch69 is supposed to be used for 4G though, right? Once 4G phones become available, how would they affect the sound system? Would it force the hotels into changing to a new system?

[Ronan O'Conghaile]

Originally Posted by Rob Cantwell

hey Ronan,
I got into the video end of things last year and when selecting equipment for audio i considered many of the problems you've outlined, so eventually i got a Sennheiser ew 100 G3 evolution wireless eng pack, which includes a diversity receiver and a SKM 100 G3 radio microphone.
the receiver is mounted on my A cam and the microphone is taped to the event's one either in the church or for speeches at the hotel etc. works a charm, I have full control over the audio.
I was caught out a few times when people spoke from different areas of the church and with musicians in the church, the mic being taped to the one the priest was using, I've since solved that I got 2 yamaha c24's, they're great too for those times when something unforeseen arises. I think clear audio is vital for video especially speeches at events like weddings, poor video can be forgiven but if the client cant hear the audio they can become very annoyed!!
As far as the Bride & Groom refusing to wear mics etc. i have it in my contract that i will not be held accountable if they fail to agree to cooperate with all reasonable requests that would effect the quality of the finished product.
R

I tried taping my mic to the hotels wireless mic before but it caused some kind of interference and caused the hotel mic to cut out every few seconds. I was certain this wasn't my fault as the frequencies aren't anywhere near each other, but it happened at a few hotels. Any idea what this might be?

[Ronan O'Conghaile]

Originally Posted by Adrian Tan

Hi, if you're desperate, check out the Rode NTG8. I actually carried this beast round in my kit for half of last year before I realised how rarely I used it. But your situation might be different.

Can be found cheap. Not a popular mic. But sound is basically the same as NTG3.

That looks like a monster of a mic! Had a quick look on amazon though and I wouldn't be able to afford that for a while yet.

[Adrian Tan]

Originally Posted by Ronan O'Conghaile

I tried taping my mic to the hotels wireless mic before but it caused some kind of interference and caused the hotel mic to cut out every few seconds. I was certain this wasn't my fault as the frequencies aren't anywhere near each other, but it happened at a few hotels. Any idea what this might be?

I'm definitely no soundie, but I've been told that it's not just frequencies that can cause interference but electricity. This sort of problem seems to crop up on student film sets -- interference with the radio mics from lights, cables, etc.

In your case, what you might be doing is placing a small audio recorder close to the hotel's receiver, and the proximity of the recorder is affecting the system. If so, then, instead of using the internal microphones on your recorder, attach an external mic, and run some cables so that you can relocate your recorder a few metres away.

Suggestion might be completely wrong, but that's the first thing that pops into my head anyway...

[Peter Riding]

A bunch of zoom H1s could be a runner. You wouldn't be any chance have an example of how they would sound recording speeches would you?

They are so cheap just buy one and try it out. You'll find multiple uses for it anyway. I've probably shot around 100 weddings using that system now and my wireless stuff is feeling very unloved :- ) They also work well during ceremonies hidden in nearby flowers or attached to nearby fitting with cheap Ebay friction arms etc.

That Rode shotgun mic is probably overkill for wedding work. I use a Rode NTG2. Being a proper shotgun mic it has a much narrower pick up pattern than many of the dSLR type mics and so is a great emergency standin to capture unscripted moments that you can't get close to. The NTG2 is preferable to the 1 because it takes an AA battery and so does not need phantom power. The next one up, the 3, is weatherproofed but obviously you don't really need that for weddings.

Pete

[Jeff Harper]

The drum mic idea Don and Katie mention are excellent solutions, and so are the H1s. I love my H1, for $100 you have syncable audio, it doesn't get any better, for the price!

[Nigel Barker]

I now use a couple of Yamaha C-24s on the top table which replaced a couple of Zoom H1s. I generally find that I only need to use the audio from one recorder & that the other is just a useful backup. I used to mic up the speakers with a Sennheiser wireless & quickly change over between each speech. That was too fiddly & time-consuming so then I would just have the wireless unit & lav mic in front of the speaker on the table & either get them to pass it along or do it myself. That worked well until they or I forget to move the mic. Now the two recorders are each one third of the way along the table.

I am a big fan of applying quite a lot of compression to the audio in post. That & touch of denoiser & the audio from the little Yamaha C24s is great

[Eric Coughlin]

For wedding speeches, I'll setup a mic stand with a lav mic (or two, if I have extra time, in which case one is a wireless and the other a hard wired audio recorder) taped to it, then put the DJ's handheld mic on the mic stand. I'll plug into the DJ's board to get that feed too, so then I have the option of which source I'd like to use. I find the DJ's board tends to have some issue pretty often, so perhaps 50% of the time I end up using the lav mic and the rest I use the DJ's feed.

The mic stand is nice since it keeps the speaker from moving, which makes focusing and tracking simple, and also since all of our lights (key, fill, hair light) are setup to be aimed precisely where the mic stand is.