1 person, 2 lavs?

C

crammond

Active member
So I'll need to shoot an interview and need to mic up one person with my Sennheiser G3. Today I've found out that there will be one more crew filming the interview and also plan to use their wireless lav (not sure if also sennheiser/sony/other brand but probably sennheiser as most use it here).

There is no mixer to connect to so I/we can only use wireless lavs. Are there any potential problems if this one person will have 2 lavs on him? Potential sound issues and problems? We will be using different frequencies.

Thanks for advice.
 
I'm no sound expert -- not by a long shot. So this is as much of a question for the experts than anything else. But if it were possible, would it be better to run just one lav on one channel, with each crew having its own receiver for that channel?
 
crammond said:
Are there any potential problems if this one person will have 2 lavs on him? Potential sound issues and problems? We will be using different frequencies.
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Probably no sound issues. The two systems as you say are completely separate. OTOH, this might irritate your interviewee. And if both mics are visible in the shot, it might look a bit weird.
 
Any reason the interviews need to be done simultaneously?

Nothing worse than an interviewee addressing the wrong camera, or turning their head to respond to multiple producers asking questions.
 
When using two transmitters in the same vicinity, Sennheiser recommends the transmitters be in the same frequency group (A, B, or G) to avoid radio interference. This is stated in the user manual.
 
We use twin radio mic systems all the time in TV as a main and a spare but they are usually matched packs and mic's on a double clip and the frequencies are designed to give maximum performance.

You could just use one transmitter and two receivers tuned to the same frequency or do a balanced split of the output if the cameras are close together.
 
Two (or more) receivers can be tuned to the same frequency.. providing they are of the same manufacturer and frequency block.. for instance Sennheiser G3, A-block, 516–558 MHz. 100, 300 and 2000 series.
It doesn't work the other way around though, multiple transmitters tuned to the same frequency = disaster.
 
Rick R said:
Two (or more) receivers can be tuned to the same frequency.. providing they are of the same manufacturer and frequency block.. for instance Sennheiser G3, A-block, 516–558 MHz. 100, 300 and 2000 series.
It doesn't work the other way around though, multiple transmitters tuned to the same frequency = disaster.
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Yes that is very convenient for the legacy analog systems.

Unfortunately, we probably won't be able to do that with the new digital systems.
I would love to be proved wrong, but it seems unlikely that most digital transmitters will be able to handle connection to multiple receivers.
 
Yes indeed Richard, I should have stated the single transmitter/multi-receiver configuration does not apply to the new GHz systems from AT, Rode and Sennheiser.
 
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