8+ people around a conference table

H

hepler

Active member
I have a shoot I just finsihed where there were 6 people at a conference room, one at the head, 2 on one side and 3 on the other and they were doing a mock meeting. I used two cameras one static wide at the other end of the table and I shot over the shoulder stuff as they talked to one another. The boom mic was close enough to the "talent" and showed in the wide shot but I just masked it out in post. I used a sony ecm-ms2 on a boom and placed it pointing at the middle of the 4 while they did their dialog and then switched sides and shot the two people with the mic pointed at them etc. It worked fine and they were happy with the end product which was an internal corporate training video. I prepped the room with blankets and took out a little room echo and normalized the audio in post and it wasn't bad at all, it wasn't hollywood but it didn't need to be.
I am doing another similar shoot but they are adding people, up to 9 now and I know that stereo mic won't cover more than 3 people on a side of a table so here is my plan and I was hoping a few might chime in and tell me if they see a problem.
I have a set of matched pair rode nt5 mics, and I know they are designed musical instruments but I have michael jolly heads on them and they sound really good for interviews. My thought was to just use both of them on booms and possibly pick up one more and just record all three channels pointing at everyone. I could monitor two and let the third one go into the stationary wide camera. I am one man banding this, nothing new there, and they are just not wiling to pay a audio guy for this level of work, and it will be fine for what they want. But I want to get it as good as I can given the circumstance so I will have it for my reel, piece of mind, pride, etc.
Thanks
scott
 
My suggestion is to lav everyone and iso record the tracks. But with the client unwilling to pay for an audio guy, I'm guessing they aren't willing to pay for that many lav's and proper recording/mixing equipment. With that many people, you really need two people just for audio, anyway. I don't envy you with 8+ people and just yourself. I was just part of an 11 person "round table" a few weeks ago and we had two people just for audio(an A2 just to lav people and assist and an A1 for the recording/mix) and five cameras and it was still a challenge. It sucks, because the people that say you don't need or they're unwilling to pay for something for THEIR project are never the ones that have to do anything except ***** when it doesn't turn out right because they were unwilling to spend the money to do it right.

But, I'd find a way to lav and record everyone individually.
 
Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of a boundary layer mic, I could hide it with papers and stuff. I have zero experience with one and would one be enough? Is the sound quality good enough to be the choice over two boomed mics? If both is yes could you recommend a brand to look for?
I would do the lav set up and put it in a separate recorder but I would never do that with out someone monitoring it, and I don't think I could monitor it correctly and move around with that second camera effectivly. And it would have to have someone that knows what to listen for not just an assistant doing the monitoring. So for this type of work it just isn't the way to go. And I don't own 9 lavs anyway so rentals, people etc. etc.
 
The AKG CBL99 is about $150. I've had more experience with the Shure MX392, about $240, and its predecessors, which would also work well in this application.

- Greg
 
Thanks guys, I been shopping B&H and they look like a good option. Most say that 3-6 foot is their sweet spot so I think I might have to use two. Which is fine, I just don't know. And I don't know how they might compare to a couple NT5's on booms.
 
A lot of it will come down to room prep., if the room is really quiet, then there are a lot of choices. But if the room is "normal" office environment (even for a board room), it could be difficult with most general purpose mics. I haven't worked with that exact mic., so I can't really tell you about it. Worked with the older PCC160 and it works well on stage, more like a 180 degree pattern that most people use as about a 100 degree before handing off to another across the stage. Sometimes you can get by with a PZM taped to the table (underside) where the table vibrates and transmits the sound to the mic. It's iffy in your situation which is why I didn't suggest it, and they never sound that good.

Omni lavs hanging from the ceiling might work, would be better to have a slightly more narrow shape though. If it was high energy dialog you might get by with shotguns in the upper corners of the room (all four corners).

Sometimes you can go with conference table phone mic. systems, some of the good ones have a line out and they look right in place on the table (depending on the shot). The good ones are massively expensive but can do what you need with decent quality.

Any of the mics. designed to be hung from the ceiling in a recital hall would work too, again room noise should be LOW. We have a stereo Schoeps microphone that does really well, but it was like $2000 so you'd probably be in a rental situation and even then it might not do everything you need because of the distance and angles. You run it as two microphones, but it is spaced the average distance between a person's ears for "proper" stereo imaging.
 
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