advice needed on wireless presenter microphone

Sparky874

Sparky874

Well-known member
Hi there. I shoot on a Sony XDCAM PDW-700. I have a shoot coming up in China in a couple of weeks. The presenter will have to approach a number of people to get their opinions on ask them to do certain things. In my bag, I currently carry two Sennheiser EW 100 G2 radio mics, and a MK416 shotgun mic. I often get the talent to use the MK416 but in the end of a long xlr lead with a pistol grip.

This time I want the talent to use a wireless presenter/interviewer mic, which doesn't need a pistol grip to be held, is directional, sensitive and of course has a lovely sound. Budget isn't really an issue here as the audio is so important here. Could someone please suggest what my best option may be please?

I often get my talent to use the 416 like demonstrated in the picture below but now need a high quality wireless hand held/ presenter mic.



Thanks in advance, sparky!:undecided
 

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How about one of the Sennheiser wireless hand-helds (ie, SKM100-835/845/865) that are part of the G2 or G3 series or one of their "reporter's mics" such as the MD46 mated to a G2 or G3 buttplug transmitter.
 
The two biggies are the Senn. MD46, and the Electro-Voice RE50N/D-B. The MD46 is a cardioid pattern while the RE50N is omni. Both work well with a Sennheiser SKP-100 or similar plug on transmitter. The RE50N is the defacto standard reporters mic in the US. They are all over the local and national news. Rugged as a hammer, excellent sound, and relatively cheap. What's not to like?

Unless it's really noisy I'd pick the RE50N. Mine is just excellent and works really well with the SKP-100. The advantage of the omni pattern is that it's much more forgiving of the talent not using it optimally. Small head turns don't take the speakers mouth out of the sweet spot quickly like they do with a cardioid, and the omni pattern doesn't exhibit proximity effect so bass response doesn't change as distance to mouth changes. So unless your talent is really well trained, the omni might be the better choice. Heck, they use 'em in the middle of hurricanes here -- how much noise are you expecting?
 
Bruce, that's really helpful and many thanks for taking your time out to pass on your advice, greatly appreciated. Sparky
 
Hello again Bruce! Are you using your RE5ON mic and SKP-100 transmitter with the G2 or G3 Sennheiser mics? - or perhaps another wireless system altogether. Looking to get everyting I need asap before I head off to Hong Kong shortly.
 
If you are going to China, be careful if you take the new channel 38 kit because one of my chinese suppliers told me the reason they cannot offer the ch 38 equipment, only 69/70 is because ch 38 is used by the military over there. I have NOT been able to confirm this, but could be worth a call to the Chinese Embassy in London to check. I suspect they may not be very understanding if you just take it.

Loads of people who use the old omni commentators/interviewers mics with the plug in transmitters are now using things like the Sennheisers (G2 and G3) with the 845 hypercardioid capsule. held close in, they look pretty godd and for single person use, rather than waggling it around, they're great.
 
Sparky874 said:
Hi there. I shoot on a Sony XDCAM PDW-700. I have a shoot coming up in China in a couple of weeks. The presenter will have to approach a number of people to get their opinions on ask them to do certain things. In my bag, I currently carry two Sennheiser EW 100 G2 radio mics, and a MK416 shotgun mic. I often get the talent to use the MK416 but in the end of a long xlr lead with a pistol grip.

This time I want the talent to use a wireless presenter/interviewer mic, which doesn't need a pistol grip to be held, is directional, sensitive and of course has a lovely sound. Budget isn't really an issue here as the audio is so important here. Could someone please suggest what my best option may be please?

I often get my talent to use the 416 like demonstrated in the picture below but now need a high quality wireless hand held/ presenter mic.
Click to expand...


Best option here is the Sennheiser MD42 or MD46 reporter microphones with the evolution SKP 100 G3 plug-on transmitter.

These are used quite a bit by the BBC for presenter / interview situations.
 
paulears said:
If you are going to China, be careful if you take the new channel 38 kit because one of my chinese suppliers told me the reason they cannot offer the ch 38 equipment, only 69/70 is because ch 38 is used by the military over there. I have NOT been able to confirm this, but could be worth a call to the Chinese Embassy in London to check. I suspect they may not be very understanding if you just take it.

Loads of people who use the old omni commentators/interviewers mics with the plug in transmitters are now using things like the Sennheisers (G2 and G3) with the 845 hypercardioid capsule. held close in, they look pretty godd and for single person use, rather than waggling it around, they're great.
Click to expand...


UK Channel 38 is *ONLY* legal in the UK and must not be used anywhere else in the world as it is a dedicated Radio Astronomy channel (or Military in China it seems).

However - the G3 version "GB" is legal in the USA and Canada providing you avoid the Ch.38 specific frequencies and use the Ch.39/40/41 frequencies also on the system.
 
Sparky874 said:
Hello again Bruce! Are you using your RE50N mic and SKP-100 transmitter with the G2 or G3 Sennheiser mics? - or perhaps another wireless system altogether. Looking to get everyting I need asap before I head off to Hong Kong shortly.
Click to expand...

I'm using a Senn. G3 SKP-100 plug on transmitter. And I don't have a wind screen for it. Used it outside a bit, and even in the rain, but never found a wind screen necessary. I thought that was odd too, but there it is. No doubt I've just been lucky so far, but I have to admit that the RE50N seems to be a heck of a design. Seems to have nearly zero handling noise, and it's pretty immune to at least light wind and rain.

All that said, I don't use that mic all that much. Probably less than 20 hours in the last year. I'm just sayin' that I'm hardly an expert.
 
Personally I would use two radio mics for doing interviews such as this, one as a lav on the presenter and the other as a hand held with either an RE50/SKP100 or a hand held sennheiser stick mic.

I would record split track with the pres on one channel and the interviewee on the other and that way you have always got your talent clean and they can concentrate on pointing the mic at the interviewee.

Another alternative would be to have the lav on the talent and have a radio 416 for the interviews but it all depends on framing and if your talent is in vision or not.

Not sure what audio capabilities your camera has but if it is like my panasonic's that can record four tracks at the same time you can even have split radios mic's and a camera mic all recorded cleanly for manipulation in post or the edit.
 
GaryNattrass said:
Personally I would use two radio mics for doing interviews such as this, one as a lav on the presenter and the other as a hand held with either an RE50/SKP100 or a hand held sennheiser stick mic.

I would record split track with the pres on one channel and the interviewee on the other and that way you have always got your talent clean and they can concentrate on pointing the mic at the interviewee.

Another alternative would be to have the lav on the talent and have a radio 416 for the interviews but it all depends on framing and if your talent is in vision or not.

Not sure what audio capabilities your camera has but if it is like my panasonic's that can record four tracks at the same time you can even have split radios mic's and a camera mic all recorded cleanly for manipulation in post or the edit.
Click to expand...

Nice suggestion Gary. I use my MK416 as a top mic and run it through the rear xlr inputs as my back up channel - then I can have the radio/intermic on the other. I find the 416 mounted as a top mic works out really well.
 
The RE50 doesn't normally need a windscreen, except in extreme conditions.. hurricanes and such.. then a foamy is usually adequate.
 
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