Lav mic rental mishap

Knoxworth

Knoxworth

Well-known member
Was contracted to shoot a wedding today. Last minute. The videographer was double booked so he put me as the primary shooter on one ceremony. He said he was renting me a wireless lav system and that I'd be all set.

I brought my lobar mic just in case.

So I show up to prep, hours before the ceremony. I'm waiting for the photographer to come by for a photo shoot. So I examine the lav system. The rental place set us up with a female XLR adapter. Wait.... female? What the hell? My HVX has a female connection. It's impossible to use this lav system and there's NO time. Since when do you have to specify you need a male connection?

$40 rental. Down the drain for this guy. Then again he deserves it. He didn't bother to check the equipment thoroughly. And he sent me off to shoot a wedding with nothing more than the onboard mic on my HVX.

My backup system ended up being more reliable than his primary system. Thank you again, ME67! I love you!
 
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Knoxworh, I owned a rental company until I sold it to retire (Laughing). I've fired more people for NOT doing a complete setup and checkout...than any other reason.

You are entitled to a FULL refund and apology. Even that's not enough.

It's also the reason I always have a full assortment of adapters, spare cables and Gender Benders, with me.

What can go wrong....will!
 
Peternap said:
It's also the reason I always have a full assortment of adapters, spare cables and Gender Benders, with me.
Click to expand...

Sage words. If you are going to be handling your own audio, you should invest in a basic kit of adapters. XLR male>male and female>female turnarounds are quite handy. In-line XLR ground lift barrels, a couple of DI boxes, and inline XLR attenuator barrels (line>mic adapters) are also important. And don't forget a selection of 1/4", 1/8", and RCA adapters, couplers, turnarounds, etc.
 
Sorry to hear about that. We rent out the Sennheiser G2/G3's and have always had great results. Then again, we know what goes in the kit as we've done it so many times before. We even include spare cables in case one gets damaged during the shoot. As others have said, I'd not only ask for a refund, I would be sending a nice note to the company owner describing the experience. Hopefully so the next guy doesn't have it happen to him. I'm glad that your trusty ME67 was able to provide adequate dialogue.
You might want to look at Remote Audio's Adapt-a-Pak http://www.remoteaudio.com/adapt_a_pak/ also if you're on a budget, but looking for something so this doesn't happen again, I just saw a good deal on some b-stock Sony wireless at http://prooutlet.sel.sony.com/
 
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