Sennheiser SK3 100 G3 plug on transmitter for use with a shotgun or hyper

hscully

hscully

Veteran
I have a different kind of gig tomorrow where I need to shoot interviews. I have a few Sennheiser G3 lavaliere kits but the producer wants a hand held. I was thinking of investing in something like the Sennheiser MD46 hand held and that butt plug but I don't really do too much of this stuff, mostly narratives. I've always thought it would be great to untether the boom from the mixer for narrative work. I've worked with other production sound people who used Lectrosonics transmitter and receiver with a boom. Has anyone tried the Sennheiser butt plug on a boom shotgun or hyper? How'd it work out?

I might make the purchase if it's worthwhile, otherwise I'm going to just rent for this gig.
 
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The SKP 100 doesn't provide phantom power, so you would need a shotgun or hyper that is self powered. Handheld mic should work fine. The twice-as-expensive SKP300 offers phantom. As far as I know it is compatible with the rest of the ew100 system.
 
While the MD42, 46 and RE50 are great as 'reporters' mics, and would work with the SK100 butt-plug transmitter, they would NOT be a good choice for a boom work. Shotguns and hypers are the 'standard' boom mics. However most shotguns and hypers require Phantom Power.. which the SK100 does not supply, so a battery powered mic or external Phantom Power supply would be needed. Another issue with a wireless boom is the boom operator should have some way to monitor the audio, so that should be taken into consideration as well. Sennheiser does offer compatible Phantom Pwr BP transmitters but are more expensive than their non-powered brethren.
 
I was wondering how it would work with the other shotgun and hyper mics I have, sort of justifying a purchase. I wasn't planning on using the MD42 for other than a hand held. Now that I know that the transmitter I was thinking about does not provide phantom power, and the one that does is so much more, I'm going to wait. Thanks to you and Nate I have the info I need now. I'm going to rent for this one. Thanks guys.
 
lasikdenver said:
I have the setup with this mic but as was said use it handheld, not boomed. No power required but is XLR plug attachment. It works great for interviews, better sound than lav and more solid connection. It is $199. Would not boom well, needs to be close.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/223940-REG/Sennheiser_MD46_MD46_Dynamic_ENG.html
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was just thinking of using the transmitter with other mics if I got it for this gig. That looks like a good mic at a good price and if the producer will go wired, I might just grab one.
 
The omni direction MD42 would be more 'forgiving' than the 46 if the reporter (or person holding it) is inexperienced.
 
Sennheiser makes a G3 plug-in transmitter that supplies phantom power, the SKP 300.

Two considerations before you take your boomed mic wireless:

- Wireless will fail. The boomed mic is usually the hard-wired backup to the wireless lav systems, if it isn't the primary mic.
- A hard-wired mic straight into the mixer and/or recorder is pretty clean (assuming the quality of the mixer and recorder are up to snuff). A wireless transmitter and receiver add companding and will squash the dynamic range a bit, and that will affect the signal quality. Lectro has an extremely low companding artifact compared to others. Sennheiser isn't the worst by far, but it does have an audible impact.
 
My "go to" rig for ENG style interviewing where a visible handheld mic is visually acceptable is the SKP100/MD46 combination, which works just fine (subject to the occasional vagaries of wireless dropouts and interference). I've also used the SKP with my ME66 with good results. I've recently adopted a Sanken CS-3e as my regular short shotgun, but that won't work with the SKP100 as it requires phantom power; I'll probably continue to carry the ME66 around just for that purpose now.

On a boom I usually prefer a fully wired setup.

- Greg
 
I have both options available with an RE50 skp100 or an AT875r with skp300 I also have a sennheiser hand held cardioid hand held radio but the short shotgun with skp300 can be the best option as it can be hand held or boomed!
 
To bluntly expand on our esteemed section moderator's statement; a $20.00 mic cable will be more reliable and sound as good.. if not better than a $3k+ wireless system.
 
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