Wireless headphones to monitor sound being recorded into the camcorder?

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Filmkid2003

Well-known member
Hey everyone. Do they make wireless headphones that can pick up the sound being recorded into my HPX170 so the person operating the boom can monitor the sound being recorded by the HPX170 without having to wear headphones with a long wire running from the headphones jack on the HPX170 to the headphones? Or is this impossible? Something with Bluetooth technology perhaps? I can't afford to buy a separate field recorder and will need to record the audio straight into the camcorder. Thanks.
 
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This is typically done with a "dual cable" or "boom snake" made for boom operators. The snake uses one shielded pair for the boom mic, from the boom to the camera. And the other shielded pair to take the headphone monitor audio from the camera or mixer and feed it back to the boom operator.
 
sure you can buy yourself a lectro IFB system for the top end side of things
and a senn G2/G3, or a comtek system for the lower end side of things.

Though without a mixer controlling levels you're at the mercy of the guy behind the camera riding the levels which wont be a great thing.


I suggest you go the opposite direction with this..
a mixer (on the boom op side for volumes and monitoring)
and a wireless link to send to camera.
You're implying the mic will be wireless anyway..
so instead of 2 wireless signals..this will make it 1 and the better way to do it anyway.

Either way..the camera guy should be monitoring just to make sure its not clipping or distorting or ..etc.
 
We have Comteks for our cameras, though I usually hand them off to the audio operator, who in turn gives them to a producer. Then I have to go with earbuds hardwired to the camera / breakaway cable return from the audio operator.

I've been thinking I might try this as a less expensive option since I'm usually so close to the camera anyway. You would still hook it into the return spare 3.5mm jack.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DRBT100CX-SLV-Bluetooth-Headset/dp/B001QXDSO0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Adapter-Players/dp/B000P9CEVO/ref=pd_sim_e_3

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From what I can recall, bluetooth only has the bandwidth to do single channel 16/44.1, I'd do some careful research before going with a bluetooth solution.
 
what i've done in the past on a very limited shoot, was rolls mp13 with boom plugged into it, it also has headphone out, and then wireless transmitter to camera. and the mp13 will provide phantom power too, so you can do it with any mic. but that still leaves camera op responsible for riding levels.
 
bluetooth for audio sucks. You can find 2.4Ghz wireless digital systems on ebay for almost same price.
i use a sony UWP-V1 or C1 as microphone transmitter to the camera and back to monitoring with such device, it works great.
if several micro are involved, i use an Alesis multimix firewire to record multitrack to a PC and send the stereo mix to camera with same digital wireless transmitter.
if you send the full stereo to the guy who handle only one mic, you can modify the headphone plug to have only his take monitored, because operating a mic while monitoring an additional sound is difficult.
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-4-GHz-Wireles...er_MP3_Player_Accessories?hash=item414bc14872
I purchased these ones for sending audio from a laptop to powered loudspeaker.
They are cheap, but the quality is very average. I got another one that is better but twice expensive.

for a bit more money, you can go with wirelss video too, so video monitoring can be possible.
worth to think about
 
Thanks, Nosys. The UWP-V1 looks like a good system. I have two questions though. Okay, three questions. First, can I connect a Rode NTG-3 shotgun microphone into the transmitter via a balanced XLR to 1/8" mini cable? Second, can you connect headphones to the transmitter and, if not, do they make wireless headphones that receive the signal from the transmitter so the sound guy operating the boom can hear what the mic is picking up without having to connect headphones to the camcorder? And finally, do nearby cell phone signals cause any interference with the transmitter/receiver? Thanks.
 
If you are buying radio headphones for monitoring, avoid digital ones (Bluetooth and the like) as you will get thrown by the latency.

Use analogue, or better, an IEM receiver with headphones connected.
 
unfortunately if transmitter is not balanced (and phantom powered) you can not use such mic. The UWP-V1 ist not, so you have tu use regular unbalanced mic. and unfortunately , they put headphone jack on the receiver, but not on the transmitter, so the only way to get feedback is either to capture mic before entering transmitter, or getting it back from the receiver or camera.
if you are in the need to use balanced/phantom powered mics, you could purchase an adapter that provide this while allowing an unbalanced output and even monitoring. it exists.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...Monitor_PRE1_AMIS_PRE1_Microphone_Preamp.html

On the other hand if the mic choice is not already done, you can simply switch to an unbalanced mic, this is not a problem, since with a wireless transmitter the length of the cable will be short and you will loose nothing in quality from that point of view.
Personally i do not like balanced/phantom powered mics, because i try to keep the cable short (if i need to go long, then i go wireless) and i use a lot
of cheap equipement with only minijack unbalanced input.

For me it is better to monitor what goes in the camera, since you have a wireless connection between the mic and the cam, so the guy who monitor the mic can make sure it has arrived ok to the cam.
 
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I take it you are not using a field mixer at all and are going straight into the camera?

Since you are running XLR's straight into the cam why not run another set to the boom op. Take a 1/8" stereo male to xlr adapter and plug into another XLR to the boom op. Use a xlr to 1/4 female stereo adapter and plug in headphones.

This will be an unbalanced stereo (2 channel) connection so make sure those are stereo to XLR adapters that don't sum the 2 channels into a mono balanced XLR connection. (pins 2 and 3 will run channels 1 and 2 (or is it the reverse?) and pin1 will be the ground for both).

Cheaper than wireless headphones, which imo are overkill since you are running sound from the boom op anyway, what's one more cable?

You could just go with a cheap cable that has 1/8" male and 1/4" female stereo connections, but even though you are running unbalanced the XLR will still have better shielding than a cheap cable will.
 
Thanks, guys. On second thought, after reading everyone's replies, I'm thinking I should buy a wireless system that I can hook the shotgun mic up to so I'm not tethered to the boom operator by having an XLR cable running from the camera to the boom op. That way I can move around freely without getting snagged since I plan on doing mostly handheld shots. That still leaves me with the problem of having the boom operator monitoring the sound without having to run a headphone cable from the camera to the boom operator. As far as radio controlled (or radio frequency?) wireless headphones go, where online can I buy such a thing? If they work better than wireless bluetooth headphones then I'm... wait for it.... waaaaait for it... "all ears". Ba-da bing!


One more thing... just how bad is the latency with the wireless bluetooth headphones? Are we talking milliseconds or seconds?
 
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Bluetooth is not going to give you a satisfactory result. Buying random wireless headphones isn't going to be any better. If you want to go totally wireless, you're going to have to spend some money. I suspect you're really not too keen on that, but let's run the (rough) numbers anyways.

First, you need a quality hop to the camera. The assumption is you're not using a mixer, so you're probably best off with a plug-in transmitter. You're running with an NTG-3, so you need phantom, so your minimum is probably Senheisser's 2000 series, say $800 for the transmitter, and another $450 for a g3 reciever. So, you've got audio to the camera for the low low everyday price of $1250.

Now of couse the whole reason you're here is the hop back to the boom op. So that's another $280 or so for a G3 stereo transmitter, and about $450 for the IEM reciever. Our total is now up to just under $2000.

Oh, and good headphones. $100 for a pair of 7506s of HD80s.

And that's it, you're completely wireless for say $2,100. (Frankly, a bargain.)

(Of course that's with entry-level gear. Step that up to $7,000+ if you want to go with the higher quality Zaxcom or Lectro gear.)
 
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if you need to go totaly wireless , i woudl buy 2 sony uwp-v1 (or the plugin version).
So either you can get 2 wireless mic, or use one of the set as feedback
or use one mic and 2 receivers set to receive the same mic.

for the mics, i would try some cheap RODE unbalanced.

if you need to go cheaper, one SONY and one cheap wireless sound transmitter from ebay.
For the wired headphones, you can find tons of it in any supermarket for less than $30. Choose one that well cover the hear and it will be fine to start.

or, if you can find these RF wireless headphone (not the IR version), you could attach the headphone transmitter to the camera and get as much wireless headphones as needed.
I use such system to drive cameramen from console in multicam event and it works great, while sound quality here is not wanted (and is poor), it is just to pass information to cameramen.

I mean, whatever you buy, it is what you do with that is important.
If you purchase for $3000 of equipement and it stays in the bag because it is too bulky or to long to set-up, it is totally useless.
So keep it simple and cheap , and test it. If you find it needs improvement in a way or another, then it will be time to spend money.
 
It's been said many times before; buying cheap gear is expensive, and the less money you have to work with, the more important it is to NOT throw it away on junk.
 
Really, even with wireless micing.. you really need a locations mixer. A decent boom/audio guy should be able to run the boom and mix the boom/lavs at the same time.

Actually a really good location audio op should be able to boom, mix and brew tea, while rolling a cigarette and solving a crossword, at the same time. ;)
 
Filmkid2003 said:
Thanks, guys. On second thought, after reading everyone's replies, I'm thinking I should buy a wireless system that I can hook the shotgun mic up to so I'm not tethered to the boom operator by having an XLR cable running from the camera to the boom op. That way I can move around freely without getting snagged since I plan on doing mostly handheld shots. That still leaves me with the problem of having the boom operator monitoring the sound without having to run a headphone cable from the camera to the boom operator. As far as radio controlled (or radio frequency?) wireless headphones go, where online can I buy such a thing? If they work better than wireless bluetooth headphones then I'm... wait for it.... waaaaait for it... "all ears". Ba-da bing!
Click to expand...

This is easy - just get a second receiver with a headphones output.

EG: SKP 2000 plug-on transmitter + EK 2000 camera receiver + EK 2000 IEM receiver for monitoring.




Filmkid2003 said:
One more thing... just how bad is the latency with the wireless bluetooth headphones? Are we talking milliseconds or seconds?
Click to expand...

Too long for monitoring purposes.
 
Okay, so after doing a little research and also because I can't afford to spend $2,000 on a wireless system, I've taken everyone's feedback and I've come up with a possible solution. Get the Sennheiser EW 100 G3 wireless system and:

1. Plug my Rode NTG-3 mic into a balanced XLR splitter cable and plug the XLR transmitter into one of the split cables
2. Plug the reciever into my HPX170 and plug my noise canceling headphones into the receiver
3. Save the other receiver that comes with the system for when we need to use a lavalier mic

Now, as for the boom operator being able to monitor the sound coming from the NTG-3 mic, I'm planning on buying the Rolls MP13 mini mic preamp

http://www.amazon.com/Rolls-MP13-Mini-Mic-Preamp/dp/B0002BG2QI

and running a balanced XLR cable from the bottom of the boom pole into the MP13. Then, the boom operator can plug their noise canceling headphones into the MP13 and monitor the dialog going into the mic. The other end of the boom cable will be plugged into the remaining XLR split cable. Here is the balanced XLR splitter cable I plan on buying: http://www.amazon.com/Dual-Cable-Splitter-GLS-Audio/dp/B0010VQO8A

What do you guys think? And yes, I, the director (and camera operator), will be keeping an eye on the levels because I'm not going to have the advantage of an experienced sound guy booming the mic. I'm going to have a film student operating the boom and so, I want to be able to keep an eye (ear?) on the sound level.
 
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Exactly what 'noise canceling headphones' are you planning to use? You don't want anything that's actively messing with what you're hearing. Sony's MDR-7506 and Senheisser's HD280 are industry standards and not at all expensive.
 
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