Capture Video – Do You Hear That?

Do You Hear That?

The quality of the audio is one of the things that really makes the difference between a professional recording and something that looks, or more specifically, sounds, like a home video. Using top quality microphones gives you high quality sound, and allows the audience to really hear your message loud and clear.

One microphone commonly used in professional video recording is the lavaliere microphone, often referred to simply as a lav. This is the little clip on that you see on many TV news anchors and on interview shows. Lavs can be wireless or wired. Wireless can sometimes have interference from other wireless devices, like cell phones, but are generally pretty resilient. However, in areas of bad interference, a wired mic could be employed.

Boom mics are the ones that you can sometimes see in a movie, that really shouldn’t be in the shot. If you’re shooting a scenario, where the audience isn’t supposed to notice the technology (like a lavaliere microphone), you use a boom mic, so the fourth wall isn’t broken. A boom mic usually requires 2 people, the boom operator, who makes sure it is in the right places, and a sound mixer or engineer, who records the audio and levels it.

One other common microphone that your video company will sometimes provide is a handheld mic. This can be used for man on the street style interviews, where the on screen talent pulls people aside and asks them impromptu questions.

Other mics, like podium mics, for example, are often provided by the A/V company or venue, which can sometimes confuse clients. If you are having an event that needs sound to be projected, like when you are speaking to a room of 500 people and need audio fed through speakers, the A/V company or venue will most likely provide your mic – whether it is a lavaliere, handheld or podium mic. In many of those cases, your video company can plug into the sound system provided by the venue and record audio straight from their feed. This is a great option for professional audio recording for live events.

And just a quick note about audio mixing. In general, professional cameras have two audio inputs. If you need to have more microphones running on a shoot, it is usually best to have a sound engineer on the crew, who can take multiple microphone feeds and mix the audio. Of course, if your audio mixing is being done by an A/V crew, then the camera operator should, again, be able to plugin to their sound system and record from their mix.

Whatever your audio situation – whether it’s a controlled shoot in a sound stage or a live event with lots of ambient noise – discuss your audio options with your video producer. Nothing makes a video look unprofessional faster than it sounding unprofessional.