RTE Sweeping-Brush Microphone, 1960-ish

Bongalongherb · 10-09-2014 6:23am #1

With all the monies from the TV licence and adverts RTE get, how on earth in this day and age have they not progressed to wireless microphones ? Am I missing something ? or am I still living in the 1960's ?.

You have this guy in the red tee-shirt craning a long looking sweeping-brush thing with a woolly shoe looking thing at the end of it holding it over the audience's heads. I don't get it. Wouldn't a few wireless microphone transceivers do it better incase it drops on their heads ?. Is this 1960 or 2014 ? where is the new technology, or should I say 'old technology' and why are RTE workers still using sweeping brushes to record the sound-voice ?.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSoAq4lainI

EoghanIRL · 10-09-2014 6:29am

Can't believe it's 1960 and they still haven't found a cure for Alzheimers.

Phoebas · 10-09-2014 6:54am

They should give every audience member a microphone just in case they want to contribute?
Or the guy in the tee shirt should be making his way through the audience delivering a wireless mic whenever someone wants to speak?

Bongalongherb · 10-09-2014 7:30am

Phoebas wrote: »

They should give every audience member a microphone just in case they want to contribute?
Or the guy in the tee shirt should be making his way through the audience delivering a wireless mic whenever someone wants to speak?

All they have to do is clip on a wireless mic to the persons that will be speaking in the show, it's pre-setup on who can ask questions, so clip on the mic and switch it on when that particular persons time comes to speak.

The gigantic tower-pole is a bit crazy looking these days on live tv, the poor feller is there holding out a huge pole as if he was trying to catch a fish, it's just not on.

dmc17 · 10-09-2014 7:45am

Bongalongherb wrote: »

All they have to do is clip on a wireless mic to the persons that will be speaking in the show, it's pre-setup on who can ask questions, so clip on the mic and switch it on when that particular persons time comes to speak.

The gigantic tower-pole is a bit crazy looking these days on live tv, the poor feller is there holding out a huge pole as if he was trying to catch a fish, it's just not on.

It is on. You can hear them perfectly!

Bongalongherb · 10-09-2014 8:11am

Another draconian invention here... A Thirzt Ball ? WTF.

Needing a bottle of water I entered the fridge to see this thirzt-ball water thing, slightly larger than my salt cellar, either things are getting smaller in my peripheral vision, or I'm going crazy ?.

One slurp and it's gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afDmu1EH-nE

Kichote · 10-09-2014 9:23am

Bongalongherb wrote: »

With all the monies from the TV licence and adverts RTE get, how on earth in this day and age have they not progressed to wireless microphones ? Am I missing something ? or am I still living in the 1960's ?.

You have this guy in the red tee-shirt craning a long looking sweeping-brush thing with a woolly shoe looking thing at the end of it holding it over the audience's heads. I don't get it. Wouldn't a few wireless microphone transceivers do it better incase it drops on their heads ?. Is this 1960 or 2014 ? where is the new technology, or should I say 'old technology' and why are RTE workers still using sweeping brushes to record the sound-voice ?.

Transceiver? What exactly do you want to send back to the mic?

Dravokivich · 10-09-2014 9:37am

There can be a lot of issues with interference. I was working a gig once and a DJ in a club below us, his head phones signal was coming through one of our mics. Who the fúck needs wireless headphones to sync a beat between 2 songs?

L1011 · 10-09-2014 10:38am

The "wooly thing" is actually pretty integral in ensuring you only pick up the right sounds on the mic, and the use of a boom mic is to avoid having to wire every single potential speaker with a wireless mic, battery pack, etc. This is entirely normal in TV, not some relic of the 60s.

Bongalongherb · 10-09-2014 11:11pm

MYOB wrote: »

The "wooly thing" is actually pretty integral in ensuring you only pick up the right sounds on the mic, and the use of a boom mic is to avoid having to wire every single potential speaker with a wireless mic, battery pack, etc. This is entirely normal in TV, not some relic of the 60s.

But it is a relic of the 1960's. Surely they can devise something better than having a man running around stretching out this huge long pole, it's ancient looking.

The wireless microphone is a transceiver, so I don't know what the other poster was going on about. Like I said, each individual microphone would only be turned on when it's their time to speak, it's very basic stuff.

darkpagandeath · 10-09-2014 11:14pm

Don't they use all the money to pay massive wages, You know to the people who would go to the BBC or were ever. Even though the BBC or whoever would never have heard of them.

Lapin · 10-09-2014 11:15pm

Bongalongherb wrote: »

With all the monies from the TV licence and adverts RTE get, how on earth in this day and age have they not progressed to wireless microphones ? Am I missing something ? or am I still living in the 1960's ?.

You have this guy in the red tee-shirt craning a long looking sweeping-brush thing with a woolly shoe looking thing at the end of it holding it over the audience's heads. I don't get it. Wouldn't a few wireless microphone transceivers do it better incase it drops on their heads ?. Is this 1960 or 2014 ? where is the new technology, or should I say 'old technology' and why are RTE workers still using sweeping brushes to record the sound-voice ?.

But he's not wearing a tee-shirt.

Your entire post is null and void now.

Shame. It could have been something.

thebaz · 10-09-2014 11:15pm

as MYOB says above the boom mic is one of the best mics for recording sound - its very tricky to operate correctly in studio , a skilled art.

Like saying why do some photographer still shoot on film , sometimes old is just better, regardless of modern advancements

Freddie Mercurys Bolero · 10-09-2014 11:19pm

Am I the only person who sniggered at 'stretching out his big long pole? '

Probably.

darkpagandeath · 10-09-2014 11:21pm

thebaz wrote: »

as MYOB says above the boom mic is one of the best mics for recording sound - its very tricky to operate correctly in studio , a skilled art.

Like saying why do some photographer still shoot on film , sometimes old is just better, regardless of modern advancements

Would that be the same mic they use on the RTE news channel that is to loud and crackles ? :pac:

Bipolar Joe · 10-09-2014 11:28pm

They shouldn't change it just because you don't know how technology works.

Bipolar Joe · 10-09-2014 11:30pm

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Would that be the same mic they use on the RTE news channel that is to loud and crackles ? :pac:

I'm pretty sure they use lavalier microphones.

Sh1tbag OToole · 10-09-2014 11:38pm

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

They shouldn't change it just because you don't know how technology works.

There was a thread in the amateur radio forum a while back about a neighbour complaining about a large antenna someone had put onto their roof. The neighbour reckoned that due to obvious advances in technology he could use a small parabolic dish instead. Even for low frequency omnidirectional stuff.

Maybe the crowd in RTE should replace their mics with iPhone 6's connected via wifi, everyone knows that all the components in an iPhone are perfect and iPhones can be used to replace anything that was made in the pre-iPhone era

beks101 · 10-09-2014 11:47pm

The boom mic is the number one choice for audio recording in TV and film production, you'd be hard-pressed to find a professional TV/film crew on location anywhere that doesn't use one of these guys.

Aside from the superior audio quality, it gives the speaker a lot more flexibility within the shot - if they turn around or face out of the frame, they sound natural, as opposed to that horrible 'off mic' sound you can get if a guest makes a sudden move and it's not caught by the wireless mic and they have no overhead boom.

Boom operator is not as easy a job as it seems though - positioning is key to getting the best audio, usually just out of shot above the frame-line and in the centre of the frame. And those fcukers are finicky and hard to keep in place, you really don't want a case of the DTs if you're booming a live shot. I tried it once when our sound guy had gone MIA coming up to a live outside broadcast, thinking, 'pffft, piece of piss', unbenownst to me there was what looked like a furry little ferret hovering overhead of a prominent politician's head for the duration of the broadcast...ooops...

thebaz · 10-09-2014 11:48pm

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

I'm pretty sure they use lavalier microphones.

yeah , no need for a boom in a newsroom with 1 or 2 people , just wire em up - in a studio with a crowd , boom mic makes perfect sense

Bongalongherb · 10-09-2014 11:58pm

Fair enough, there are some good answers here. It just seems a clumsy tool to use these days, but if it does the job better than the new tech we have now, then ok.

AnonoBoy · 10-09-2014 11:59pm

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Would that be the same mic they use on the RTE news channel that is to loud and crackles ? :pac:

A mic itself cannot be too loud.

Only the levels that the mic is recording at.

It's not the mic's fault, just the person who's doing the recording.

RTE Sweeping-Brush Microphone, 1960-ish

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