Kieran has won 2 BAFTA awards and has worked on 15 Oscar nominated
films as well as numerous television series.
Who Likes using Radio Mics? A necessary evil on location to get out of trouble? Well we do! And more so than ever now even with ever increasing noisy background levels
I think the fear of using Radio Mics is linked strongly to the past. There are a number of identifiable problem areas with Radio Mics:
- Transmission Paths
- Clothing Noise/Rustle
- Variations between vocal qualities of actors
Over the past 25 years Radio Mics have improved the R.F. Paths to such a degree, even with the escalating number of frequencies used by telemetry devices, that the Radio Mics, like the RMS2000 diversity system, have virtually solved all the R.F problems of yesteryear.
I now will use a boom via the Audio RMS2000 Dx rather than use cables through noisy electrical fields of HMI 12 KHz to 20 KHz and dirty locations - I hate cleaning dirty cables. The diversity Radio Mics have in my experience totally done away with any concern over R.F. problems. Therefore strike problem 1 off the list.
With reference to clothing noise/rustle, this will always be with us, until people are born with inbuilt mics! However with proper consultation before productions with the wardrobe/costume designers, many of these problems can be solved. Also with the widespread use of non linear editing the access to such small bits of a frame otherwise unheard of years ago, can be largely edited out and tracks cleaned up of rustles and bangs close to dialogue tracks.