Sound Reasoning: Sweet Sound of Matrimony (page 2)

Wireless Worries

If the church provided no P.A. system at all, John would ask the pastor if he would wear a wireless lav. This is a common way to record the pastor giving the service; most clergy have experience wearing "a wire."

John owns a wireless system with a range of 500 to 1000 feet. He knows that even in "adverse" conditions, these mikes will transmit safely at least 100 feet, and John plans his setup accordingly.

Traditionally, videomakers place the wireless lavalier on the groom. The groom's dark tux effectively hides the mike and its associated wiring. The bride, because of her customary white gown, rarely wears a mike.

Some churches include a wireless lavalier for the clergy as part of the sound system. If that's the case, John will check with the church's audio person to determine the frequency of the church's wireless system. John has suffered the embarrassing experience of listening with the whole congregation to derogatory comments of all types made by the unwitting groom in the bathroom and broadcast over the church P.A. system.

If the church system uses the same frequency as John's system, John will provide the pastor with a hard-wired mike; he'll also place a hard-wired mike on the podium. But these are emergency situations; John's normal set up is a wireless on the groom and on the podium. John arrives early to mike those who'll wear lavs; he's determined which side the bride and groom will stand on, and moved the groom's lav as close to the middle of the couple as possible.

Occasionally, John must shoot weddings where he's unable to tap into the church's P.A. system and the pastor refuses to wear a lapel mike. As a result, John clips the groom's lav mike as far down on his lapel as possible. By moving the mike away from the groom's dominating voice, John can raise the gain on the mike, achieving a better balance between the groom, the bride and the preacher. When the pastor does agrees to wear a lav, John will still mount the lav low on the groom's lapel and as close to the bride as is feasible.

When mounting lavalier mikes to the groom and pastor, John gives them cheerful instructions not to play with the mike and to try to ignore the mike altogether. He also makes sure that the transmitting antenna wires lay straight up and down, not sideways or curled up into a ball of wire: this improves the mike's transmission considerably. He then replaces the battery and makes sure that the transmitters are on. Fresh batteries will generally power a wireless lav far longer than most services run. Finally, John places a hard-wired condensor mike on a stand at the back of the hall facing toward the service, to record ambient …