Choosing a Lavalier Microphone (lav mic)
I recently gave a presentation on video production at the College Communicators Association’s fall 2009 conference, held at the College of William & Mary. Most of the folks who attended were either just getting started with video production, or were already producing videos, but with no real backgrounds in video production, were looking to enhance their skills.
While we primarily addressed the video production side of things during our four hour presentation, audio plays a very important role in producing quality content. Today, I received an e-mail from one the attendees and they asked the following question:
Gary,
I was in your video session on Thursday of the CCA conference just a few weeks ago. I have a question for you, we’re interested in purchasing a lav mic. What should we be looking for when we search to purchase? Thanks!
Below is my response to this question:
The first thing you need to consider is the input to your camera. More than likely, if you are using a smaller, handheld camcorder, the mic input will be much like a standard headphone-sized jack. If you have a larger, more professional style news camera, you are probably going to need an XLR input, which is a bigger cable with a three-pronged plug. You see those more in professional videographer news shops.
The next question is whether you want a wired or wireless system. Wired mics are generally less expensive and the sound quality is more reliable. Wireless systems (which we have) allow for more freedom and creative interview framing, but you also run the risk of getting interference depending on the frequency at which the wireless signal broadcasts.
As a general rule of thumb, you get what you pay for. I worked for one shop where we bought a cheap ($109) wireless mic kit with a lav mic, a receiver (plugs into the camera), and a transmitter (where you plug the lav mic into), and we got a ton of static interference with our interviews. At my current shop, we stepped up and got a mic kit for about $250 and it has worked just fine. We had to fine tune the UHF frequency, but that’s not a big deal.
Different mics have different audio pickup patterns. An omnidirectional picks up sound in all direction, which is basically the built-in mic on the camera. For a lav mic, you want a cardiod pattern. We have an Azden lav mic set and you can find it and many others on BHPhoto.com.
Lastly, take into consideration whether you might use the lav mic in wet weather, if so, check to see if your preferred mic is weather resistant or even water proof, though those mics are generally more expensive.
If you have any questions about video or audio production, please feel free to contact me at gary.cope@vt.edu.
