malpractice?

FMEng

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Is this audio malpractice? The mics were obscuring faces.

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I know the SM-57s have been a tried and true setup that White House crews have been using since the 1970s but, for heaven's sake it's 2021. There are many very high quality podium mics that look much better on camera and sound as good or better. It certainly wasn't a budget issue or lack of planning. I wonder if they still use M67 mixers?

And, why in the world don't they put a pair of lavs on the President and Vice President for the oaths? The mic several feet away really doesn't cut it. With modern, encrypted systems, there no reason not to use some wireless. It's been a noticeable problem for years.
 
Is this audio malpractice? The mics were obscuring faces.

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I know the SM-57s have been a tried and true setup that White House crews have been using since the 1970s but, for heaven's sake it's 2021. There are many very high quality podium mics that look much better on camera and sound as good or better. It certainly wasn't a budget issue or lack of planning. I wonder if they still use M67 mixers?

And, why in the world don't they put a pair of lavs on the President and Vice President for the oaths? The mic several feet away really doesn't cut it. With modern, encrypted systems, there no reason not to use some wireless. It's been a noticeable problem for years.
They actually aren't even 57's anymore. Just the shells, they've been drilled out to accept a Schoeps Colette mk4 inside the 57 shell to retain the look of the "presidential package" Schoeps inside a 57 is the new standard package going forward.

I wrote this moment off more as she was shorter than some of the other speakers and the camera needed a higher angle on her, the other speakers didn't have them quite as much in front of their face as she did.
 
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Wireless is high stakes. Hot mic risks, tons of media showing up with their own RF. Requires physical contact with the principals, who are brought in and out in a ceremonial fashion that precludes them from an opportunity to mic them up/down, and from having mic's checked once they arrive. Lots of side conversations with other members of gov't that nobody wants to be mic'd during for privacy and national security reasons.

Mostly downsides to wireless with minimal reward.
 
Is this audio malpractice? The mics were obscuring faces.

View attachment 21435

I know the SM-57s have been a tried and true setup that White House crews have been using since the 1970s but, for heaven's sake it's 2021. There are many very high quality podium mics that look much better on camera and sound as good or better. It certainly wasn't a budget issue or lack of planning. I wonder if they still use M67 mixers?

And, why in the world don't they put a pair of lavs on the President and Vice President for the oaths? The mic several feet away really doesn't cut it. With modern, encrypted systems, there no reason not to use some wireless. It's been a noticeable problem for years.
@FMEng At least they've modernized from P connectors to XLR's; don't expect too much in any one decade.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Where was the stagehand with the half apple box. I have mentioned this before but one time Speaker of the House Carl Albert was, uh vertically challenged and carried a "PortaPodium" when on a speaking tour. One of his assistants would place this behind the lectern then Mr. Albert would walk out and obviously step up onto this to make his speech. I guess he figured no one in the audience would notice? Oh, this device was actually a wooden pop bottle case wrapped in fabric.
 
Is this one of those rumors, or can you cite a source?
It’s from the audio engineer that mixed the broadcast feed for the inauguration committee pool. Schoeps into a focusrite rednet to distribute it for the live pa and broadcast. A neve 5045 plug-in, LA2A plugin and then some compression.
One of the reasons cited for the switch to the Schoeps is it provides added abatement of wind noise but maintains the traditional look and that there are a handful of these new packages already traveling around with the Biden team.

That’s him on the day right after he shared that info.
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Don't know if this is true or not, but ...
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And, why in the world don't they put a pair of lavs on the President and Vice President for the oaths?

Wireless is not only susceptible to all of the problems we're familiar with (and that we mostly have addressed), but also vulnerable to intentional interference or even hijacking by potential bad actors (there are also ways to mitigate that, but there's a risk/reward analysis to be done there), not to mention the security concerns of having a wireless mic on folks who could, at any moment, be taken to the side by staff/security/military advisors to discuss matters of national security.
 
And, why in the world don't they put a pair of lavs on the President and Vice President for the oaths? The mic several feet away really doesn't cut it. With modern, encrypted systems, there no reason not to use some wireless. It's been a noticeable problem for years.

If you can get a politician - even at the local level - to wear a lav, you're a smoother talker than I will ever be, lol....

True story: when we install conferencing mics that have built-in "status" LEDs, we typically program them to be green = talk and red = muted. On two separate projects here in SoNev, the politicians the mics were for (both Chambers projects) insisted it be the other way: green = "it's safe to have a side conversation" and red = "danger! Your mic is hot!"
 
If you can get a politician - even at the local level - to wear a lav, you're a smoother talker than I will ever be, lol....

True story: when we install conferencing mics that have built-in "status" LEDs, we typically program them to be green = talk and red = muted. On two separate projects here in SoNev, the politicians the mics were for (both Chambers projects) insisted it be the other way: green = "it's safe to have a side conversation" and red = "danger! Your mic is hot!"

Lolol

Reminds me of a renovation of a large theater in Richmond, VA. The electrical contractor surveyed the project during demo and spray painted conduits based on if they were going to be demo'd or kept. They started spray painting green X's on conduits that would be kept and red X's on conduits that were going to be demo'd. Somewhere along the way they flipped that -- green became "safe to demo" and red was "don't touch". In an attempt to clarify, they went back to the original scheme and painted over anything that was wrong. Lot of pipes ended up having 2 or 3 colors of paint on them before it was done -- especially when they ran out of red/green and started using black...
 
After running boards for plays, musicals, presentations, graduations, and whatever else, I will say wireless could be the stupidest thing to have if there's a chance of an aside being captured or frequency being hijacked. I'm not at all calling you stupid, so I apologize if you think I am. With the magic of listening in on people over the board, I've heard more than enough from people that if I were unscrupulous, I could have hurt careers or worse. Just search politicians caught on hot mic to see what's BEEN captured and reported on. The fact that we know what frequencies most of the lav mics work on make them ripe for hijacking, not that the average person would know how, but someone could figure it out.

When I was much younger, I used to demonstrate that Wendy's drive-thru was wide open, because their headsets could be picked up on a simple bearcat scanner, and once you knew that, you could broadcast direct to their frequency. I wasn't malicious, but others could be.
 
Even as someone who's worked many corporate events with moving pieces, the last thing you want to deal with is someone with the wrong microphone. People go to the restroom, have assistants help with wardrobe and makeup and things can get forgotten or swapped. If you're going to put a mic on the podium as a backup to the lav that they're wearing, why wear the lav at all?
Getting a handheld or beltpack swapped is a nightmare, when it's technically not your show and you can't just have an A2 run up and fix it. Also preparing with redundancy, you'd want everyone to wear 2 lavs which is twice the headache for the speaker and clogs up your potential RF spectrum even more.
I can even bet that besides Gaga wanting her mic to match her outfit, there's a general level of relief when visually you know someone is at the correct mic without having to quickly PFL and listen for breathing.

These level of events don't allow for dropping the first word because mics got swapped or one of the A1s was confused.
 
One other thing to remember about wireless unit's and them being forgotten about. Remember some time ago a reality TV personality was guesting on another show. That show's host and the guest personality were wandering around talking with the wireless mic's still on. The conversation was about the guest being so rich and famous he could get away with all sorts of things. I'll stop right there.
 
I gotta wonder what lead them to bodge it into a 57 skeleton instead of just using the collete as is? Kinda like putting an LS1 into a VW bus.
 
I gotta wonder what lead them to bodge it into a 57 skeleton instead of just using the Collete as is? Kinda like putting an LS1 into a VW bus.
Random thoughts / North of the walls logic:
1; Tradition, maintaining the official "Presidential look" simultaneously honoring / remembering / saluting past presidents and forefathers.
2; American / Made in the U.S. pride: Who'd want to know / think their president is communicating via a FOREIGN microphone.
3; What mic's as easily recognized / well known / entrenched in viewers minds as the proudly U.S. Shure SM58 / 57?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I gotta wonder what lead them to bodge it into a 57 skeleton instead of just using the collete as is? Kinda like putting an LS1 into a VW bus.
The 57s have been the presidential look for what almost 40 years? Or.. wait it’s 2021, even longer than that, almost 60 years. So they wanted to maintain the tradition and look but the colletes give them a better sound and better wind abatement. They’ve also been hiding one nestled between the 2 57’s used on podiums for whitehouse events since the Clinton era. Until this modification it was only for whitehouse events and they’d go back to just 57’s if they were off White House grounds.
 

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