A couple of years ago I read an article online about the micing of the president's
podium. Sorry, I can't remember the url. As far as I've been told those two mics are for reliability, if one goes down, the other can soldier on. At least with the president, those two mics also feed a big splitter for all the press to tap into. One of the
stage carpenters I worked with at the
theatre I work at during the summers also had a part-time job with a regional cable news
channel as a cameraman and a tape-op. When the president came to our area, he said that all they had to do was
plug an
XLR into the splitter. I don't know if you noticed, but when Bush was new in office he used three microphones on his
podium, now it's only two. Also
Shure claims that the president has used SM-57's for many years. The mics do sort of look like 57's, but wrapped in some black material and with windscreens. Does anyone know for sure.