In a bid to take up even more of the wireless radio spectrum, President Barack Obama has signed a presid ential memorandum supporting the FCC’s release of 500 MHz of wireless spectrum for broadband services. It’s been no secret that the FCC has been trying to play catch up with Europe on

Have you ever heard barking dogs or traffic noise in a professional voice-over? Of course not. Professional productions use recording studios with specially treated sound booths. This gives them full control and clean audio. But what about the rest of us? Sure, we could rent time in a studio, but th

You know you need an external microphone, but which one? The built-in mic on your camera just won’t cut it most of the time. You’ve got a microphone jack but you’re having a hard time deciding how to spend your hard-earned cash. If you’re shooting sit-down interviews or news

If you can’t afford to play with the big boys but still want to achieve that big boy sound then you’ll want to check out this trio from RODE Microphones. Their NTG-2 shotgun mic delivers more than adequate sound for most applications and when supported by the PG2 Pistol Grip shock mount

Formerly the exclusive realm of engineers tucked away in expensive high-end studios, audio mastering had long eluded both the abilities and the pocketbooks of the average video producer. As economics and artistic drive have led more and more producers to become proficient at every aspect of their pr

Your cell phone rings. Before you can even say “hello,” Jeff, who sounds as if he’s been shot out of a cannon, gets right to the point: “Dude – Awesome news! We got a gig down at the Legion next Saturday night! Can you bring your video camera and tape us? We’ll ge

There is a technique from the world of motion pictures that has become more popular with smaller productions lately. It’s called Dual System Sound and it has the potential to take your projects to the next level, if you’re willing and able to deal with the added expense and hassle. The u

Was it just me, or was anyone else that was surprised at the lack of statues taken away by Team Avatar. Avatar won only three Oscars: for visual effects (was there any doubt), and cinematography, as well as art direction. But somehow I expected more, and apparently, by all the buzz, so did a lot of

What family of video editing tools are you most comfortable with? There’s Avid, with its extensive legacy in broadcast and film. Or Adobe, with its ever-more-tightly integrated Creative Suite, from imaging to video to the web. And Apple, with its Final Cut Studio expanding from professional ed

Wireless systems have been around since the 1980s and digital television is here to stay, but the fallout still remains. Countless legacy devices became instantly obsolete in February and June of last year while others are phasing out over time. One device of particular interest to video producers i

Today’s lapel or “lav” mics are small and unobtrusive, but sometimes, you still need to hide one. There are plenty of shoot situations where hiding the lav is helpful, but where to put it? Fortunately, there are lots of options and, if you’ll stick with us for a few minutes,

Noise: the bane of all editors. It’s everywhere and comes from many different sources. We can boil them all down to two main types: constant noise and random noise. Constant noise comes from things like air conditioners, motors and transformers. Mics, mixers and cameras can add noise too. Rand

Futuristic Mic with Surround Sound Abilities Have you ever dreamed of recording full surround sound on your stereo-only video camera? Impossible, you say? With the Holophone PortaMic 5.1, the dream is now reality. Using their expertise in the surround recording arena, shrinking the size and price an

You could just plop effects dead center in the mix, but what fun is that? Your video and audio editing software packages have tools to spread the sound around, placing it in convincing locations across the soundstage. Some tools are simple, while others require some practice and patience, but in the

I recently read a story stating that old vinyl records, (you know, what we used to call L.P.s), are making a comeback. And not just the old fogies, but new releases, but does anyone have a turntable to play them on anymore? When audio cassette tapes entered the market, no one thought they'd take

In an introduction that couples AKGs legendary wireless performance with Harman System Architects ease of use, AKG recently updated its System Architect plug-in for the HUB 4000 Q to version 3.5 with the introduction of the Harman System Architect 2.1 release. The professional digital wireless micro

I had to videotape a child’s holiday festival last week and was sitting alongside a parent who was shooting stills for the same event. He asked me if I ever had to do any multi-cam video shoots and suggested a quick and easy tip for syncing both cameras. Ithoughtthis was worth passing on. He s

On the video side, we deal with image sizes, aspect ratios, zoom settings, f-stops and frame rates. The audio side has its numbers too, but they’re a bit easier to wrap your head around. Isn’t All Audio Digital Today? Back in olden times, audio was recorded to analog tape. For the end us

Fix it in post. These words have the power to give editors ulcers, and yet they flow off the tongue so easily, they’ve become a clichè. Of course, if time and money are not a concern, you can fix just about everything in post. For the more budget-conscious (that’s you and me), it

Early filmmakers had it easy. It wasn’t until the 1920’s when the first commercial screening of movies with sound began to change the industry. Before audio was added to the Talkies the visuals had to tell the story. Since the introduction of sound, the industry has never looked back.