upsidedown lav mic on daily show

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What kind of mic is it?

If its a Tram (for instance) it doesn’t have a “up and down” so much as a “front and back” (the grill is on the “side” not the “top” of the mic.)

And/or certain mics are susceptible to “plosives” (“P” sounds and “B” sounds when spoken). If the grills are turned away from the direction of the mouth of the talent, the plosives won’t “pop”.

OR… the stagehand who’s job it is to place the mic, doesn’t know “up from down.”

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I’m also reminded of the countless times I’ve seen a “classic” scene or photograph (shot TODAY, not back-in-the-day)
of singers or announcers who are seen in “staged” situations using a ribbon-type studio microphone (RCA 77DX or 44BK, or a look-alike… think of David Letterman’s or Larry King’s desk “prop” microphones) with the TOP (!) of the sausage-shaped mic pointed at the talent’s mouth.

Anyone who knows microphones can tell you that it is the SIDE GRILL (front and/or back) of the mic that is the “sweet spot”.
The top of these mics is virtually at the “null” of the directional pick-up pattern.

Talk about “upside down”…
It looks ridiculous to have a performer addressing the “dull-spot” of a great microphone.

[Darya]

I think that its just a regular lav mic. What caught my attention was the wire is looped up and back down instead of just down, which makes me think the head of the mic is pointed to the ground. I agree with you that pointing it away gets rid of the “P” and “B” pops but it also degrades the sound quality. So to see it on the Daily show I thought I might be wrong. Anyways here are a couple of screen grabs that I found, if you look closely you can see what I’m talking about

https://www.christinazone.com/coppermine/albums/wpw-2b/dailyshow_03.jpg

https://www.millaj.com/pics/dailyshow0306024.jpg

https://www.millaj.com/pics/dailyshow0306023.jpg

And about your second comment, you are right, I used to work at TechTV and our announcers mic was just for stage as well, everyone was on a lav.

Darya

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The pics are much too small to tell, but I’ll stick with my first response about the “pick-up grill” being on the “side/front” of the mic (as with Tram).

If that’s the case, the “front” (pick-up) of the mic is facing the camera, as it should be with those types of lavs.

The cord angle is irrelevant as it does NOT go in the “opposite direction” of the pick-up.

[Charley King]

It is not unusual to loop the mic cable under the clip to take strain off the connection of the cable to the mic. I think this is mostly what you are possibly seeing.

Charlie

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[Peter Perry]

[Charlie King] “It is not unusual to loop the mic cable under the clip to take strain off the connection of the cable to the mic. I think this is mostly what you are possibly seeing”

Absolutely true. If I had an A2 that did not routinely do this, they wouldn’t be working for me very long.
However, the main reason for micing this way, and I do it myself when neccesary, is to reduce the plosive sounds from popping the mic. These mics are most likely omni mics, and pointing them down like that does not degrade the quality of the sound, but it helps a lot in terms of mic popping.
Peter