Wireless boom mic set up

[Ty Ford]

It depends somewhat on your hardware. If you have separate people on mixer/camera and on the boom, how does the boom op hear the audio to know if he/she has the mic in the best place?

Two receivers, one on the boom, one on the mixer can work, but they do hear different things because each has its own connection to the transmitter. Also, this can work on RF, but if you’re using Bluetooth, check to make sure one bluetooth transmitter can actually work with two bluetooth receivers.

Having a small preamp with a headphone out strapped to the pole can work. Wire the mic to the preamp. Boom op listens to small preamp and preamp output feeds the transmitter. This means that what the boom op hears can be fine, but if something drops between the transmitter on the boom and the receiver at the mixer or camera, it’s lost.

Hope you’re getting the idea here. Even if the audio makes it back to the mixer input, you may still be burned because you’re not listening to the camera. If the levels are off between the mixer and the camera or if someone forgot to plug the snake back in after the camera op went to shoot B-roll, meters on the mixer will look good, but no audio will be going to the camera. Yes, this happens.

The only way to really tell is to throw some camera headphone audio back to the boom op via a cable or wireless. With wireless, there will likely be a slight delay, so that messes with the boom op hearing the best direct sound and not some bouncy strange stuff.