[Richard Crowley]

I have just isolated the spot and applied a rather severe low-cut filter.

Of course, continuous monitoring on good headphones is always recommended to avoid this kind of thing in the first place.

[Richard Crowley]

Hang on to your old iGadgets because the latest versions with the “Lightening” connector are incompatible and non-convertable. And Apple designed the new interface intentionally to make it nearly impossible to connect anything that isn’t licen$ed by them. Extending the Apple-kingdom “walled garden” to hardware as well. Apple already has $14.85 in the bank for every man, woman and child on the planet. I guess they are going for $20 or $25 each.

[Richard Crowley]

While I agree that Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Groom have given you excellent advice, I would encourage you go ahead and try using a SHIELDED 3.5mm extention cable. I have been doing this since I was a kid (in the 1970s) and the main downside is susceptibility to interference.

From years of first-hand experience, I can assure you that loss of “plug-in power” is NOT an issue with even with 100 feet or more of cable. The voltage is very low, and the current is also very low, which means that only the most flimsy and flaky of cables could have a potential issue with power.

The biggest concern with extending mini-phone mic connections is that the unbalanced connection is more susceptible to interference. It is imperative that you use an extension cable that is SHIELDED. This means that there is a layer of wire mesh surrounding the inner wires and that mesh (or wrap) protects the signal inside from much external interference.

Since earphones/earbuds use the same 3.5mm connectors, many (most?) 3.5mm extension cables are UN-shielded because earphone connections don’t require shielding. I am noticing that because of the increased interest in connecting external mics to 3.5mm devices (camcorders and small digital audio recorders) there are now 3.5mm cables which state explicitly that they are shielded. I would not buy one that did NOT state explicitly that it is shielded. But then I have been making my own cables since I was a kid and I know what’s inside. I have made several adapters that allow using real XLR cables with 3.5mm microphones to extend them successfully to 150 or even 200 feet.

But there are some kinds of interference that even the planet’s best balanced, XLR shielded mic connections can’t protect against. Cell phone interference is probably the worst. But fortunately, it is easy to manage by either having people shut off their devices or remove them several hundred feet away while shooting.

You haven’t described WHAT you are shooting, so it is not possible to be any more specific in relating experience and expectations. For example shooting stand-up reporting with a lav clipped to the talent is going to be significantly different than trying to use your budget short shotgun mic cobbled onto a boom pole to pick up dialog in an action scene of a scripted drama with four speaking parts, etc.

As Mr. Reynolds observed, that XLR to mini adapter from Sony is vastly overpriced (as most of Sony’s accessories are IMHO). I am a huge Sony fan-boy, but expensive is expensive and wise shopping can save 100s of $$.

[Richard Crowley]

As Mr. Groom said, it sounds like you need to embed the audio into the SDI stream. There are several vendors of devices to do this. For example the Blackmagic-Design Mini Converter Audio to SDI – $495. Note that the the four inputs can take either four analog audio signals, or four pair (8 channels) of AES digital audio signals. And devices to convert optical (stereo TOSLINK) to copper are commonly-available inexpensive “adapters” since no stream content conversion is involved.

You mentioned “5.1”. Be aware that the identical-looking optical connector for Dolby digital-encoded sound is NOT compatible with this scheme.

HDMI and SDI are essentially identical. Conversion between them is relatively trivial (although not inexpensive). HDMI is the consumer solution for short runs, and SDI is the “industrial-strength” version for professional applications. Running digital video signals for long distances typically uses SDI as running HDMI over long distances is problematic.

[Richard Crowley]

It seems unlikely that you can “handle it yourself”. If you devote the necessary attention to getting a good sound recording, your video will suffer, and vice-versa. Everybody thinks they can cut corners and do a “one-man-band”, but then they come back here asking how to perform nearly impossible repairs to their sub-standard audio recordings (or video).

Almost any mixer would work to provide the sound feed to the video. But the more critical part is having someone operating the mixer who has a good ear for sound mixing and knows what they are doing. At least feed the presenter’s mic into one channel, and the audience mic into the other channel so you can postpone the proper audio mix to the editing step. Sound Devices makes several mixers (and mixer/recorders) which have a stellar reputation and include a very competent audio level limiting feature.

[Richard Crowley]

Are you able to record and play back sound on the H1 independent of the computer?
What computer? What operating system? What sound recording software? Are you able to record sound on your computer directly?

There are so many variables here, and you have omitted so many necessary details that it is nearly impossible to reply to your question. That is likely why there have been no responses to this question.

[Richard Crowley]

You didn’t mention budget. If you have the $$$, you can rent the best: Lectrosonics or Zaxcom. Be sure and tell them where you will be using it because carrying it into MX may be an issue, and frequency coordination is always an issue.

[Richard Crowley]

It is a common fallacy that microphones in proximity cause (or promote) acoustic feedback. There is noting about microphones in proximity that has anything to do with acoustic feedback. Especially microphones connected to different systems (as house reinforcement vs. recording, etc.) As I said, the hazards from microphones in close proximity are banging against each other, and accidentally touching which COULD cause a ground loop problem in SOME cases.

[Richard Crowley]

Yes, if you have an adapter that is wired correctly, you can use two separate mics. Note that the kind of adapter normally sold at retail (Radio Shack, online, etc.) are made for stereo headphones/earbuds are are NOT wired correctly for this kind of use.

If they can supply the unit with a longer cord, that would be great.

I woludn’t think that the plug-in power from the H1 would be an issue. It would be good if you could confirm with the microphone vendor that it will work.

I would not think you need a preamp if you get microphones with decent sensitivity. Unless your presenter/translator are whispering or something.

These are some of the vendors I would investigate for a project like yours:
https://www.oscarsoundtech.com/index.html
https://microphonemadness.com/index.html
https://www.naiant.com/

I have done business with Naiant, but the others have been recommended in this or other sound forums.

Remember that using a wired microphone is always more reliable than using wireless, but the user must not run off suddenly and forget that they are tethered with a mic cable. In the case of two people, this will be even more of a potential issue.

However, no wireless microphone kit cheaper than US$600 is worth buying. And note that wireless microphones can be a problem if traveling in other countries.

Consider that taking 100% redundant spares (an extra set of mics, cables, etc.) may be prudent depending on the nature of your presenters, the conditions, the importance of capturing everything, etc. etc.

[Richard Crowley]

There is generally no issue with adjacent microphones interfering with each other. Note the dozens of microphones in a small forest at major news conferences, etc. The only problem may be if you let your ground touch the ground (generally the outside shell of the mic or connector) of someone else’s mic which could cause a ground loop hum in some cases. Something easily avoided in any case.

The sensitivity of the mic will make no difference in the discrimination between the desired signal and the undesired ambient noise/acoustics. It is the RATIO of the sounds that you want to maximize by getting the mic as close to the presenter’s mouth as practical. Of course, you don’t want such a low sensitivity that you have to crank up the gain when recording which will add extra electronic noise (hiss). OTOH very high sensitivity may be a problem if this presenter is prone to shouting, etc.

That dual lav mic setup would probably work, except that the wires don’t look like they are anywhere near long enough for practical use. Even the distance between the mic heads looks too short. Unless the presenter and the translator are Siamese Twins joined at the hip.