SOUND BLOG

APRIL 2026

Microphone in shot!!

One of the things I love about working in TV sound is that nothing ever stands still! 

Every day is a school day as equipment develops and improves and operational techniques change.

The use of microphones in TV sound is an interesting subject and my oh my, how diverse this subject is and how things have changed!

In studios and outside broadcasts we have all sorts of mics depending on the show. Switch on any TV quiz or panel show and you will come across the mainstay of TV sound, the personal radio mic (or lav mic, plugged into a small body worn transmitter), with the mic normally clipped on to the front of clothing and in shot. We have booms (out of shot) for drama and sit-coms. We have mics gathering sound effects and ambience in sport (normally hiding for protection in a Rycote windshield when outdoors in the UK!) And various specialist mics for music coverage, be it for a pop band or a classical orchestra. This is only a small picture of what is used as there are many other specialist mics, for surround sound for example.

There are the ‘normal’ or ‘usual’ ways to use all of these microphones, based on the manufacturers’ recommendations, but the magic here is to know the rules and then know that you can break these rules! It’s all about how it sounds, and in TV, how it looks on shot.

People working in TV sound have for years been moving mics ‘just out of shot’ to accommodate that lovely close up of the vocalist or the guitarist’s fingers on the strings. This all involves compromise and occasionally juggling mic choice. Do I need a tighter mic because I am further away or a smaller mic that doesn’t overpower the shot whilst still maintaining good close sound?

Practicalities also play a big part. I was working on a music show where the plan was that 8 bagpipe players walked into shot and started playing along with the house band already playing on stage. We ended up with 8 x ‘sporran mics’ doing the hard work here, to cover the melody line on the chanters.  DPA 4060 mics clipped onto the front of the sporran of each player with the radio transmitters placed inside the sporran. Some interesting EQ on the DPAs, add a splash of reverb, add into the mix, and all was good! For those interested, the drones were covered by some slung gun mics above the stage. We did have the benefit of a couple of full rehearsals to make sure this all worked and sounded good.

Microphone usage is also governed by trends.

“Bring on the podcasters!”

Podcasters, social media video makers and the livestream broadcasters are having an impact on what viewers see and deem as acceptable on screen. (A personal opinion here, I don’t like the word ‘content’! Content is what goes into pickle jars! The word also somewhat demeans the crafts required in making videos or films or sketches for any platform).

What is acceptable on camera as mic coverage is now summed up by ‘anything goes!’

Had I said to a TV director 10 years ago, that for their presenter plus two interviewees in the studio, I am going to put out 3 mic stands each with a large vocal mic and large foam windshield right in front of each of the speakers’ mouths, I would have been advised to go and have a quiet coffee and have a long think about my ideas! Or words to that effect.

One of my colleagues quipped one day, “it’s not a podcast, it’s the radio on the telly!”

I’m being flippant here, but to make a point. It’s all about fashion and trends and doing something different, which is all good. We don’t learn if we stay still and don’t try different things.

It’s now acceptable in certain circumstances for an SM7B to be in the middle of the shot, or the presenter holding a small black square radio mic with a furry windshield and moving it across to the interviewee in shot.   There are some videos on social media platforms where the lav radio mic is clipped to an item and it is used like a stick mic. Onto spatulas and kitchen tools for a cooking show, and according to my daughter, even clipped onto the head of a toy doll for one fashion podcaster!

One positive side of all of this is it means that you don’t need lots of money to start off making programmes and these ‘content creators’ are moving onto and feeding into the larger media platforms and ‘mainstream’ broadcasters, bringing with them new ideas and practices in places. They also bring with them the importance of acquiring good sound.

It’s also horses for courses and you ‘get what you pays for’. As the area between the  ‘prosumer’ kit and the professional kit becomes less defined, it gives a lot more choice in what is available.  But it still means that if you want a piece of kit that is almost 100% reliable (quality of performance, quality of build and robustness in all conditions, proven track record, dual power supply and redundancy) for live or one off events, you have to spend the money on the high end kit. If your budget doesn’t allow and you have the luxury of being able to retake and not worry about the constraints and costs of time, then you could use something mid market. You don’t want your big film shoot or high end tv show, all with lots of cast and crew and costing lots of £s per hour to run, stopping all because of the failure of one cheap radio mic.

High end TV and film will always require professional ways of working and reliable high end kit.

I must also point out here that one of the reasons we are keen not to see microphones in shot in lots of TV programmes, and particularly on location drama and documentary shoots, is that seeing a microphone in shot breaks the fourth wall and we are now consciously aware that we are watching something staged in front of a camera.

Now before my colleagues in TV think I’m suggesting we embrace all of these ‘unconventional’ ways of covering sound, I’m not!  I’m saying that new ideas and new kit means there is a bigger and better awareness of the importance of good sound for video and TV, which can only be a good thing.

We should look at the innovative ways people are covering sound out there. Celebrate the fact that more and more people are realising that getting good sound in front of a camera can be difficult, and sound is as important as the picture.

And until the day some manufacturer defies the laws of physics and acoustics and invents a microphone that can gather sounds, similar to the way that a camera can acquire pictures using lenses and optics by zooming in and out of a scene, we will forever have to be creative in our sound coverage and continue to have to move our perfectly placed mics ‘just out of shot’ or hide them in our sporrans!

March 2026

Telling our story.

Let me set the scene. It was the 1980s, I was an Audio Assistant working in radio in an editing channel. The analogue days! (Cue harp glissando!).

We provided editing facilities and craft skills for radio production teams to make programmes and pre-recorded inserts for radio programmes.

The set up was 3 x  ¼ inch Studer A80 tape machines and a small Glensound audio mixer. Any crossfades required between items meant loading two separate playback machines with two separate tapes, playing each tape in turn, and doing a crossfade on the mixer, recording the crossfade mix onto the third machine, then splicing in the crossfaded section (seamlessly) into the final assembled tape item. This all took time to do even one simple crossfade.

That day I was working with a Radio Producer, Archie P Lee, an absolute legend and truly lovely person who is sadly no longer with us. 

As a sidebar, one of the great aspects of our jobs is that we get to meet so many talented and amazing people, both in front of and behind the microphone, and Archie is up at the top of my list. One of the best parts of an editing session with Archie was going for a coffee during a break in a long editing session, where he would recount wonderful tales of his earlier days when he was a print journalist.

Anyway, Archie came into the editing channel this day, handed me his previously recorded Uher tape (he was always meticulously prepared) and said:

”Go to the start of the mod (ulation), spool 23 seconds in and come in on the words ‘Hello and welcome to…’”

As I was loading up the tape, I said to Archie, “You know one day in the future Archie, you will hand me a cube like thing that has your recorded audio in it, and I will put it into some sort of computer and we will be able to edit without having to physically cut tapes and join them together with bits of sticky tape. It will be so fast. I saw it on TV the other night.”

Archie looked up from his notes, with a gleam in his eye and said, “Jim, we can only dream of such things…”

We spend our lives making programmes to tell stories and inform, it’s our job! But are we in danger of forgetting about our own stories?

In TV sound, we have gone from valves and analogue audio all the way through to network multichannel digital audio. 

From mono, to stereo, to Dolby surround, to Dolby atmos (and even to 22.2 surround!).

From twin track, to stereo, to 8 track, to 24 track, to 64 track, to 256 tracks and beyond! 

From large scale OB trucks with analogue desks to trucks with digital desks and now onto remote production with desk and stagebox in different parts of the country.

There are many great books about UK recording studios. The history of places like Abbey Road and Olympic Studios. Numerous books about mixing pop bands and mixing front of house sound. 

But what about broadcast TV sound?

Are we guilty of working in our own bubbles and not sharing or recording our own experiences? I believe we need to document the amazing journey TV sound has taken in the past 90 or so years. We need to do more to capture the stories and the stories behind the events. 

Much respected TV Sound Supervisor, Richard Sillitto, did an amazing interview a few years back with TV sound legend Mike McCarthy. Mike’s portfolio is absolutely amazing and this interview documents moments in UK television history.

Link to recording;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0USJmw8n5w&t=5s

We also had the informative Pushing Faders podcast which was another fantastic venture into documenting life in TV sound.

Then there was Line Up, the publication of The Institute of Professional Sound, which was very informative and topical and, in its own way, documented what was happening and current at the time. Sadly, Line Up is no longer published.

We need to capture more of these stories and memories. It is important in the history of TV sound and it is important for everyone working in our industry.  For the students starting out, to hear how technology has changed at such a pace in past decades and how we have adapted and adopted. For the more experienced operators, to share ideas and see at least that we are all experiencing the same things as we move forward with changing technology and increasing programme requirements.

How do we achieve recording our stories – Podcasts? Articles? Blogs? Websites? I don’t know if there is a definitive answer. Probably yes to all of these!

This is a call to action for those who can, to document past and current events, anecdotes and tales from behind the microphone.

I appreciate this will take time, but we owe it to ourselves and future TV sound operators to collect all of this valuable information before, frankly, some of it is lost forever.

As a post script, if anyone does have any websites, blogs, books or podcasts to recommend, please email details to;

info@thetvsoundemporium.com

as I hope to share a TV Sound Archive page on this website at a future date.

February 2026

Clear lines of communication.

Many years ago, my daughter and myself were sitting in the waiting area of a local carry out restaurant waiting to collect our order. The girl behind the counter dealing with that evening’s orders picked up the phone, dialled a number, and said in a very strong Glaswegian accent 

“DAAAASSSMEEEEE”. 

Overhearing this, my daughter and I looked at each other quizzically as we were both trying to understand what she had just said.

We are from Glasgow too, and after some deciphering we eventually realised she had said:

“daaaasssmeeeee”

“dad, it’s me…”

“father, it is I, your beloved daughter speaking to you on the telephonic apparatus…”

Clear instant communication in the TV working environment is crucial. We tend to work in different rooms and areas and depend on very complicated communications systems to enable us to all talk to each other. These communications are crucial and often mission and time critical, to enable workflows and programmes to run smoothly. The idea is to make it as if we are all sitting in the same room talking to each other.

Whilst these communications (comms) systems over the years have increased technically in complexity, audio quality and functionality, it can all still be compromised by one basic factor. 

A good old fashioned human being!

After many years in the broadcasting industry, the one thing I have noticed more than anything, is that when talkback is not used properly or thoughtfully, things can go wrong quite quickly. Especially, in pressurised work environments, during particularly demanding programmes or live events.

There are many reasons for people not using talkback communications properly. 

·      Lack of proper training – this is possibly one of the biggest issues.

·      Inexperience in using comms – we can’t possibly be ready for every eventuality in comms so we need to build up experience.

·      Panic in pressurised circumstances – some common reactions are to shout and speak quickly in a stressful situation, this is often the exact opposite of what is really required.

·      Laziness through familiarity – some people become too familiar with comms and forget where they are and that others on comms need the protocols to make things work, especially people new to the industry using comms for the first time.

One key consideration in using any communications channel (walkie talkie or communications panel) is the fact that you are not looking face to face at the person speaking, and so much of the interpretation of what we say to each other is based on non verbal communication – body language, eye contact, facial expressions and gestures to name a few.

Some studies say that when speaking face to face with someone, how our words are interpreted is based on

non verbal communication 55 %

words 7%

tone of voice 38%.

So you can see that with over half of the information taken away when using comms, there is a lot of scope for mis-interpretation.

A lot of people new to the industry are confident that they are experienced in speaking over comms as they use their mobile phone every day, but this is entirely different. A phone call is normally to one person at a time, and either with someone you know or someone you don’t know and you normally adapt your conversation accordingly.

Speaking on comms at work may be to friends, colleagues and strangers all at the one time. Some people know you, others don’t. So that quirky remark over talkback that was intended as a joke may land with those who know you and your personality but may be interpreted completely differently by people who don’t know you and don’t see your body language.

“The shape and the sound of the voice”  (Ultravox, 1981)

Have you ever heard a recording of your own voice and said:

 “ I don’t sound like that! Do I?”

Recording production talkback in TV is normally absolutely forbidden, unless under special circumstances and only with the agreement of everyone involved. 

I do often think though, for training purposes, it would be helpful for Directors to hear how they themselves sound on talkback. 

The best practice on Gallery Production Talkback is to speak with a calm, authoritative voice. Encouraging, feeding back and guiding in a considered and collaborative way. 

This is not to say it should be all very formal and stuffy, there is space for a bit of banter as we are all human and need lighter moments during the working day. The key is to know your audience. As a Director gets to know a crew, things can ease a bit on talkback, and comms become less formal as people get to know each other and their personalities.

Working on the studio floor or on an OB, listening to someone talking for 8-12 hours a day into your headphones can be challenging, especially if consists of raised and fraught voices or constant irrelevant chatter. (Note to budding Directors – eating crisps or crunching an apple on talkback is also definitely not recommended!).

Using talkback is all about experience. Listening to how existing users use the system and dove-tailing in this operation. Different groups also use talkback in different ways and adopt and adapt their own shorthand in places. Listen and learn.

I have added a link below to the Basic Talkback Guidelines page of this website, a couple of pages to help newcomers to the industry (and possibly even as a refresher to existing talkback users).

Basic Talkback Guidelines – thetvsoundemporium

So keep your communications clear, calm, considered and concise.

The girl behind the counter looked up from the order book and shouted

“THATZYIRKERRYOOTREDDY”.