wireless microphone body pack durability
 

Hi,

I would like to mount the wireless microphone body pack transmitter on athletes in a hard contact sport. Will these body packs handle some shock? What about the microphone?
What is used in professional sports such as football? Are the
body packs padded up ?

You may want to consider a parabolic mic.

Wireless systems are great, but you have to be careful about placement besides worrying about armoring. Mic easily pickup friction noises and may become ensnared with people during physical contact.

The Arizona Cardinals use the Sennheiser 500 series bodypacks/systems. They mount the bodypacks inside the pads. I assume they cut some sort of "mounting" out of the soft foam and risk the reduced padding and chance of impact for a given area. I've read that they put 'em in one of the shoulders and run a lav... such as mke2 into the helmet or in the space between the chest plate near the top.

That is how they get the personal sound you'll hear in their promo/NFL films-type videos.

I think the 100 series has about the same level of durability, but I don't really know for sure... you'll have to check. If it's in a metal box then I'm sure it's fine.

You can EITHER mount the lav on a "safe" area somewhere on the outside of the clothing... they even make white lavs (including the wire)... or else you can put the lav in an airpocket on the inside... the rubbing of cloth, skin, anything... on the actual mic will ruin the audio at that moment.

I wouldn't worry about durability of the mic... if it's not actually taking a hit it should be fine no matter what... simple "shaking" won't hurt a lav.

Definitely use an OMNI... NOT cardioid... the only people who ever use a cardioid are news anchors who have a lav completely VISIBLE and pointing straight into their mouths. Get a tram and you'll hear everything great, trust me.

I've had my Senn 100 dropped onto concrete from 4 feet up with not a mark on it. Works fine.