Personally, I'd try to do this without the radio stations if possible.

Just rig each cast person with a mini-recorder and a WIRED mic. That alone eliminates 90% of the hassles of radio mics.

It's been interesting to me that some of the higher end wireless rigs are even going in this direction, putting digital recording AT THE UNIT to keep a clean copy of what's being broadcast back to the camera.

Somebody wants to make a fortune, come up with a fat fountain pen shaped 30 minute digital audio recorder with a decent audio specs and an included omni-lav plus mini-USB output for under $200 and I'd bet you could sell them in SIX-PACKS just like EV did with the 635As for so long.

Maybe you can even shoehorn a small tethered wi-fi transmitter to it so you could monitor in low-fi at a laptop and know if the capsule took a clothing hit or similar on a critical line reading.

THAT would get my money in a heartbeat.

Just saying.

Well I knew my post would get people going. At first I balked at putting it up, but then I thought why not.

Yeah sure, the lav on belt idea won't work but what I liked about the idea was that of using the Zoom recorder. That one never occurred to me.

I don't think that throwing around ideas ever hurts. Even if what gets said isn't always useful, sometimes there's something that comes out of it.

So if mounting 2 mics to a camera is unconventional, so be it. Given limited options and resources you look to make the best of things. When I'm moving from indoors to outdoors and back, I'd rather have 2 different mikes ready to go when I know that no one will wait for me to change it. I think the Zoom idea is a better one than mounting the 2 mics, though not without its risks. And I'm going to have to find out if the people concerned are willing to do that.

Dean, i was looking at the ATW 1800 on the B&H site the other day. I do like the idea of a dual receiver as well, though some reviews spoke of the system being noisy. Doesn't seem like you've encountered that?

And yeah, the best approach aside for the moment, it will come down to what additional gear I can afford to get.

Jase...

The ATW-1800 has a bit of noise but the sound quality is still very good, especially when compared against mic systems in the same price range. Lectrosonic units reportedly sound much better but the cheapest diversity Lectro unit will cost twice as much.

The stock lav doesn't sound very good, but the AT-899CD lavs sound almost as good as the Countryman B3s I have. And they're about half the price. Again, the value is very high.

Overall, the system has proven very reliable. With a little care it's not hard to avoid most of the usual problems encountered by wireless mics.

One of the receivers had an odd noise but I sent it in to AT and they took care of it. They provide great service. Very responsive and personable.

Dean

Thanks for all your input.

Jase

ME64 with a buttplug transmitter. You just place it as close as you can get. Works way better than you'd think.