Re: tapping into house PA
 

But presumably the microphone(s) (yours or theirs) are located on-stage with the performer(s), not back at the camera. And if you ARE using a microphone 100s of feet away (at a camera location) then it is only capturing ambient room tone and not a primary source.

Re: tapping into house PA
 

Speaking as "audio guy" here....

I find it exceedingly rare that the video person has the foresight to place mics on stage. depending on the PA situation, a mic placed on stage may not actually capture a good sound. In any case with a band on stage, the stage sound is pretty poor and the sound in the house is much better. The couple times I have had video people want to place mics on stage, it has been a major problem. Classical ensembles where the video person wants to put a big ugly stand in front of a group (in a room where mics are hung). Or, even worse, a video guy coming in where there are stands in front of the group and they just assume that they can clip their mics to mine without asking permission.

Another thing I see a lot of is the video guy that only wants one side of a stereo mix so they can use their own mic in the back of the hall (speaking of delay and lag issues). There are even times when I'm providing a broadcast recording feed and this happens. It is not a mono sum, but rather half a mix and then a camera mic that is out of time with the stage sound.

Don't get me started on all of the unprofessional things I see on a regular basis.

--Ben

Re: tapping into house PA
 

Yes, I was speaking as someone who was doing audio at least a couple of decades before getting into video. In fact my major motivation for getting into video was to try to improve the state of audio for video.

Alas, as a video producer I have seen first-hand how easy it is to think of audio in second-class status behind working out all the video details. But, of course Mr. Maas is spot on with his observation of really deplorable audio recording practices by videographers.

It is one thing for the local news reporter to come in and shoot 5 minutes of B-roll for the 11 PM news, but someone who comes in expecting to capture a whole concert with a single camera and minimal (if any) external audio equipment is just unbelievable. Why do they even bother?

And I find myself more than frequently on one or the other side of the mixer desk. Perhaps I am just unlucky, but most program producers I work with are functionally clueless and useless in coordinating live feeds for video (etc.)