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Recording sound on a speleology expedition


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Hi everybody,

 

I'm about to start a documentary project in which we will be exploring a cave that has never been explored before. So far we know we will be descending at least 100 meters, but the idea is to go as far down as possible.

 

Has any of you done this kind of job? Can you please share some advice regarding your experience recording sound in this kind of situation? (or any similar situation).

 

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

All the best,

 

Andres.

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Im no expert but I have been down a few mines and caves, Its hot and very humid, theres a lot of water underground. Silicon packs are a good idea to have and use especially if you are going to be descending and ascending over days. Im sure you have already planned to keep your rig as small as possible

Radio mics are only good for line of site 

Good Luck

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Im no expert but I have been down a few mines and caves, Its hot and very humid, theres a lot of water underground. Silicon packs are a good idea to have and use especially if you are going to be descending and ascending over days. Im sure you have already planned to keep your rig as small as possible

Radio mics are only good for line of site 

Good Luck

+1 (especially regarding humidity and condensation)

~ Aqua packs (or waterproof lectros).

~ Belt packs and lavs need to be secured very well, try to find out what they will be wearing as it will be specialist and effects how you rig. The miners i rigged were wearing a very dense cotton/canvas 1 piece that was quite noisy so i rigged the helmets instead, which was also tricky as they got banged around a bit when we were scrabbling along a tunnel 60cm high.

~ Changing batteries is a pain especially in a waterproof system, (or with something your are trying to keep dry in wet place) - you may need to rinse and dry the TX before opening it, so go for the best batteries and set your TX power to the best compromise between distance and duration (i doubt you'll be doing many long shots).

 

dan.

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The caves should be about 55 degrees F or 13 degrees C, and possibly very humid. You may have to crawl through small doors or passages, which can be muddy and covered in bat guano. The cave explores should be wearing helmets, which is easy enough to rig to, but the men and women I went down with also were wearing lightweight clothing, however, they are often crawling and squeezing through tight passages which can pull and snag wires.

Derek is right, keep your rig as small as possible and make sure you don't have anything (more than necessary) that can catch or get snagged. Silica packs are a great idea, as are the Aqua Packs or waterproof transmitters.

The line of sight thing gets tricky, especially since it is an unexplored cave. The cavers are likely to get excited and see what's in the next room or through the next passage, and often the production team is following behind.

I know it's difficult with headphones, but wear a helmet.

Best of luck. This sounds like it could be a great experience.

Marc

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Ive never done sound in a cave but Ive gone caving many times. Conditions can be brutal on equipment. Caves are different depending on where they are. The temperature should be the average mean temperature of the area. Here in Missouri USA they are around 55 degrees. Cave mud can really destroy gear. Ive lost a few film still cameras due to cave mud getting into them.  In other areas caves can be really dry and dusty.

 

The only advice I would give is find a way to protect your gear well when not in use. Bring some gloves that you can remove to then handle equipment.  If your doing audio while descending or traversing then it won't be easy keeping your stuff clean.

 

Good luck! Hope it all goes well.

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Ive never done sound in a cave but Ive gone caving many times. Conditions can be brutal on equipment. Caves are different depending on where they are. The temperature should be the average mean temperature of the area. Here in Missouri USA they are around 55 degrees. Cave mud can really destroy gear. Ive lost a few film still cameras due to cave mud getting into them.  In other areas caves can be really dry and dusty.

 

The only advice I would give is find a way to protect your gear well when not in use. Bring some gloves that you can remove to then handle equipment.  If your doing audio while descending or traversing then it won't be easy keeping your stuff clean.

 

Good luck! Hope it all goes well.

+1 on the gloves (you'll hands will get muddy scrabbling around - you take them off to play with kit.

~ Something like a large, heavy duty (but easy to pocket) plastic bag you can drop all the electronics you have into should the need the arise, and silica gel sachets for the plastic bag because the mixer bag will have absorbed water even if doesn't feel wet (possibly from humid air condensing on the equipment).

~ You'll probably get given a (really cool) head torch but worth taking something as well for the interior of your mixer bag.

~ Read all the production's risk assessments carefully and any other health and safety documentation associated with the cave, keep vigilant and maintain you're own rolling risk assessment all the times (i wont bore with the details here but i did something similar in a very deep mine some years ago for a big production company (who should have know better) and they were a bit of a shambles, fortunately it was only kit that got damaged....

~ Insist on having a copy of the insurance documents for you and your kit, know exactly where you stand on injury, loss and damage.

~ 1 very long ball of string or lots of breadcrumbs (only joking but get home in 1 piece :-).

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Ele: " Can you please share some advice regarding your experience recording sound in this kind of situation? (or any similar situation)."

it is pretty much like recording sound in other reverberant (and small) spaces... OTOH, there is lots to consider before taking that trek that isn't about recording sound, including safety! 

make certain you have insurance coverage on you and the gear.. things like that...

oh, and SAFETY...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks a lot for all your advice! I came back a few days ago and everything went well: no one got injured, no damage to my equipment (but one of the camera lenses fell down some 20 meters to end down underwater!), and the shooting although very demanding came out well. Thanks again!

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