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Wiring basketball players in game/training


saadasound

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The movement and flapping of the loose jersey make the situation a pain in the ass...  It's never fun is all I can add...   Mounting mics to the body is noisy as is miking the jersey.. Using a neoprene 6" wide waist belt over your transmitter can help hold it in place and keep it from falling out... Walgreens and other like stores carry these normally.. but protect against sweat...  

  Most of the good audio can be captured when they are not moving quickly or charging the basket... all the stuff in between... not a whole heck of a lot to do... It's difficult, but can be done...

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Here is a thread talking about wiring soccer players. You can see my more in depth post in there, but long story short...

 

I do FOH sound for a pro soccer stadium and our in-house video crew was experimenting with the Q5x system for wiring up players during game play. I wasn't really involved other than routing the sound through my board to monitor and route to the video record decks, but I did observe and ask questions. They ended up having great results. Basically they went with a pre-rigged Under Armor shirt with a B6 mounted and run through custom sewn channels. The cable ran to the back of the shirt and was placed in a sewn neoprene pocket. Sounded great and barely any noise from the loose jersey on top, even during fairly physical game play.

 

I would highly recommend the Q5x system, especially because the transmitter is rubber and softer than a normal transmitter for comfort for the player and less liability.

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I once did a couple of scenes of two basketball players playing and at the same time dialogue. It was next to a busy street and the camera was pretty wide so the boom was out. To my surprise I got usable audio with 4060s. I just taped them to the usual spot, sternum that is with DPA concealers IIRC or maybe even just a piece of moleskin, taping the cable well to the body with lots of Transpore and the transmitters in waist belts. I made sure everything was locked down well but with some slack of course. I still wonder why I didn't hear any rustle even with the polyester jerseys, maybe because they were wet from sweat, or because basketball jerseys usually aren't tight on the skin. Anyway I was really happy with the results.

 

EDIT by the way, here's something I wouldn't do (ARGH head cancer!)

Incognito-935-930x275.jpg

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I do work a lot with NBA Entertainment and we use the Quantum Q5X transmitters. On players we use the Q5x trans in a neoprene sleeve that fits in a pocket sewn in the under-arm area of the Jersey- now Adidas has these pockets in all NBA and WNBA jerseys.  We use lots of moleskin to hold down the cable and a Countryman B6 (the mic and battery are built into the trans) are connected to the collar with a  small coat hook (Black brass Dritz brand coat hooks and eyes) crimped on the head of the mic. All wrapped in moleskin. Jersey's are pre-rigged one for first half and one for second half,  game day we don't handle the player at all. After half time and then after the game take the rig out of the jerseys never having to bother the player.  When the mic heads are rigged with the small coat hook  you can't notice the head sticking out of  the collar. The transmitters are very thin and light- when we have them rigged up it's hard for the player to notice its  there. We turn them on and off remotely.   For practice we use the same transmitters in neoprene VersaFlex waist belt with custom pouch for the Q5X. Then we clip the mic on the collar and use moleskin between the jersey and skin tuck and tape the wire into the belt.

Good luck,

Just my 2 cents.

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