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In-ears for booming


Vincent Tartiere

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Hello everyone,

 

I'm currently looking into acquiring an IEM monitor to use with Sennheiser systems, as on set I'm finding headphones to be too much of a hassle when working as an assistant and boom op. I was wondering if anyone here used IEM monitors on set and if they had any recommendations in mind! I have my eyes set on Bubblebee's Sidekick, given how unobtrusive and flexible it seems, but lack sufficient testimonials and alternatives to make a choice.

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I've dug through the Shure lines and ultimate ears offers, but ended up with the cheap consumer JLab Fit Sports (cabled version obviously, unsure what generation) and I am pretty happy with them. My main spec was an "earhook design" with the cable running behind the ear. The actual hook is a piece of bendable wire in some skin friendly elastomere, and they come with quite a bunch of silicone earpieces in different sizes/shapes. On set I wear them on my ears, rather than in my ears. I can stuff them in my ears, when I need to get rid of surrounding noise.

 

When booming scripted fiction stuff, isolating earbuds prevent me to hear what is going on around, something the director tells the DOP, or an oncoming plane/garbage truck, set commands/people talking, whatever. From what I believe, that is the main task for my pair of ears, close to set within the sound department. There is another pair of ears, further away, that deals with quality signal monitoring. I need a rough idea about the signal and intercom/private line perception with a flexible compromise to what is going on around me.

 

The Sidekicks have the satellite eartips, that come close to my demands. But the overall product is build for on camera applications. it is flimsy, tiny, stealthy and expensive. I prefer something visible for everybody trying to address me, that there may be some issue to get through. Apart from that, the Sidekicks have a rather high impedance that may cause issues with other consumer devices.

 

Overall, in case I don't bring mine, I would prefer some cheap "walkman" style headphones the location sound person provides for script, director, etc to something "special".

 

 

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