Long-running BBC TV sports quiz, A Question of Sport, set off on its second UK tour during November – with a quota of DPA’s new d:fine single ear headset mics.
‘We bought the d:fine mics essentially because of the ease of fitting them,’ says Owen Relfe from show’s audio provider, RG Jones Sound Engineering, who was on radio mic duties for the tour. ‘We have eight people per show to fit within a 15-minute window, and they’re all athletes and sports stars who don’t like standing still. They’ve all noticed the new mics, and we’ve had some great comments from them. They especially like the rubberized ear fitting, which allows them to put them on and forget about them. If they can’t feel the mics, they tend to fiddle with them less, and this reduces the self handling noise by a massive amount.
‘The amount of gain before feedback, without making any kind of adjustment or adding EQ, is great,’ he continues. ‘Much of this is down to the ability to position the mic correctly, and these are so easy to get in the right place. From a starting point you get a really good, clean sound. We’ve got around 4,000 people in the audience, shouting and baying for blood, so getting over the top of that is what we’re aiming for. Mark Edwards, our FOH engineer, has managed to get above the noise of the crowd really well with these. And because we’ve got so many different people talking, the ability to get some distinction between them is important.’
Relfe has been fitting the mics on an ever-changing cast, as besides regular presenter Sue Barker, referee Andy Collins and team leaders Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson, there are four new team members for each show.
‘I like the fact you can slide the capsules up and down to adjust the boom length for different faces,’ he says. ‘Women tend to have a shorter distance from ear to mouth so I can adjust them really easily. I can fit a microphone in a minute, so it’s less stressful for me, and the artists. Regardless of what they are doing with their head, the d:fine stays in the same place. As long as you’ve got the tension right, it stays put and looks really tidy.’
After 22 dates across the UK, Relfe reports: ‘I’ve used them on people of all shapes and sizes and they’ve fitted everyone really well,’ he says. ‘The rubberised earpieces have shown no sign of getting broken and the rubber has lots of memory, so it always goes back to the same shape.
Celebrating its 85th year, R G Jones has put faith in DPA mics for many years, using a variety of models for clients such as Jose Carreras, Katherine Jenkins, Chris Rea, Raymond Gubbay’s Classical Spectacular, Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of The Worlds and the Spanish Riding School of Vienna at Wembley Arena. To maintain a first class reputation for that long means providing the best solutions for clients’ requirements, with the best possible equipment. ‘The experience that comes with age tells us that DPA fits into our equipment philosophy perfectly,’ says senior project manager Simon Honywill.
RG Jones Sound Engineering purchased the mics from UK distributor Sound Network especially for the tour.
More: www.dpamicrophones.com
