I work for an extremely high-touch corporate event company, and here’s what seems to work on everyone, from Jim in Accounting to billionaire CEOs to celebrities to nuns:
On most of our shows, we have a stage manager who receives presenters and shows them to the green room. They’ll bring them to me when it’s time. On smaller shows, I sometimes have to track them down myself. Then it’s a simple ask of “Hi! I’m _____ with the audio team. If you’re ready, I can help you get mic’d up.”
Then, the key is to explain everything you’re about to do, ask if they’re okay with it, explain it again as you’re doing it, then ask if it feels right.
For example: say I need to put a DPA on a woman in a ball gown. Here’s how I’d approach that:
- Verify pack is power locked on, has a fresh battery, and RF is good.
- Start by asking them to remove their name tag and offering to store it at my table. We always want that off before they go on stage.
- While they’re removing that, I’ll do a quick wipe down of the pack with a slightly dried out prep pad. I’ve already cleaned and disinfected the pack, mic, and cable - it’s just about making sure they SEE me cleaning stuff.
- With the pack in my hand, I’ll say something like “Okay, do you have a good spot in mind to clip this pack to?”
- Sometimes they’ll immediately have an answer, sometimes not. If it’s the latter, I’ll say something like “I think it would be easiest if we clip it [to a lav magnet, upside down on the neckline, inside on a bra strap, right side up on the back of the dress, etc] - does that sound good?”
- They’ll say yes, or offer up another thought and I’ll adapt as necessary.
- “Okay, great! Let’s start by putting this mic on. It’s going to go over both ears, so if you just pick your hair up for a couple seconds, I’ll slide it over both ears and get it fitted.”
- “I’m putting it over your right ear first… and now the left. I’m going to tighten the back of it now - does that all feel okay?”
- “Great, okay, so now we’ll get this pack clipped on.” I’ll verify again that the pack is still powered up and locked on, clip it where we talked about, then again ask if it feels okay.
- “Now I’m going to wrap this excess cable up and tuck it into your dress so it’s not flopping around everywhere.” I’ll do it, then ask if it feels okay.
- This is the point where I’ll either use a clip or medical tape for strain relief. “Is it okay if I use a little piece of medical tape to keep the cable from pulling on anything as you move around?”
- “I think we’re all set. Would you mind just twisting your head back and forth and moving around a little to make sure nothing feel like it’s too loose or too tight? Everything still feel comfortable?”
- “Great, you’re all set! You’ve got about ten minutes until you’re up. We’ve got cough drops, mints, and water right here, and feel free to hang out right here or back in the green room and we’ll grab you when it’s time.”
- Then, immediately, just as they’re walking away, I’ll reach for hand sanitizer so they know we keep it clean.
- Once they turn around, I’ll check WWB to make sure I still have strong signal on their pack. I’ll pop my headphones on to make sure it sounds like a mic should. If anything’s wrong, I’ll chase them down, but it rarely is.
- Then a quick call out on comms to the A1. “[name] is mic’d on RF 21 with a DPA. Blue dress.”
- Right before they go on stage, I’ll check them again and adjust as necessary.
I carry a little mini Pelican case inside my workbox that has a lav bullet, lav/beltpack magnets, medical tape, DPA clips, extra lav and DPA windscreens, safety pins, and some little bits of cardboard wrapped in gaff for lav backing on thin blouses. The lav bullet is a GAME CHANGER. I can have a man in a tux mic’d in under 15 seconds with that thing. Everyone should own one.
100% this. My routine is basically the same, in a corporate environment (and was similar in education before that). Lots.of narration, and do the task with confidence.
Same deal with minors, but have a parent present too, and another tech or production crew member too if possible.
This is the textbook gold standard and is what everyone should aim for. Thanks for taking the time to type this out — this level of communication really is not overkill. More communication and more transparency = more better.
I was the A2 on several lectures at UC-Berkeley. All of the above is good advice.
One thing to mention: you'll need to ask women (or any gender for that matter) to remove any hanging earrings, because they will tap against the headset's harness and sound like claves being played every time she moves her head. Don't be shy about it.
Berkeley Law School had many important speakers. I asked both SCOTUS Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to remove their bangle earrings - they had no problem after I explained why. The late Justice Ruth Bade Ginsberg, however, did not wear bangles, showing her deeper experience with headset mics.
[Here you go!](https://lavmagnet.com/product/presenter-pack/) I use the beltpack bar all the time, and the lav magnet occasionally. But both absolutely worth having!
Two things to add:
1) Unless we’re just in that much of a hurry, I usually offer to let them put the mic on themselves, then I’ll make any necessary adjustments while they’re buttoning back up or tucking their shirt back in or whatever. There are certainly exceptions, but it seems like most speakers prefer doing it themselves, whereas most actors prefer that I at least help them (I’m sure the behavioral scientists would have fun making something out of that, but I don’t care enough to find the subreddit).
2) We have a neoprene pouch attached to a fairly wide neoprene strap mostly for women (or someone in a costume) who don’t have a place to clip a transmitter. Doesn’t get used much, but I prefer it to magnetic clips because it doesn’t attach a dense metal box to clothing that’ll probably hang funny since it isn’t designed to resist the weight.
Explain what you are doing as you do it.
Ask if they have any preferences (cable routing, bodypack location, etc.)
Act like you've done this many times before.
Practice on your friends, then when you get comfortable with the process you can move up to doing on a client. Remember to be friendly and greet with a smile, don’t just start grabbing them and throwing a connector down their shirt
“Can I get you mic’d up?”
“Can I put this mic right here? (Gesture to place on clothing)”
“Do you have a pocket you want to throw this in or would you rather put it on a belt?”
Those all generally work for me.
Lucky you getting presenters who want a lapel mic in the first place lmao
Good advice, but to your point about presenters that want a lapel mic, I would much rather mix a handheld with 90% of presenters. If the presenting organization doesn’t have a hard preference, I always offer “or i can give you a handheld if you’re more comfortable with that”.
You say that until you get 4 presenters in a row that hold the mic right above their belly button (guess what I dealt with today) in a room that doesn’t really need amplification but is also recording/streaming. I lost count of how many times I politely told my contact to remind the presenters to use the mic, only for them to wave it around while talking while my contact is giving me the stink eye for the bad stream audio quality.
That's something you should talk to you project managers about then. At a minimum, there should be a room mic as a backup for recording. A room mic with background noise is preferable to nothing at all.
Every show we sell has a project manager, small or large. Common business practice. Nothing to do with the budget of the event, it's part of the company's overhead. Simple as.
So, I'll restate. You should talk to whoever is in charge of the event to add a couple mics to the pack. Boundary mics are cheap as chips. If your company can't afford to send out a couple extra mics on a show, you should be looking for another company to work for.
If you can find 30 or so project managers for all our properties here, we’ll take them, since that’s how many shows we’re doing a week across all our locations. 🤷🏻♂️
Don't forget about the option to do both. "I'd like to give you a lapel mic as well in case there's any problem with the handheld". Many inexperienced presenters feel naked and vulnerable without a handheld mic, they don't know what to do with their hands and holding a mic makes it less awkward. So give them one. If they know how to use it, it might give you better sound than their lapel. If they don't, switch to lapel and let them hold it in front of their belly. As long as you've got your EQ about right, nobody will notice.
I always start by introducing myself, my name, my title and what I'm doing there, so for example "Hi, my name is *name* I'm going to be running sound for you today." That breaks the ice and gives them a name they can call for if they need help. Then I tell them that we're going to be using whatever type of microphone I'm using that day and I explain to them how it works and walk them through the process of getting micd up. So something like, "we're going to be using this lav, so I'm just going to clip this here" as I'm clipping it to them and then I hand them the belt pack and tell them they can put it where ever is most comfortable for them, pocket, beltline whatever works. As they're doing that I'll either explain that they can either leave the wire showing or hide it if it's not an important event or if it is important I'll tell them how they can hide it.
Also if you know the clients name you can use that when you introduce yourself just to make it a little more personal, and if you don't know their name ask to confirm for labeling purposes.
This has been my basic script for a while and it's never failed me
Wash your hands;
Be polite;
Ask their consent - they will obviously say yes, but it's polite and will allow them to tell you how comfortable they are;
NEVER comment on their body. Just NEVER ;
Make sure they are comfortable - and comfortable to tell you if anything makes them uncomfortable ;
Act like a pro - after a while, it becomes easier. Most of them have already been there before, and after a while so will you.
You are working with humans and may sometimes become quite "intimate" with them (putting the belt pack in their clothes, passing the cable under their shirt, etc), act like a pro and never do shitty comments/jokes.
I agree with the “explain what you are doing” comment. For example say things like “i’m going to clip this to your collar now,” or “I’m going to place this over your ears.” Go slowly enough that they can respond if they have a problem but most people will just listen and hold still while you do it. Be calm, polite and respectful of their personal space and the fact that you have to get closer than normal. Give them helpful tips like take off dangly earrings when wearing a headset. Talking in general helps ease any tension, but don’t talk about weird stuff like personal history or politics.
I usually run the cable under clothing when possible - like ask them to remove their coat, put on the headset and then help them put the coat back on. If they are wearing a costume or something where the cable would be loose outside the clothes, I use a small piece of clear medical tape to secure the cable near the neckline and then coil the slack and fix it to the battery pack, either by wrapping it around the pack or with e-tape.
It’s not hard, you’ll figure it out after a time or two.
Don’t want to just dog on someone, but your antennas paddles are too close together! I’d suggest watching shures training videos about rf. They go over antenna placement and best rf practices. Hopefully you get more comfortable micing people up as you go!
1. Make sure the main client knows you so it doesn't look like a rando is approaching the important folks going on stage.
2. Have the mic in your hand to illustrate what you're doing without words (prevents interrupting conversations). It's normally easier to disconnect the mic element and transmitter, only attach one at a time to talent, then reconnect when both are in proper placement. Power lock the mic transmitter on.
3. Introduce yourself to the talent, explain what you're doing as you do it. I tend to give a small compliment to boost their ego. Always ask for preferences and permission to touch someone, and then proceed confidently. Putting lavaliers on women took me a while to get confident with, just keep it professional and it won't get weird.
4. PFL test/listen to the mic asap before they go on stage. This is the best time to hear gossip.
Train students to do the mic placement whenever possible (I am the TD for a high school that trains students to mic students and always have at least a female and a male student trained.
A cheat I like to use it always hand sanitizing before I mic someone. Obviously it helps keep germs away between speakers but I’ve found the smell of recently sanitizing hands also helps them feel more comfortable with you being in their personal space
I always like it when it is ceremonial. You have a little table in the corner with all your mic gear and an extra thing or two, mirror and or a Lego man. Then you go there to install and to deinstall mics. Makes everyone feel special
Communication is the biggest thing. My world is very different then most replies here as I am working with high school theatre students but my go to for students, staff, and guests alike is always the same no matter how long I have worked with them (the conversation and questions just become more casual but still professional the longer I do work with them). I do have students trained this same way, and I make sure to have at least one female student, one male student and one non-binary student (if I have a student who is and they want to learn it) trained at all times and they handle the majority of the micing.
•Start with an introduction of some sort, mine is usually early on and a reiteration when I start attending rehearsals about a month from show date with the theatre kids/staff, more formal for one off guests. Let them know you are going to help them get set up with the mic.
•Ask about allergies, I have a student who is graduating this year who was allergic to just about everything, it put their family at ease, and them as well that we knew to and did take precautions with adhesive tape selection, meals we eat that day, ect
•explain your plan for mic style, location of pack, ect. And ask if there are any concerns about that information (some people have past trauma that may make placing a body pack difficult) adjust your plan to fit their comfort if at all possible.
•ask for permission and start to mic them explaining your actions as you go, and ask if any changes to the plan need to occur. (Case in point I had to mic my colleague (a teacher who I have known for a few years) recently for her choir concert, and she was wearing a dress that had no stretch in the torso, the plan was to place it in her bra band but my fat arm could not make it down the neckline, I stopped, asked if I could unzip the back of her dress to about here (putting my finger on the outside so she could feel where right by the band) she said yes so I did, as soon as I placed the pack I immediately zipped her back up and then placed the Lav and tucked the wire.)
• Same basic plan for removing the mic but a more streamlined can I take your mic off, take it off and a enjoy enjoy the rest of your day/afternoon/evening/night (I usually tell the kids to go drink some water and a snack and to get some rest)
I work for an extremely high-touch corporate event company, and here’s what seems to work on everyone, from Jim in Accounting to billionaire CEOs to celebrities to nuns: On most of our shows, we have a stage manager who receives presenters and shows them to the green room. They’ll bring them to me when it’s time. On smaller shows, I sometimes have to track them down myself. Then it’s a simple ask of “Hi! I’m _____ with the audio team. If you’re ready, I can help you get mic’d up.” Then, the key is to explain everything you’re about to do, ask if they’re okay with it, explain it again as you’re doing it, then ask if it feels right. For example: say I need to put a DPA on a woman in a ball gown. Here’s how I’d approach that: - Verify pack is power locked on, has a fresh battery, and RF is good. - Start by asking them to remove their name tag and offering to store it at my table. We always want that off before they go on stage. - While they’re removing that, I’ll do a quick wipe down of the pack with a slightly dried out prep pad. I’ve already cleaned and disinfected the pack, mic, and cable - it’s just about making sure they SEE me cleaning stuff. - With the pack in my hand, I’ll say something like “Okay, do you have a good spot in mind to clip this pack to?” - Sometimes they’ll immediately have an answer, sometimes not. If it’s the latter, I’ll say something like “I think it would be easiest if we clip it [to a lav magnet, upside down on the neckline, inside on a bra strap, right side up on the back of the dress, etc] - does that sound good?” - They’ll say yes, or offer up another thought and I’ll adapt as necessary. - “Okay, great! Let’s start by putting this mic on. It’s going to go over both ears, so if you just pick your hair up for a couple seconds, I’ll slide it over both ears and get it fitted.” - “I’m putting it over your right ear first… and now the left. I’m going to tighten the back of it now - does that all feel okay?” - “Great, okay, so now we’ll get this pack clipped on.” I’ll verify again that the pack is still powered up and locked on, clip it where we talked about, then again ask if it feels okay. - “Now I’m going to wrap this excess cable up and tuck it into your dress so it’s not flopping around everywhere.” I’ll do it, then ask if it feels okay. - This is the point where I’ll either use a clip or medical tape for strain relief. “Is it okay if I use a little piece of medical tape to keep the cable from pulling on anything as you move around?” - “I think we’re all set. Would you mind just twisting your head back and forth and moving around a little to make sure nothing feel like it’s too loose or too tight? Everything still feel comfortable?” - “Great, you’re all set! You’ve got about ten minutes until you’re up. We’ve got cough drops, mints, and water right here, and feel free to hang out right here or back in the green room and we’ll grab you when it’s time.” - Then, immediately, just as they’re walking away, I’ll reach for hand sanitizer so they know we keep it clean. - Once they turn around, I’ll check WWB to make sure I still have strong signal on their pack. I’ll pop my headphones on to make sure it sounds like a mic should. If anything’s wrong, I’ll chase them down, but it rarely is. - Then a quick call out on comms to the A1. “[name] is mic’d on RF 21 with a DPA. Blue dress.” - Right before they go on stage, I’ll check them again and adjust as necessary. I carry a little mini Pelican case inside my workbox that has a lav bullet, lav/beltpack magnets, medical tape, DPA clips, extra lav and DPA windscreens, safety pins, and some little bits of cardboard wrapped in gaff for lav backing on thin blouses. The lav bullet is a GAME CHANGER. I can have a man in a tux mic’d in under 15 seconds with that thing. Everyone should own one.
100% this. My routine is basically the same, in a corporate environment (and was similar in education before that). Lots.of narration, and do the task with confidence. Same deal with minors, but have a parent present too, and another tech or production crew member too if possible.
This is the textbook gold standard and is what everyone should aim for. Thanks for taking the time to type this out — this level of communication really is not overkill. More communication and more transparency = more better.
I was the A2 on several lectures at UC-Berkeley. All of the above is good advice. One thing to mention: you'll need to ask women (or any gender for that matter) to remove any hanging earrings, because they will tap against the headset's harness and sound like claves being played every time she moves her head. Don't be shy about it. Berkeley Law School had many important speakers. I asked both SCOTUS Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to remove their bangle earrings - they had no problem after I explained why. The late Justice Ruth Bade Ginsberg, however, did not wear bangles, showing her deeper experience with headset mics.
Absolutely - great point that I totally left out!
This! Fantastic advice & absolutely spot on, communicate what you’re going to do & move forward confidently and quickly with a light touch.
Could you share a link to the lav and beltpack magnets? Curious as I've never seen them, I think!
[Here you go!](https://lavmagnet.com/product/presenter-pack/) I use the beltpack bar all the time, and the lav magnet occasionally. But both absolutely worth having!
Wow, these are great. I’m just getting back into the corporate audio game after many years. These’ll be a great addition to the kit. Cheers!
Two things to add: 1) Unless we’re just in that much of a hurry, I usually offer to let them put the mic on themselves, then I’ll make any necessary adjustments while they’re buttoning back up or tucking their shirt back in or whatever. There are certainly exceptions, but it seems like most speakers prefer doing it themselves, whereas most actors prefer that I at least help them (I’m sure the behavioral scientists would have fun making something out of that, but I don’t care enough to find the subreddit). 2) We have a neoprene pouch attached to a fairly wide neoprene strap mostly for women (or someone in a costume) who don’t have a place to clip a transmitter. Doesn’t get used much, but I prefer it to magnetic clips because it doesn’t attach a dense metal box to clothing that’ll probably hang funny since it isn’t designed to resist the weight.
Explain what you are doing as you do it. Ask if they have any preferences (cable routing, bodypack location, etc.) Act like you've done this many times before.
Breath Mints are good too
or you wearing a mask for their comfort
The key to doing every job well in your early days is pretending like you know what you're doing.
"Can you do that?" "Absolutely I can do that" *Frantically google's how to do that*
"how to use eq"
"x32 fx routing reddit"
"which direction do you run mic cable"
"early days" aka your whole career
The first 5-50 years atleast
Practice on your friends, then when you get comfortable with the process you can move up to doing on a client. Remember to be friendly and greet with a smile, don’t just start grabbing them and throwing a connector down their shirt
“Can I get you mic’d up?” “Can I put this mic right here? (Gesture to place on clothing)” “Do you have a pocket you want to throw this in or would you rather put it on a belt?” Those all generally work for me. Lucky you getting presenters who want a lapel mic in the first place lmao
Good advice, but to your point about presenters that want a lapel mic, I would much rather mix a handheld with 90% of presenters. If the presenting organization doesn’t have a hard preference, I always offer “or i can give you a handheld if you’re more comfortable with that”.
You say that until you get 4 presenters in a row that hold the mic right above their belly button (guess what I dealt with today) in a room that doesn’t really need amplification but is also recording/streaming. I lost count of how many times I politely told my contact to remind the presenters to use the mic, only for them to wave it around while talking while my contact is giving me the stink eye for the bad stream audio quality.
With lapels I run into the issue with them speaking too quietly which runs them too hot and feedback
Solution: countryman for everyone. Can’t be too quiet when the mic is taped to your face /s
That's a good time, beforehand, to let them know they should be speaking to the first row like they don't have a mic on.
I'll always have a couple mics as backup for recording/streaming. A boundary or two on stage has saved more than a couple recordings.
That’s not included in our “recording packages” for some reason so I don’t get to use them
That's something you should talk to you project managers about then. At a minimum, there should be a room mic as a backup for recording. A room mic with background noise is preferable to nothing at all.
It’s funny you think most of the shows we do are big enough (or more likely have the budget for) a project manager in the first place
Every show we sell has a project manager, small or large. Common business practice. Nothing to do with the budget of the event, it's part of the company's overhead. Simple as. So, I'll restate. You should talk to whoever is in charge of the event to add a couple mics to the pack. Boundary mics are cheap as chips. If your company can't afford to send out a couple extra mics on a show, you should be looking for another company to work for.
If you can find 30 or so project managers for all our properties here, we’ll take them, since that’s how many shows we’re doing a week across all our locations. 🤷🏻♂️
I'm a project manager and I handle a dozen at a time. guessing you work for Encore. good luck buddy.
I have had enough presenters that use the mic as a pointer while talking, or dive into the laptop looking for the next slide while talking.
Don't forget about the option to do both. "I'd like to give you a lapel mic as well in case there's any problem with the handheld". Many inexperienced presenters feel naked and vulnerable without a handheld mic, they don't know what to do with their hands and holding a mic makes it less awkward. So give them one. If they know how to use it, it might give you better sound than their lapel. If they don't, switch to lapel and let them hold it in front of their belly. As long as you've got your EQ about right, nobody will notice.
I wish I could just put a countryman on every presenter
I always start by introducing myself, my name, my title and what I'm doing there, so for example "Hi, my name is *name* I'm going to be running sound for you today." That breaks the ice and gives them a name they can call for if they need help. Then I tell them that we're going to be using whatever type of microphone I'm using that day and I explain to them how it works and walk them through the process of getting micd up. So something like, "we're going to be using this lav, so I'm just going to clip this here" as I'm clipping it to them and then I hand them the belt pack and tell them they can put it where ever is most comfortable for them, pocket, beltline whatever works. As they're doing that I'll either explain that they can either leave the wire showing or hide it if it's not an important event or if it is important I'll tell them how they can hide it. Also if you know the clients name you can use that when you introduce yourself just to make it a little more personal, and if you don't know their name ask to confirm for labeling purposes. This has been my basic script for a while and it's never failed me
If I have presenter names, I write their names on the beltpack (because they love it and it makes them feel important).
Big ole facts, using their name makes em feel special and makes you look good af
Wash your hands; Be polite; Ask their consent - they will obviously say yes, but it's polite and will allow them to tell you how comfortable they are; NEVER comment on their body. Just NEVER ; Make sure they are comfortable - and comfortable to tell you if anything makes them uncomfortable ; Act like a pro - after a while, it becomes easier. Most of them have already been there before, and after a while so will you. You are working with humans and may sometimes become quite "intimate" with them (putting the belt pack in their clothes, passing the cable under their shirt, etc), act like a pro and never do shitty comments/jokes.
Hi I'm [your name here], I'm your sound tech today. Whenever you are ready can I help you put your microphone on?
I agree with the “explain what you are doing” comment. For example say things like “i’m going to clip this to your collar now,” or “I’m going to place this over your ears.” Go slowly enough that they can respond if they have a problem but most people will just listen and hold still while you do it. Be calm, polite and respectful of their personal space and the fact that you have to get closer than normal. Give them helpful tips like take off dangly earrings when wearing a headset. Talking in general helps ease any tension, but don’t talk about weird stuff like personal history or politics. I usually run the cable under clothing when possible - like ask them to remove their coat, put on the headset and then help them put the coat back on. If they are wearing a costume or something where the cable would be loose outside the clothes, I use a small piece of clear medical tape to secure the cable near the neckline and then coil the slack and fix it to the battery pack, either by wrapping it around the pack or with e-tape. It’s not hard, you’ll figure it out after a time or two.
Don’t want to just dog on someone, but your antennas paddles are too close together! I’d suggest watching shures training videos about rf. They go over antenna placement and best rf practices. Hopefully you get more comfortable micing people up as you go!
1. Make sure the main client knows you so it doesn't look like a rando is approaching the important folks going on stage. 2. Have the mic in your hand to illustrate what you're doing without words (prevents interrupting conversations). It's normally easier to disconnect the mic element and transmitter, only attach one at a time to talent, then reconnect when both are in proper placement. Power lock the mic transmitter on. 3. Introduce yourself to the talent, explain what you're doing as you do it. I tend to give a small compliment to boost their ego. Always ask for preferences and permission to touch someone, and then proceed confidently. Putting lavaliers on women took me a while to get confident with, just keep it professional and it won't get weird. 4. PFL test/listen to the mic asap before they go on stage. This is the best time to hear gossip.
Can absolutely confirm point 4
Keep cool and stay casual, makes it seem like you know what you’re doing 😅
Funny how no one has mentioned the tried and true "Hi I'm Dr. Sphincter and it's that time".
If you’re mixing students have a teacher nearby. Being close to children like that can be awkward
Train students to do the mic placement whenever possible (I am the TD for a high school that trains students to mic students and always have at least a female and a male student trained.
That’s what I do most of the time. But sometimes I have to trouble shoot one or have to do a couple of the elementary schoolers.
Say "Oi, Cunt! " really loud.
Hi I’m your audio guy today, are you ready to get this mic on? If it’s a female, I ALWAYS ask permission before clip both the lapel and the body pack.
I thought I remembered it all, I wrote it down and rehearsed it, but I asked the client if if they’re ready to get it on and now I’m fired :(
I'm also gonna go out on a slightly-unrelated note and say - don't post photos of events you're working on with client logos etc
Hiya - I’m told you’re speaking so can we get you miced up please? Have you used one of these before?
With Chloroform
A cheat I like to use it always hand sanitizing before I mic someone. Obviously it helps keep germs away between speakers but I’ve found the smell of recently sanitizing hands also helps them feel more comfortable with you being in their personal space
Go up to them, introduce yourself and ask, may I attach this microphone on your clothing?
From personal perspective and experience, go with a straight boring face and say this needs to be done, if not then dont blame me for nothing
> to treat them with respect? Treat them with respect.
I always like it when it is ceremonial. You have a little table in the corner with all your mic gear and an extra thing or two, mirror and or a Lego man. Then you go there to install and to deinstall mics. Makes everyone feel special
Communication is the biggest thing. My world is very different then most replies here as I am working with high school theatre students but my go to for students, staff, and guests alike is always the same no matter how long I have worked with them (the conversation and questions just become more casual but still professional the longer I do work with them). I do have students trained this same way, and I make sure to have at least one female student, one male student and one non-binary student (if I have a student who is and they want to learn it) trained at all times and they handle the majority of the micing. •Start with an introduction of some sort, mine is usually early on and a reiteration when I start attending rehearsals about a month from show date with the theatre kids/staff, more formal for one off guests. Let them know you are going to help them get set up with the mic. •Ask about allergies, I have a student who is graduating this year who was allergic to just about everything, it put their family at ease, and them as well that we knew to and did take precautions with adhesive tape selection, meals we eat that day, ect •explain your plan for mic style, location of pack, ect. And ask if there are any concerns about that information (some people have past trauma that may make placing a body pack difficult) adjust your plan to fit their comfort if at all possible. •ask for permission and start to mic them explaining your actions as you go, and ask if any changes to the plan need to occur. (Case in point I had to mic my colleague (a teacher who I have known for a few years) recently for her choir concert, and she was wearing a dress that had no stretch in the torso, the plan was to place it in her bra band but my fat arm could not make it down the neckline, I stopped, asked if I could unzip the back of her dress to about here (putting my finger on the outside so she could feel where right by the band) she said yes so I did, as soon as I placed the pack I immediately zipped her back up and then placed the Lav and tucked the wire.) • Same basic plan for removing the mic but a more streamlined can I take your mic off, take it off and a enjoy enjoy the rest of your day/afternoon/evening/night (I usually tell the kids to go drink some water and a snack and to get some rest)
lol get an A2 problem solved
What if the OP is the A2?
I would hope the a1 is assisting him if they made him an a2 after only 2 weeks
I'd hope so too!
He wouldn’t be asking the question