The Danish reality TV show Faith, Hope & Tinder has men and women coming to terms with the latest in audio technology from DPA, to eliminate the need for sound engineers to be present on dates.
A kit compromising of an iPhone, a DPA MMA-A Digital Audio Interface and a d:screet SC4060-BM lavalier microphone was given to each participant to record their meetings. It didn’t take very long for them to become confident with the gear, recording sound to their iPhones with their d:vice, a small two-channel mic preamp and A/D converter that has mono, dual and stereo capabilities and is able to capture or stream ultra-high quality audio.
“From the outset, we wanted a technical solution that would be non-invasive yet would deliver the broadcast quality sound we needed,” says Lotte Dyva Toubro, Production Manager and partner in Bermuda, the Copenhagen-based production company that created the programme for Denmark’s TV2 channel. “It also had to be very easy to use because our participants are ordinary people covering a wide age range and some of them don’t have extensive technical skills.”
Dyva Toubro and her team tested a number of different microphones and interfaces, they paired the MMA-A and d:screet mic to deliver the best sound quality possible, where clarity of audio was compromised in particular environments with a lot of ambient noise.
“Over a period of four months, we followed seven participants as they searched to find love via the internet. Most managed to operate the technology without any problems - we had one or two people who forgot to turn on their audio equipment but those were the only times when the system failed,” Dyva Toubro adds. “Generally the system worked very well, and participants found it very easy to use. The audio quality was amazing, which made editing much quicker. Also, given the nature of the programme, the DPA solution was very unobtrusive. The microphones are so small that they can either be used as lavaliers or placed on a table so that they pick up audio from both the contestant and his or her date.”
Bermuda wanted to automate the entire workflow by setting up a cloud server where material could be recorded and updated easily. It was designed to be straightforward so that it could be maintained and used by people who aren’t as tech-savvy as a sound engineer. It was as simple as pressing ‘stop’ and ‘record’ on the iPhone as their content was immediately uploaded to the server. Having real-time access to the content meant the post-production team could starting editing straight away.
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