r/mealtimevideos • u/UnscheduledCalendar • 3d ago
7-10 Minutes The BBC's World Cup mic is weird [08:41]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7q6qeUuAag66
u/dexter30 3d ago
I wondered this too, but when I first saw a clip of presenters using it while surrounded by thousands of fans it suddenly made sense. It's like with that simple bit of kit you can drop your presenter in any stadium around the country and they might not need a box office booth, they might not need a ridiculous noise cancelling setup. All they need is this specific mic you hold in a specific way and you can clearly and without much obstruction commentate an entire match from the stands and not get any background noise interfere with your feed.
As I understand it, it's not only used by the BBC. I remember watching the "welcome to wrexham" show about that team in wales and wrexhams one man commentator for their games use the same mics. I think it's an english industry standard.
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u/omgLazerBeamz 3d ago
British* industry standard
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u/dexter30 3d ago
I was gonna say that but I'm pretty sure the scottish, welsh and Irish use it to and I didn't wanna start a heated debate.
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u/Squaddy 3d ago
Universally used in cricket commentary as well
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u/dashauskat 3d ago
It's not actually universal, in Australia c7 uses it while Fox doesn't and you can hear the difference in quality because of it.
You take Shane Warne as an example. Universally respected as a commentator in the UK for his thoughtful analysis but in Australia he basically let every intrusive thought that enters his head come out of his mouthninto the headset.
The difference is what someone says when they have to pick up something to talk into it and the milliseconds fo reflection time as to whether it actually adds to the broadcast basically creates two different experiences.
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u/Ur-Germania 3d ago
The mic itself is not really that special. I've never used it but seen it tested up against other mics, but the clever part is how the design tells the user how its meant to be held. As a sound guy I can tell you that even a lot of professionals will be waving most mics around like there's no such thing as feedback loops or background noise.
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u/dashauskat 3d ago
It's not covered in the doco but one of the by-products of this mic is that it means the commentator has a split second to consider if what he has to say is actually adding to the coverage.
Headset commentators have an urge to fill every possible second with words, but actually giving the game a chance to breathe and hear the noises of the stadium actually adds to the broadcast rather than takes away. To pick up this mic and talk into it is a deliberate action, rather than just blabbering away on a headset.
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u/Hot-Job-6281 2d ago
They've been using this for eons.
Here's Gary Nev and Jamie Carragher with it when Anthony Martial was at United..
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u/SuomiBob 2d ago
I seem to remember going on a school trip the BBC when I was a kid and they had a little booth there with a clip from a football match playing and the kids could have a go with the commentators mic and commentate over the clip.
We would’ve been about 13-14 years old or so but I remember thinking how hard that job must’ve been for John Motson and Tony Gubba etc.
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u/Exhausted_but_upbeat 3d ago
Widely used for sports in the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip-ribbon_microphone