Recording Audio with the Rodelink Filmmaker Kit

On the previous blog post about corporate interview and testimonial set-ups I very briefly mentioned the importance of recording good audio and that no matter how beautiful your video production projects look on screen, if the captured audio is not up to par, it’s basically useless. Recording audio is not necessarily my personal area of expertise, however for 99% of video production company's corporate and non-corporate shoots, recording good quality audio is absolutely essential. Believe it or not, even though sound is arguably more important than video, sometimes there simply is no budget on a video production project to hire an audio person to record sound separately into a field recorder.

Recording interview audio with a boom-pole and blimp

Clients have a hard time wrapping their heads around the importance of a dedicated audio technician on-set, leaving our camera operators and/or videographers having to wear many hats on set: director, producer, cameraman, cinematographer, and you guessed it…..audio recordist. Unfortunately this trend with clients doesn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, so for many video production companies, independent filmmakers, camera operators, and freelance videographers out there this is all too familiar.

Filmmaker / Videographer wearing "many hats" on set

So of course we try to make our camera crew and videographers’ lives here in Vienna easier by using great and reliable video, film and audio products from industry leaders. One of our video crew’s go-to devices for recording sound, especially when filming corporate interviews, conferences, events or testimonials, is the Rodelink Wireless Filmmaker Kit.

Rodelink Filmmaker Kit on the field

For me, the greatest feature about this device is definitely how easy it is to use. Basically all you have to do is turn it on and it’s ready to be used. Battery life is also fantastic, our video production company has had some pretty long shooting days (well over 10 hours filming) where we used the Filmmaker Kit non-stop, and not once did we have to change the battery during production. The device is powered by AA batteries or even USB, our camera crew uses rechargeable batteries with it.

Filmmaker Kit with transmitter, receiver, and lavalier microphone

The Rodelink Filmmaker Kit comes with a belt back transmitter, a camera mounting receiver, and Rode’s broadcast-grade lavalier microphone. The belt back transmitter has a three-stage gain adjustment (0, -10, -20db). Channel selection/pairing is also extremely simple by one-press operation and automatic scanning. It constantly monitors and hops between frequencies choosing the strongest signal, so you don’t really have to do or worry about anything.

Corporate Interview using the Rode Filmmaker Kit in Vienna, Austria

Our video production company’s main camera for corporate shoots in Austria is the Canon C100 Mark II, and a camera operator can easily connect the Filmmaker Kit to the camera using a Minijack to XLR adapter.

Filmmaker Kit and a Rode NTG2 shotgun mic connected to the Canon C100 Mark II via XLR

The audio quality is really great and compared to other more expensive wireless lavalier microphone systems out there, I believe that for “multiple hat-wearing” videographers, filmmakers and camera operators out there, the Rodelink Filmmaker Kit gives an amazing bang for your buck.

Posted by Vitor Goncalves