NBC is covering the Kentucky Derby for us this year, and in
opening their coverage, they showed a reporter riding a horse around the track
behind some vehicle that was watering down the surface of the track, or some
such thing, and she was saying something about the upcoming race. The only
problem was, it was really hard to understand what she was saying, because she
was trying to report by holding a wireless handheld microphone that looked like
a Shure SM-58 (with the wire-mesh ball on the top) on steroids: it was bouncing
all around, varying her volume level all over the place, and I was more
concerned that she might knock her teeth out with it at any moment than I was
about what she was saying.
This also made it so she had to focus most of her
attention on the microphone, so her riding ability (one-handed) suffered a lot,
and she looked extremely anxious and displayed positively novice-level skills
while riding on the horse. Plus, since she was so focused on holding the
microphone up to her mouth while she was bouncing up and down, and on trying to
not fall off the horse at the same time, she didn’t do the best job with the
not-bouncing-hard-on-the-saddle-while-the-horse-was-galloping-along thing,
consequently causing her to sound as if she was being repeatedly punched in the
sternum with every bounce.
Why didn’t they fit her with what any sane person would have
used: a headpiece-mounted small microphone like they use at the Britney
Spears-type pop concerts where they’re too busy dancing and bouncing all over
the place to be able to hold a microphone? That way she could have used both of
her hands to ride, she wouldn’t have had to focus most of her attention on
holding the microphone up to her mouth, and she could have actually
concentrated on what she was talking about; plus she could have been reliably
heard by the viewing audience at the same time. But I’m not a TV sound
professional, nor a news producer, so I’m sure I don’t even know what the hell
I’m talking about.
But maybe they have found through market research that a
news report is way more captivating when you are actively concerned for the
reporter’s safety. That could be it, you know. Right? I mean, hey: I watched it! I even wrote about it! See?
So I guess they really must know what they're doing there at NBC after all! I guess that’s why they’re the professionals. Silly me for even questioning it.
