Add a Professional Touch to Your Wedding Video: Connect To A Sound System

Posted on March 18, 2008
Filed Under Pre-Production | Comments Off

Sound SystemIf you would like to add a professional touch to your “do-it-yourself” wedding video, then connect to an audio system. Most churches, nowadays, have an audio system to enhance the listening ability of their audience.

Your wedding video will be greatly enhanced if you have your wedding ceremony picked up by an audio feed to the camera.

Start by checking to see if the church has someone in charge of running their sound system. This person should be able to provide an audio feed to one of your cameras. You will take an audio cable, plug one end into the sound system and the other end into the mic input jack on your camera.

Be sure to check the level of sound your receiving by turning on your camera and listening through your headset…which should also be plugged into the camera.

The main audio console usually has either a 1/4” or 1/2” jack marked “Line Level” or “Mic Level” output. One end of your audio cable should be plugged into the Mic Level jack and the other end into your camera.

If you don’t have an audio cable, they are available for rent. You can also by a cable at your local Radio Shack. Audio cables are faily inexpensive. Whether you rent or buy, just make sure its long enough for your needs.

Another piece of audio equipment that will help the quality of your video is a hand-held
microphone. You can plug this into your camera through the external mic input jack. This will help to capture better audio and giving you more range.

Be sure to check the sound level of the microphone by having someone speak into the microphone while you listen through the headset.

Complete this pre-production task at least a week before the wedding. You will be able to determine if you need to acquire an audio cable (the church may have an extra). Waiting until the morning of the wedding will leave you scrambling and you might end up with poor quality audio.

Some churches don’t have a a sound system. In this case, you can rent a wireless lavaliere mic.

You can clip this mic to the minister’s lapel. This microphone’s receiver will plug into the external mic input jack on the camera. Tape the microphone receiver to one of the legs of the camera tripod with duct tape. Just be sure to become familiar with the operation of this microphone and make sure its batteries are fully charged.

If there is no sound system and you don’t have the budget to buy or rent an external microphone, you will have to rely on the camera microphone. You can still capture good audio by just moving in closer to your subjects.

Most camera microphones are fairly sensitive, so this shouldn’t be a problem. Just make sure to check your audio levels by listening through your headset. Adjust your distance from your subjects accordingly.

Add that professional touch to your wedding video by making sure the audio is the best it can be.

Click here to learn more professional Wedding Video Secrets.

Comments

Installed by SimpleScripts