AWARDS
GEAR OF THE YEAR
SOUND
You can get away with slightly dodgy visuals if you have great audio, but not the other way around. Bad sound is the fastest way to ruin your work. Fortunately there is a huge amount of choice in themarket, but that means it’s easy to get confused and buy the wrong bit of kit. Of course, all our award winners deliver for the professional user. In themicrophone category, all the professional-style XLRmics were pipped to the post by a surprise winner, the Audio Technica AT8035. Operating frombattery or phantom power, this shotgunmic is proof that Audio Technica ismaking great strides in quality and acceptance by professional users. It’s a true broadcast-qualitymic that’s perfect for ENG use on camera or on a boom. For DSLR andmirrorless users, the Rode VideoMic Pro+ took the honours. Based on the hugely successful Rode VideoMic Pro which won our award last year, the new version is a higher spec unit with significant improvements. There’s now a rechargeable battery, auto shut off and improved sound. It can also be used off camera, such as on a boompole, using an extension lead for evenmore flexibility. In theWireless category, top honours go to the Sennheiser EW 100 ENG G4 Combo Set, an upgraded version of the industry-standard
G3 system that has beenmassively popular for years. It comes with an upgraded transmitter pack and receiver unit, as well as a top- quality lapel mic. The combo kit also includes a plug-inwireless adapter to turnmost report mics into wireless units so is ideal for all run- and-gun or interview situations. The tricky issue of recording top- quality audio onmirrorless cameras is also solved by our winner in the Audio Recorder/Adapter category, where Olympus has wonwith the LS-P4. It’s one of the first recorders to be compatible with recording in the latest FLAC format which is better than CD quality but with file sizes around 30%smaller compared to theWAV format. In the newmobile category, thinking outside the box helped Sennheiser take top honours with the newMemoryMic. This tiny unit is like a combined lapel mic and recorder that can capture broadcast quality audio. It then connects via Bluetooth to your phone and continues to record at any distance fromyour smartphone to its internal memory. It records up to four hours of audio which automatically synchronises with a smartphone video via the Sennheiser Memory Mic App.
IMAGES Our sound category winners all help ensure that your audio will enhance rather than distract from your movies
WINNERS
Microphone XLR
Audio Technica AT8035
Microphone DSLR
Røde VideoMic Pro+
WirelessMics Sennheiser EW 100 ENG G4 Combo Set Audio Recorder/ Adaptors Olympus LS-P4 Mobile Accessories Sennheiser MemoryMic
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PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2019
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