In-Ear Monitors

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Hi there. This post may be a little off topic for the group, but I am sure
that someone here will be able to answer my questions.

I work as a live-event motor sports announcer. Our shows primarily take
place in the winter months inside large stadiums or hockey arenas. I have
always had a problem with personal monitoring in that it becomes very
difficult to hear myself when two monster trucks fire up their engines
simultaneously. As the on-floor "mobile" announcer, I do not have the
luxury of using some sort of hard-wired headphone setup from the comfort of
a sound booth.

My natural inclination is to try to "yell" over the engines, which I know is
a bad thing. Over the course of a three day show, my voice can become quite
damaged. A musician friend of mine suggested looking into some wireless
in-ear monitors, such as those offered by Shure.

I have always had great luck with Shure products and currently travel with a
Shure UHF wireless microphone setup for these shows. As a result, I'd like
to try the PSM Series wireless monitors.

My questions are:

1. Do you think that these monitors will help my situation within these
noisy buildings, thus saving my voice?
2. If yes, which model (PSM 200, 400, 600, or 700) to buy? Which have you
used?

Thanks in advance.


Regards,
Darren

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Scott Dorsey" <kludge@panix.com> wrote in message
news:cl1lnj$e56$1@panix2.panix.com...
> In article <FeWcd.1718$7N5.13338@news1.mts.net>, Newsguy <news@news.com>
> wrote:
>>
>>I work as a live-event motor sports announcer. Our shows primarily take
>>place in the winter months inside large stadiums or hockey arenas. I have
>>always had a problem with personal monitoring in that it becomes very
>>difficult to hear myself when two monster trucks fire up their engines
>>simultaneously. As the on-floor "mobile" announcer, I do not have the
>>luxury of using some sort of hard-wired headphone setup from the comfort
>>of
>>a sound booth.
>
> What sort of headphones are you using? If you are using something like
> the Beyer DT100s that are common for sportscasters, you may get better
> noise rejection with in-ear gadgets with custom earmolds, and then David
> Clark hearing protectors on top.
>
>>My natural inclination is to try to "yell" over the engines, which I know
>>is
>>a bad thing. Over the course of a three day show, my voice can become
>>quite
>>damaged. A musician friend of mine suggested looking into some wireless
>>in-ear monitors, such as those offered by Shure.
>
> Well, how much of the problem is that you are hearing huge amounts of
> engine
> noise in your headphones? If you go with a mike that cuts the noise out
> (and the Coles lip mike is the classic one for this, although it looks
> very
> silly on-camera), you'll find you can hear yourself a lot better in the
> phones
> and are less likely to scream.
>
>>1. Do you think that these monitors will help my situation within these
>>noisy buildings, thus saving my voice?
>
> IF the problem is leakage into the phones, rather than leakage into the
> mike
> coming out of the phones, yes.
>
>>2. If yes, which model (PSM 200, 400, 600, or 700) to buy? Which have
>>you
>>used?
>
> I have mostly used the Etymotics and not the Shure stuff. I would pick
> the
> Shures with the best noise rejection and not worry about anything else.
> And
> I would ask a local audiologist to make you earmolds for them.
>
>>Thanks in advance.
>
> PLEASE try and preserve your hearing. This does not sound like an
> environment
> that OSHA would approve of. Making yourself deaf is not a good thing and
> not
> reversable. Anything you can do to keep the noise level down will help
> you a
> lot.
> --scott
>
>
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."


Hi Scott. Thank you for your prompt and expert reply. I should have been
more specific regarding the headphone description. The fact is, I do not
wear headphones at all. I was only talking about headphones to illustrate
an example of the typical motor sports announcer who has the luxury of
standing in a quiet booth with a set of headphones complete with a built in
mic. This is what you would see with the NASCAR announcers, for instance.

To explain my exact set up, I am right on the floor (or track) in the middle
of the action. So, I use a Shure Beta 58 UHF wireless handheld transmitter,
because a headworn mic would be too difficult to interview a competitor
with. With that said, I also have a custom earpiece in my LEFT ear, which
is connected to the building's Clear Com. This is so I can take
instructions from my event manager when needed. My RIGHT ear is wide open,
so this is the ear that I thought would use with a Shure PSM system. This
way, my left ear hears the event manager, and my right ear would be used for
monitoring myself.

Make sense?

Darren