Men and women taking part in Faith, Hope & Tinder - a Danish reality show about internet dating - have been getting to grips with the latest audio technology from DPA Microphones so that they can record their dates without having a sound engineer present.
Each participant in the show was given a kit consisting of an iPhone, a DPA MMA-A Digital Audio Interface and a d:screet SC4060-BM lavalier microphone. After a very short space of time most were confidently recording sound to their iPhones via the MMA-A, a pocket-sized two-channel microphone preamp and A/D converter that offers mono, dual and stereo capabilities and can capture or stream audio in quality previously only available in the studio.
“From the outset we wanted a technical solution that would be non-invasive yet would deliver the broadcast quality sound we needed,” says Lotte Dyva Toubro, Production Manager and partner in Bermuda, the Copenhagen-based production company that created the programme for Denmark’s TV2 channel. “It also had to be very easy to use because our participants are ordinary people covering a wide age range and some of them don’t have extensive technical skills.”
After testing out various microphones and interfaces, Dyva Toubro and her team opted for the MMA-A/d:screet combination because it delivered the best sound quality, even in situations where there was a lot of ambient noise.
“Over a period of four months we followed seven participants as they searched to find love via the internet. Most managed to operate the technology without any problems - we had one or two people who forgot to turn on their audio equipment but those were the only times when the system failed,” Dyva Toubro adds. “Generally the system worked very well, and participants found it very easy to use. The audio quality was amazing, which made editing much quicker. Also, given the nature of the programme, the DPA solution was very unobtrusive. The microphones are so small that they can either be used as lavaliers or placed on a table so that they pickup audio from both the contestant and his or her date.”
Automating the entire workflow was also a consideration for Bermuda, which set up a cloud server where material recorded by participants could be easily uploaded. This automated file gathering system was designed to be very straightforward so that it wouldn’t baffle non-technical people and would also save Bermuda from having to visit participants at home to collect content. All the participant had to do was press stop on their recording app and the content was immediately uploaded. This gave Bermuda’s post production staff quick access to the recorded content so that they could start editing straight away.
Faith, Hope and Tinder is currently being broadcast on TV2.
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