Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ChrisBallard]

Hello all!

I'm looking for an option of fashionable belts to use for female presenting speakers. I come from the theatre world where you can conceal elastic belts, but now that I'm working full time in Corporate AV, I can't put a hidden belt on a female presenting speaker when they come in wearing a dress without a pocket, or anything easy to clip the pack to. Has anyone on here used a fashionable belt that can be thrown on over a dress and clip the pack to the back?

[Tim McCulloch]

Hello all!

I'm looking for an option of fashionable belts to use for female presenting speakers. I come from the theatre world where you can conceal elastic belts, but now that I'm working full time in Corporate AV, I can't put a hidden belt on a female presenting speaker when they come in wearing a dress without a pocket, or anything easy to clip the pack to. Has anyone on here used a fashionable belt that can be thrown on over a dress and clip the pack to the back?

I've had a number of challenges with presenters who have great fashion sense but terrible mic logistics.  What has been most helpful:  having this discussion with the presenter when they come in for rehearsal/sound check/powerpoint revisions.  *Most* of the presenters I work with are receptive, especially when I tell them that without suitable "suits", the placement of equipment can get "personally intrusive" and leave it at that.

One time I had to have the client intervene with their hired presenter as the flimsy garment would not support the weight of the lav mic, let alone a transmitter pack.. and a belt/pouch was not acceptable to the presenter.  A hand held mic was used for this hour and the presenter didn't like it much, but it was whoever hired them that said "well, you were told about suitable attire."

[ChrisBallard]

I've had a number of challenges with presenters who have great fashion sense but terrible mic logistics.  What has been most helpful:  having this discussion with the presenter when they come in for rehearsal/sound check/powerpoint revisions.  *Most* of the presenters I work with are receptive, especially when I tell them that without suitable "suits", the placement of equipment can get "personally intrusive" and leave it at that.

One time I had to have the client intervene with their hired presenter as the flimsy garment would not support the weight of the lav mic, let alone a transmitter pack.. and a belt/pouch was not acceptable to the presenter.  A hand held mic was used for this hour and the presenter didn't like it much, but it was whoever hired them that said "well, you were told about suitable attire."

I wish I had the time to do that with a presenter. I work AV specifically for a corporation and a lot of the events I support are Town Hall meetings for different departments within the company. So we don't see the majority of our presenters until the day of, and usually 30-45 minutes before go time.

So I'm looking for something that I can just say "Here, we're going to put this on over your dress and clip the mic to the back of it." I'm thinking it may just have to be a collection of different sized brown and black belts from Amazon or something.

[Mike Pyle]

I've hoped that someone might someday come out with a microphone array "necklace", something like a miniature version of K-Array's Anakonda speaker snake. The transmitter could be incorporated into the unit.

[Brian Jojade]

Gaff tape.

[Scott Helmke]

How about a micropack and a selection of silly hats?

[Mac Kerr]

Hello all!

I'm looking for an option of fashionable belts to use for female presenting speakers. I come from the theatre world where you can conceal elastic belts, but now that I'm working full time in Corporate AV, I can't put a hidden belt on a female presenting speaker when they come in wearing a dress without a pocket, or anything easy to clip the pack to. Has anyone on here used a fashionable belt that can be thrown on over a dress and clip the pack to the back?

I work in a corporate presentation environment at a major bank. We get female presenters all the time. If they don’t have a pocket for the pack we usually mount the pack on the back of their dress with the pack inside the neck and the cable run around the “neck hole” to mount the mic in the front. Sometimes we have to use the bra strap. We also have a few mag mounts for both mics and packs, and viper clips for mics for situations where a mic clip won’t work. We have male and female A2s, and both are called on to deal with this issue.

Mac

[Curt Sorensen]

Tie Line.

[Scott Holtzman]

I wish I had the time to do that with a presenter. I work AV specifically for a corporation and a lot of the events I support are Town Hall meetings for different departments within the company. So we don't see the majority of our presenters until the day of, and usually 30-45 minutes before go time.

So I'm looking for something that I can just say "Here, we're going to put this on over your dress and clip the mic to the back of it." I'm thinking it may just have to be a collection of different sized brown and black belts from Amazon or something.

I am in the same situation.  These folks "come in hot" off their Gulfstream and the last thing they want is the AV tech in their face let alone messing with their bra strap.  It's just as bit a challenge with the guys I had a founder come in his board shorts, tshirt and flip flops or whatever they call them these days and every time he put the pack on it was very clear the dude was commando.  The camera channel was full of "shoot high, shoot high" comments.  Finally realized what was going on and came running over for a suggestion.  Never saw a guy who thought a belt would harm his image.  I so wanted to say I left my anal-ez in the room but I know I have first thought wrong disease and kept my mouth shut.  He finally pulled a belt out of his suitcase I was stunned he owned one. 


It's hard to get mad at folks like this that seem dismissive of your time until you realize what they can charge for speaker fees.  More than we charged for the whole gig.  Their time really is worth zillions of orders of magnitude more than mine.  If he says clean my toe jam, that answer would be yes sit and the TJ cleaning fee billing code would be invented! 


Honestly anybody who puts a kid in front of these folks is reckless, that's where senior management or ownership needs to be as these these are super delicate situations.


I love the idea of bringing various belts and concealable packs and the like.  That kind of forethought could leave a lasting impression.

[Matthew Knischewsky]

We have male and female A2s, and both are called on to deal with this issue.

Mac

At a certain point this is what it takes to have the show come off well. When I was working more in small and mid level corporate events this was probably the most misunderstood aspect of the audio gig. They wanted the polish of the big tech companies without having the support backstage. I can't recall all of the times I had conversations with event managers, producers, our account managers... "It doesn't matter how many lavs/headsets you rent them, if someone comes to the tech table for a mic while they're being introduced I'm giving them a handheld" or "how would you like me to approach the presenter/panelists disrobing while being mic'd at the tech table during the prior session while I am also mixing that session?". Occasionally the presenters will have their own assistants who know the drill and will help their person get dressed and position the mic and pack... I worked a circuit of banking conferences as A2 where this was fairly common and the assistants were proficient enough to get the job done before I would do final checks.

All that said, the A2 position at this level puts me outside of my comfort zone. I've done it,  I can be good at it, it makes me anxious and I don't enjoy the work. I know some folks who are very good at it, I've tried some strategies to improve myself but generally decided to not take A2 calls if the gig is mostly wrangling beltpacks and lavs. I'm sure it's all in my head but there are a lot of other things I would rather be doing than fishing wires through garments while they're being worn.

Matt

[ProSoundWeb Community]