The location sound crew is utilizing Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless for audio production on National Geographic Channel’s “Ultimate Airport Dubai,” which chronicles the day-to-day activities at Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest hubs in the world with 70,000 staff members working to accommodate a daily average of 182,000 passengers.
Emmy-nominated Tom Savage, who serves as one of the show’s location sound engineers, has a background encompassing a myriad of projects for companies such as the BBC, ABC, Associated Press, ESPN, the Discovery Channel, and Thomson Reuters.
“For this show, I was working with four Lectrosonics UM400a beltpack transmitters plus one HM plug-on transmitter and, for receivers, I was using the company’s SR Series dual channel slot-mount ENG units,” Savage says. “For the most part, we used an average of four channels for any given day of shooting.”
“The Lectrosonics equipment has been absolutely brilliant with their range and quality of sound during this project,” he continues. “Providing clear audio while working in and around a bustling airport with a countless number of obstacles to contend with is no small challenge, and my Lectrosonics gear handles it all really well.
“With all the planes taking off and landing, trucks, construction work, and numerous other obstacles that routinely come between the transmitter and receiver, I’ve been really impressed with how easy the equipment is to use and the audio quality I’ve been capturing.”
Savage also reports that, with the constant moving about in the busy facility, not to mention the heavy RF traffic, the Lectrosonics gear handles the daily grind really well. “I’ve been very impressed with Lectrosonics durability,” Savage says. “We work among some pretty extreme temperature variables with really high humidity—frequently near 95 percent —and the gear never blinks.
“This equipment also takes its fair share of knocks. It routinely gets bumped when passengers run up and down the stairs, jump in and out of cars, and so forth,” he concludes. “I find this equipment light and easy to use, which makes all the difference when you’re working in this type of environment.”
