Veteran sound engineer David Beare thinks location sound is too often treated as an afterthought by commercial production companies and directors alike. So Beare is developing a new system through his company, Camp David, that promises to handle commercial production sound effectively and efficiently from early preproduction right through post.

‘Location audio has been a pet peeve of mine,’ says Beare, who demoed a working version of the system for Playback at Toronto’s Digital Music and Post. ‘This system gives complete control over audio from start to finish.’

The audio service company will handle location, equipment, transfer and post dialogue layout.

Beare says his as-yet-untitled service will begin by consulting with the director and/or producer long before shooting of the spot. Depending on the particulars of each shoot, and through the consultation, the most appropriate location equipment is predetermined, making for a prepared sound recordist.

One of the cutting-edge technologies the new system will use is multitrack body mics. Beare says the new mics, which are no bigger than the eraser on the end of a pencil, give exceptional audio and work most effectively when located on an actor’s clothing or in their hairline.

He also says the past knock on the wireless mics – causing or receiving interference from other competing frequencies – has been solved.

Proper location sound recording will cut down significantly on costly and time-consuming adr, says Beare. ‘We’re trying to make adr as minimal as possible.’

Beare’s system will keep the sound digital as the location sound will be recorded directly onto ram on a hard drive or a magneto optical disc.

As most commercial production companies use Arriflex cameras, Beare’s system is set up to utilize the Arri smpte time-code generator option which burns smpte time code onto the exposed negative.

If the transfer house is properly equipped with a reader head, Beare says the location audio can be transferred in digital form and in sync at the same time as the film. Once the transfer house’s initial startup equipment costs are overcome, he says, this process will also save time and money as an assistant doesn’t have to sync sound.

Beare says the system can deliver the sound to the post house in linear form synced to the picture as post dialogue layout.

Besides spot production, the system will also work well for live music videos and concerts, says Beare.

A test setup of the system was done at DAVE Audio. Beare says Toronto commercial production house The Partners’ Film Company has expressed interest in his start-to-finish audio system.