B3 Omnidirectional Lavalier

Definitely depends on how much you value sound quality and robustness. For instance, I think a MKE 1 is one of the best sounding mics (can be custom built into a boom), but they are so easy to break and wouldn’t recommend them to a school. If you want robustness, look at a countryman B3 or a MKE 2 for a little better sound quality. But I think the overall best balance is point source personally if there’s the budget for it. I do find their single ear rigs can be flimsy though and fall off. Don’t do E6s because they will break so quickly being continuously bent and adjusted to different actors.

Depends on your wireless system, some capsules require more power than others. You can't go wrong with Deity W.Lav Pro, Countryman B3 or a Sanken COS11-D, those will serve you a long time and they all sound good (specially the Sanken). Those capsules I mentioned start from 100 USD (without adapter) and they all work with consumer and prosumer wireless like the Røde and DJI, just make sure to get one with the right connector, if you have Sony wireless, you need a connector with the Sony spec (different wiring than Sennheiser and the rest of brand that use 3.5).

With your budget for everything, I think you could get a very respectable wireless kit. I think you need to stay in the UHF band so you don't have as many problems in the cities. If you're willing to buy used or open box to save money, you'll be able to come in at much less than $5000. One thing I would do if I were you is invest in separate Lavalier wires than what the kits come with. There's lots of options and everyone has their preference, but for me the Countryman B3 is where it's at. It's small, it's extremely durable, and it's easy to hide. With your budget you should be able to get 2-4 extra wires depending on if you're buying new or used. Another option people like in the Deity WLav Pro, but it has a larger capsule than the countryman. If you have enough money left over, consider getting yourself a countryman E6 headset to keep in your kit. These are especially handy for exercise videos, corporate live events, or any situation where hiding the lav on the body may not work. They deliver amazing sound too. But don't waste money on it if you don't shoot projects where it would be useful. In the past, I would buy my wireless kits in different UHF bands, not sure how people feel about that now, but my thoughts were if I had some in the 470-540 mhz range and others in the 566-608 range, I was less likely to end up in a situation where I couldn't find an open channel. Regardless, the entry level professional kits are going to be UHF wireless band kits like the Sony UWP-21 (1 transmitter, 1 receiver, basic lavalier included). That kit is $629 brand new from B&H and similar vendors. Then they have the UWP-26 which includes the same things but also an additional "XLR plug-on transmitter". You can use that for a wireless boom, or you can plug it into a handheld mic like the Shure SM58 and use it like a news interview mic. However, you can only use one or the other. That kit is $774. The UWP-27 includes two Lavalier transmitters and a dual channel receiver. It's $1340. I think one of the best "budget" semi professional Lavalier kits right now is the Deity Theos. It includes 2 transmitters and a dual channel receiver for $1090. They're a little difficult to get the levels set correctly, from what I understand but once you do they seem to work great and a lot of people love them. They do make higher end transmitters like the DXTX and DLXT, but you have to buy them from overseas because they can't sell them in North America. Then you have the Sennheiser G4 series. These are well known and popular. They have too many options to list here, but you have the lower end EW100 model starting at $599, and the higher end 512P model for $999. Both of these kits have one lav transmitter and one receiver. They make many variations of both these kits, some include the XLR plug-on transmitter. Those are the budget level prosumer kits you'll see a lot in the corporate, documentary, and low-budget film sets. After that you get into brands like Wisy, Zaxcom, Lectrosonics where it's in the thousands per mic/kit. They're awesome and have so many features but I've never had the budget for them so I have less experience with units like that.

So all the mics you mentioned are 2.4ghz spectrum mics. Thats the same spectrum all WiFi signals, Bluetooth signals, and other digital signals are on. It's an extremely crowded band. It has line of sight problems, more dropouts and interference than UHF wireless, and is a very "consumer" based solution. UHF wireless bands are what professionals use. These kinds of mics have much farther range, less dropouts, and more robust protection from interference. They're also built better, mostly use replaceable batteries like AA's, and are generally more desirable for paid/professional work. Admittedly, they cost a lot more to buy brand new. But there are ways around that too. The mid-tier versions of these mics include the Sony UWP series, the Sennheiser G series, and the Deity Theos. You can find used versions of the Sony and Sennheiser on the market for pretty good deals if you look around. I got three sets of the Sony UWP-D (3rd generation) for between $140-190 per mic kit. One was brand new in the box, the other two were in great condition, all of them came with all the original accessories. I also modded the antennas to be SMA connectors and made a video showing others how to do it: [https://youtu.be/cLHZkOL1jhk](https://youtu.be/cLHZkOL1jhk) The 2.4ghz mics are okay but honestly, I would rather buy used UHF wireless mics than new 2.4ghz band. The way they've gotten around the quality issues is by recording internally to 32 bit float. But this kind of workflow is nothing compared to recording to a dedicated sound recorder, even in 24bit quality. A well placed mic, properly set gains, and 24bit recording will produce the best sound that's ready for the editing timeline right away. If you absolutely cannot afford even a used UHF wireless mic, then another option is the Deity Pocket Wireless. I own two of them. They're 2.4ghz, but they're worked for me very well, they sound good, and they're more built like a regular Lavalier and lapel, but smaller. As far as the actual lapel or wire is concerned: there's lots of options out there and everyone has the one they like the best. For me it's the Countryman B3, I just like it and I can find used ones at a good price. But other popular options include the Sanken Cos-11D. It's pricey though. A microphone that does well and often gets compared to the Cos11D is the Deity Wlav Pro. They're much less expensive but they can sound almost as good in the right conditions. Another popular, but expensive, option is wires by DPA. The Tram TR50 is also another option that was popular for many many years. One skill that will help you when it comes to lapel mics is soldering. You can re-terminate and wire whatever connector you want on a lapel mic if it doesn't match the wireless kit you have. This allows you to buy used wires at a discount and not worry about what wireless kit they're made for, because you can just re-terminate the connection. It'll also help you repair your own mics when they inevitably get damaged. I was able to get two Countryman B3 mics at $100 each, they were wired for Sennheiser, but I rewired them for my Sony UWP kits. If I had bought them new and already wired, it would have been $250 per mic. https://preview.redd.it/7wtd24xggygg1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9078b33e725dbde6abd5a3f70faaa8cdf756093

For the younger crowd we stuck with B3's made in Halo rigs or the occasional E6 when the Halo wouldn't work. Do you have an audio tech that is backstage babysitting the mic's throughout the show? The big change we had was getting the actors to stop touching the microphones and to go to the audio tech's for any issues/adjustments. One on each side of the stage. They'd usually be hanging out with the costume changing people since they'd go hand in hand.

I’ve had some issues with the rode wireless pro into my fx3 and I’ve seen others have the same interference issues. The audio top handle solved all my problems. But when plugged direct into the body it took a while to get it sounding good. Unless you’re using the audio top handle, make sure to do plenty of tests. After some testing I found mounting it on the cage and using a longer shielded cable worked fine. Also turned off the Bluetooth in the fx3. I use the deity w.lav pro and the countryman B3 lavs and both sound good. The b3 is quieter so if you know you’ll have loud action I’d go for that. For very loud sounds (shouting or very loud stage performers) they make a reduced sensitivity version as well but I have the standard version. For a shotgun, it depends if you plan to hardwire or if you plan to use the wireless pro? The rode wireless pro doesn’t provide 48v phantom power so you’ll need to solve that problem somehow. When wireless booming I’ve used the Sennheiser MKE 600 because it has the AA battery slot to power it. It then works well with the rode wireless pro. If you plan to hardwire the shotgun and plug into the Sony audio top handle, k3m module or (preferably) a proper recorder/mixer all of which can provide p48 then I’d say search for a used MKH 416, a DPA 2017, or go with the Rode NTG3.