[Richard Crowley]

"Ben Bayliss" wrote ...
Thanks, Richard. That made very interesting reading. I especially like
your adapter gadgets for mounting the clips to which I imagine can be slid
back and forth along the entire sling until its in the right place?..
Oddly I've not ever seen mics mounted directly to slings, but always
hanging well (2-3m) below the actual sling which is kept as high as
possible and out of the way. Do you never find that your main mics are too
high this way?

Depends on where you can rig the cable and where the mics
need to be. I tend to end up with venues where I can't fly the
cable much higher than the desired mic location, so the mic
is pretty much up against the cable.

How do you deal with different venues (and so needing different lengths of
sling) with the mounts / u-clamps in different places etc..?

I have an extra-long piece of cable to accomodate different
installations. I use three (for safety) U-clamps on each end.
I frequently secure one end, and loop the cable around the
other end and then pull on the excess (from the ground) to
tension the cable while someone else tightens the U-clamps
on the remaining end. Then I just roll up and stow the excess
cable.

Sometimes I can wrap the end of the cable completely
around a structural member (beam, post, etc.) But other
times I must use a screw-eye, etc. I am very careful about
safety: using over-rated hardware, avoiding end-on use of
screw-eyes where the tension wants to pull the threads
out of the wood, etc.

For safety, I also use gaffer's tape to secure the mic in the
clip, and the mic connector onto the mic. This provides a
second (and third) way of making sure the mic doesn't
fall. For both the safety of both the people, AND the mic. :-)