The Gear We Used for our 2025 NAB Show Video Interviews

Disclaimer: All this gear has either been purchased or rented by me. No donations were involved.

As I write this, I’m packing gear for this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas. We’ve currently scheduled 65 interviews across three days – yeah, it’s a ton! To do this, we are holding all our interviews in our booth – South Lower hall, booth 13811.

NOTE: This article describes the gear we plan to use. THIS article shows how we recorded our interviews at the show. And THIS article, highlights what I learned as I edited these interviews in DaVinci Resolve 19.

Here’s the gear we plan to use to record all these interviews. (Update: It all worked perfectly.)

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LIGHTING

Lume Cube Studio Panel LED lights

Based on our success with these lights at the NAB Show – New York, I’m using them again in Las Vegas. A BIG benefit is that these are fully battery driven. We are restricted – for budget reasons – to only 5 amps in the booth. Anything we can do to conserve power is essential.

Trade show lighting is notoriously awful. We’ll use these as soft keys, then try to add a flag overhead to minimize the harshness of the ceiling lights. My goal is to make all my guests look lively, energetic and, um, not dead.

AUDIO

Viewers may put up with poor video, but they will NEVER listen to bad audio! Clean audio is an obsession of mine. I keep looking for ways to improve my sound.

Audio is always a challenge because the NAB Show is extremely noisy – both in volume and RF. Experience has taught me that wired gear is safer than wireless. So, all audio is physically connected. I can’t afford Dante or other IP protocol-based gear, so we are using standard balanced (XLR/TRS) analog cabling.

I need gear with high quality, that fits in a suitcase, and provides maximum flexibility. Because I need to spend a week testing the workflow, I couldn’t afford to rent gear. So this is a combination of new and existing kit.

Mackie ProFx6v3+ 6-channel Audio Mixer

For a mixer, after talking with several audio experts, I bought the Mackie ProFX6v3. Although I was a proud owner of a Mackie VLZ for a decade, I’ve been leery of Mackie when I started looking for a replacement, because their quality plummeted when they shifted manufacturing to China a decade ago. I was pleased to learn that Mackie was recently acquired by Røde, which reassured me that someone would be paying attention to quality. So, after comparing four different small mixers, I chose this.

The unit arrived yesterday and, based on my initial tests, it does everything I need: USB multichannel bi-directional connection to the computer, compressors on both mic inputs, XLR and TRS main outputs, excellent preamps, excellent VU meters, rotary volume control, and a clean sound. With mics connected and gain set to unity, the noise floor is about -60 dB. The background noise from the hall is far more than this.

I don’t really need the FX part of the board, because I’ll add what I need in post, but I do like the built in low-cut filter, and, ultimately, Bluetooth connection with the computer.

So far, I’m really pleased.

Audio-Technia BPHS1 Broadcast Stereo Headset

For mics, I’m using the Audio-Technica BPHS1. In prior years, I’ve used AKG headsets, but they have a tinny sound and, because their mic is placed directly in front of the speaker’s mouth are highly prone to plosives and pops. Worse, the mic blocks the speaker’s mouth in the camera shot. I’ve been unhappy with them for a while now.

This BPHS1  is an older mic, but it adds a very warm sound to the voice, the mic is located off to the side minimizing pops, and the headphones totally cover the ears, minimizing outside noise. They are comfortable to wear.

I used the BPHS1 in year’s past, but, since it is a dynamic mic it doesn’t have a lot of volume. It needs a strong preamp to work well, and most portable mixers don’t have the oompf. Also, the straight-down plug on the mic cable keeps bumping against my shoulder – it would be much nicer if this had an angle to it, to throw the cord more over the shoulder.

But, I discovered secret that makes these mics sound amazing.

sE Electronics DM1 Dynamite Active In-Line Microphone Preamplifier

These are the secret sauce! sE Electronics DM1 dynamite active in-line microphone preamplifier. When you connect these between the mic and the mixer, they add 28 dB of clean gain! These changed the Audio-Technica mics from barely audible to …stunning, actually. I was overwhelmed with how good, how clean, and how noise free they sounded. These totally changed my opinion on using dynamic mics. I can’t say enough about how they improved levels and the quality of the sound.

These are powered using phantom power, no batteries or AC needed. Nothing to adjust. Plug them in and you’re done. I will never use a dynamic mic without these!

PreSonus HP4 4-Channel Headphone Distribution Amplifier

In spite of being a “small” production, I still need to feed audio to seven different outputs. To handle that, I’m sending the mix from the Mackie to my MacBook Pro via USB-C, then the analog signal to this PreSonus HP4. I used this at NAB – New York and it works great. Portable, individual gain control for each headset, can run stereo or mono, and is smaller than a paperback book. Powered from a wall wart.

CAMERAS

Chris Ruedy is supplying two Sony cameras. I haven’t met them yet, so I’ll add more after we put them into production. All also add tripod information, when I get it.

Sony FX6

Our main camera is a Sony FX6. Well used this to shoot the guests. This has a 4K full-frame 10.2 MP CMOS R sensor. We will shoot log format to give us exposure control in editing. We’ll also only shoot 1080p to save space and because there’s no need for the extra image quality – or storage space – of 4K. This is a trade show, after all.

Sony a7S III

Our second camera is a Sony a7s III DSLR. This full-frame mirrorless 12MP camera, also shoots log media. It, too, will be shooting 1080p.

For both cameras, we’ll most likely shoot 30 fps, to minimize any flicker from the ceiling lights.

SUMMARY

Those are the high points. Yes, we are bringing a metric ton of cables, but avoiding risk is more important than weight. Well, at least until I check my suitcase…

I’m looking forward to working with all this gear and I’ll report on how it all went once the NAB Show is over and I catch up on my sleep.

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