Late last year freelance location recordist Chris Bruce was commissioned to make a programme that would put his brand-new Røde NTG-3 shotgun microphone to the ultimate endurance test. The seven-week job was to make a new programme for Channel 4 entitled 'Ultimate Gap Year', which follows a team of six backpackers as they slog their way across this spectacular corner of South East Asia.
A tougher test for TV production equipment would be difficult to imagine. For all its beauty and cultural mystique, Indonesia is an obstacle course of rugged and diverse terrain, and the country is spread across an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands that spans a vast physical area. And you can hardly describe the climate as benign as it boasts most of the extremes found in the natural world.
Having previously relied on Sennheiser's 416 shotgun microphone for tough conditions, this time Chris decided to give Røde's NTG-3 shotgun model a trial by fire – and took both the NTG-3 and the matching Røde BLIMP windshield system on the trip. He was very pleased with the results: ""I was familiar with the 416, it's a solid and reliable workhorse that can handle most environments. But I'd read some rave reviews of the NTG-3, and was intrigued to find out how well a mic costing half as much would measure up to the old standard. We did some blind tests and we were really struggling to tell the difference between the two."
The real test for these location shotguns is whether they are able to withstand adverse environmental conditions. The NTG-3's RF bias technology makes it almost completely resistant to water, and the mic is also designed to have excellent immunity to radio frequency interference. Again, Chris was very impressed by his Røde NTG-3: "It's difficult to overstate exactly how unfriendly the conditions were. We were in tropical environments, in the jungle, on sand, near water, on water - you name it. Temperatures ranged from near freezing on the side of a volcano to the more normal 35 degrees plus, accompanied by 100% humidity and frequent tropical rain storms. Jakarta is a very densely populated city in a part of the world where, dare I say it, RF restrictions on electrical equipment probably aren't quite so stringent as they are in Europe. In all situations the NTG-3 performed outstandingly well."
The other challenge of a trip such as this, is the sheer physical battering to which the kit is subjected: "We travelled in planes, boats, taxis, vans, trains and rickshaws as we followed our backpackers across the country," says Chris. "Typically your gear would be hauled out of one mode of transport and tossed into the back of the next by a 'helpful' local who you were too tired to put off after a 22-hour working day. I dread to think what a beating the gear got."
But the NTG-3 performed superbly and Chris had no reservations about his new kit at all: "It was an exhausting trip, but the NTG-3 performed brilliantly throughout and was no trouble at all. I was really pleased with the whole trip. I didn't need to use anything else, and didn't even have to dip into the bag for my spare. We went through a whole variety of environments and damp humid locations and it didn't let me down once. I'm so happy with it, it's going to be my main shotgun mic on my next trip to Ethiopia."
A tougher test for TV production equipment would be difficult to imagine. For all its beauty and cultural mystique, Indonesia is an obstacle course of rugged and diverse terrain, and the country is spread across an archipelago of more than 17,500 islands that spans a vast physical area. And you can hardly describe the climate as benign as it boasts most of the extremes found in the natural world.
Having previously relied on Sennheiser's 416 shotgun microphone for tough conditions, this time Chris decided to give Røde's NTG-3 shotgun model a trial by fire – and took both the NTG-3 and the matching Røde BLIMP windshield system on the trip. He was very pleased with the results: ""I was familiar with the 416, it's a solid and reliable workhorse that can handle most environments. But I'd read some rave reviews of the NTG-3, and was intrigued to find out how well a mic costing half as much would measure up to the old standard. We did some blind tests and we were really struggling to tell the difference between the two."
The real test for these location shotguns is whether they are able to withstand adverse environmental conditions. The NTG-3's RF bias technology makes it almost completely resistant to water, and the mic is also designed to have excellent immunity to radio frequency interference. Again, Chris was very impressed by his Røde NTG-3: "It's difficult to overstate exactly how unfriendly the conditions were. We were in tropical environments, in the jungle, on sand, near water, on water - you name it. Temperatures ranged from near freezing on the side of a volcano to the more normal 35 degrees plus, accompanied by 100% humidity and frequent tropical rain storms. Jakarta is a very densely populated city in a part of the world where, dare I say it, RF restrictions on electrical equipment probably aren't quite so stringent as they are in Europe. In all situations the NTG-3 performed outstandingly well."
The other challenge of a trip such as this, is the sheer physical battering to which the kit is subjected: "We travelled in planes, boats, taxis, vans, trains and rickshaws as we followed our backpackers across the country," says Chris. "Typically your gear would be hauled out of one mode of transport and tossed into the back of the next by a 'helpful' local who you were too tired to put off after a 22-hour working day. I dread to think what a beating the gear got."
But the NTG-3 performed superbly and Chris had no reservations about his new kit at all: "It was an exhausting trip, but the NTG-3 performed brilliantly throughout and was no trouble at all. I was really pleased with the whole trip. I didn't need to use anything else, and didn't even have to dip into the bag for my spare. We went through a whole variety of environments and damp humid locations and it didn't let me down once. I'm so happy with it, it's going to be my main shotgun mic on my next trip to Ethiopia."
