Hire

Big Ears Parabolic

Now available for hire/rental

Big Ears® Products


SPECIFICATIONS:


MODEL: 

BE3

SIZE: 

25½ X 26½ X 10 inches overall
PARABOLA SIZE: 

23 inches
WEIGHT: 

5 LBS
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 

100 Hz - 15kHz (dependent on microphone)
PICK-UP PATTERN: 

30 inch diameter target at 100 feet (tunable)
USEFUL RANGE: 

5 foot minimum - 500+ feet maximum (dependent on environment, atmospheric conditions and surrounding noise levels)
COLORS: 

Yellow, (All dish colors are see-through)
  
Latest generation of the state of the art parabolic microphone reflector . Comes complete with Sport handle set, transmitter attachment plate and universal Mic yoke. Big Ears ® uses acoustically isolated foam vinyl covered handles that also acts as a support bar for freestanding use. Two side mounting plates are incorporated in the handle design to accommodate mounting of transmitters and receivers for wireless communications. The handles and microphone yoke are easily detachable for convenient nested storage of multiple units.

Because the unit is often used in sports situations, significant thought has been given to the safety of the design. The dish is shatter and break resistant and the handle materials are selected and assembled with safety in mind. Big Ears ® is lightweight and can be easily mounted permanently when the need occurs.

Despite the original appearance and name, these are no toytown gimmicks! True parabolic reflectors, lightweight and easily focussed, Big Ears and Little Ears are highly useful for sports or wildlife recording and broadcast, film, theatre and ENG. Little Ears (known in the USA as Lil’ Big Ears) is simply a smaller scale version of Big Ears, designed specifically for single handed ENG use.

The dish itself is precision moulded from a specially developed transparent material, (shatter resistant for touchline or journalistic use!), and is of near constant thickness, producing not only “sonic consistency”, but also a relatively undistorted view through the dish for the operator – the preferred method of pointing the device is by “sighting” the target along the top of the microphone support assembly. A carrying handle is moulded into the top edge. Disks are available clear, or in five colour tints (still fully transparent) to “colour code” the sources for the benefit of the sound mixer.

The transparent dish itself has quick release mounting points for the microphone yoke at the business end, and rear mounted grip bar, removable for nested storage of multiple units. Both are constructed of metal tubing, the handle having a comfortable black foam vinyl covering, which also has the useful properties of damping vibration and reducing cable rattle.

The microphone yoke has a central cylindrical mounting bush, with locking facility, of 22mm diameter. Through this is fitted either a user supplied microphone of suitable diameter, or the mounting tube supplied, intended to support a miniature lapel style microphone (user supplied), which is mounted by wrapping in the foam supplied, which push fits into the tube. Either type of microphone is “tuned” to the dish by adjustment in and out of the dish through the mounting bush. A mounting tube designed specifically for lavalier mics is available for Big Ears as a spare part.

The grip bar provides vertical grips at either side of the dish and a combined “foot” and convenient stabilising bar, which is rested against the body in use to “triangulate” positioning. Incorporated in the bar are two mounting plates for radio microphones and/or cue receivers, in conjunction with suitable clips or tapes, which gives complete portability (as may be verified by the careful inspection of touchline activity at some US sportscasts!).