Hooking up HV20 to external sound system

[026163]

I'm planning on shooting a wedding with my hv20 and a couple of other cameras, and I'm not sure how to go about with recording sound.

Is there a way to get the external mic port on the camera to plug into an output on a sound system? Will this work well, I would think that if the connections were good, this would be advantage over using the built in mic.

If anyone has experience plugging a camera like this directly into a sound system, let me know, it would definitely be helpful

edit: also would it be possible to input a stereo signal from a mixer/sound system through the analog video in?

Could you record live video using the regular camera on the HV20, and then record audio coming through the AV in phono plugs?

[joachim]

you can plug thesound system into the mic input of the camera. just make sure the signal is at mic level.. there are attenuaters to convert line to mic level (aprox 30db less).
problem is, when the cable is to long, you can pick up unwanted signals through it. to solve this, you will need a balanced signal, and the apropried equipment to convert it to the minijack on the camera.

there ar many questions here on the forum about connecting al kinds of sound equipment. many spend a lot on the camera and other goodies, so why not make a little investment in sound gear.

many connecting problems can be solved using a beachtek.

if you buy one of the higher models you get :

xlr-connectors
balanced input
mic/line switchable
48 volt phantom
easy control over soundlevel
limiter

it's a real problemsolver, and makes the bridge between consumer and pro audio.

http://www.formatc.be/video/producten_details.asp?productid=453055151&subgroepid=8

[bluegrass]

I think joachim's answer is right on. I use an XLR Pro which is about the same as the Beachtek. You can Google them both and research them out. One trick I have begun using since I don't always have access to the sound board is to rig up a decent mic, with an XLR output, and the mic on a stand (a boom mic stand can be configured vertically and get you mic up about 8 feet), positioned right in front of the speaker. Use whatever length XLR cable you need and run it to the Beachtek or XLR Pro and on into the mic in.

Most likely the speaker system will be cofgured in a mono fashsion - that is if they have two speakers spread out, they will both be getting the same feed. I'm not sure on the Beachtek but my XLR Pro has a mono/stereo setup & with one mic input, if you set the adaptor to the mono mode, it sends the signal into both left & right channels of the camera. With this method of recording, you will get more of the ambience (such as cheering and clapping from the crowd) but not enough to affect the speaker at the microphone. I have found recording music concerts, the quality is excellent. I have been using about a $150 dynamic mic. I'm sure that different mics will give you different qualities of reproduction but that is the level of cost I chose for now. You might do almost as good with a $75 mic. You need a real audio expert to discuss this area but these old ears are happy right now with the results I'm getting.