South London-based film and TV facilities supplier the Picture Canning Company has been using DPA 4060 miniature omni microphones on Optomen Television’s The F-Word, hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Recorded in the F-Word Restaurant, a large contemporary space in Ladbroke Grove, Ramsay and his team of trainee chefs prepare a culinary masterpiece each week for his guests and an invited audience of other diners. The show’s requirements and location — a ‘real’ restaurant with lots of reflective surfaces and no acoustic treatment — created quite a challenge for Picture Canning’s audio department.

“Clients today all need very discreet if not invisible microphones,” says Picture Canning’s senior sound engineer Mike Horn, who turned to the DPA miniatures after testing various mics on the market. “The white version was perfect as it could easily be hidden on Gordon Ramsay’s chef’s uniform.”

Rob Ashard, the show’s sound supervisor was so pleased with the results and sonic quality that he requested all lavalier mics on The F-Word should be changed to DPA 4060s. Accordingly, 12 of the miniatures — all supplied by DPA’s UK distributor Sound Network — are now being used for all chefs and guests on the show.
 

“The overall result was a noticeable improvement in the audio quality of the show, especially in the more live acoustic environment around the restaurant tables,” says Horn. “They made everyone sound much clearer and enhanced the audio separation between the show’s participants.”