[Imc] Equipment Committee Report

[Paul Riismandel]

At 09:56 AM 10/12/2000 -0500, Maiko Covington wrote:

>On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Mike Lehman wrote:
>
> > It was thought that a simple course in basic recording would be a good
> > place to start with training. We would propose to do the training, maybe
> > 15 minutes max, on one of these dates:
> > Oct. 22
> > Oct. 29
> > Nov. 5
>
>         Will we need to sign up for this?

I think the idea is that the group can pick one of these days and we'll 
just do the session during or after one of the regular meetings.  Unless 
someone thinks another time would be better.

>         I might have a recorder/player to lend, but as it's just
>a regular consumer model (not specially for reporting or anything)
>I'm not sure it's exactly what's needed. I can bring it by.

I think consumer equipment is fine to start with.  A lot of radio 
journalists use consumer recorders because they're cheap, easy, and aren't 
a big loss when broken, lost or stolen.

One important element to collecting audio is that technique can be more 
important than equipment.  While if you're using a truly shitty recorder, 
you will get shitty results, if you are using an OK $30 tape recorder 
properly, your results will be better than someone using an expensive DAT 
machine but with bad technique.  To me, one of the principles behind an IMC 
is the notion that doing independent reporting shouldn't have to be 
expensive and require exotic technology.


>         Otherwise, perhaps a pool of funds for purchasing things?

Once things get rolling, I think this is a very good idea.

--Paul