Images courtesy of Matt Murphy

AUSTRALIA: Following its huge success on London’s West End and in New York on Broadway, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is now playing at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. Sound designer Gareth Fry has employed DPA Microphones’ 6000 Series Subminiature Microphones for the play, which was penned by JK Rowling herself.
‘DPA’s d:screet 4061 Miniature Microphones have long been theatre stalwarts because they sound great, are very tough and are small enough to hide on cast members,’ explained Fry. ‘I’ve been using the legacy version of these microphones for years, and we typically hide them in the hairline, on the forehead, so they are not visible to the audience.’
 
The play made its debut in London in 2016. In 2017, the Broadway production opened with DPA’s new-at-the-time d:screet Core 4061 Miniature Microphones. ‘For the Broadway production I was keen to take advantage of technological developments to get the best possible sound out of the microphones.’ Fry explained. ‘Then, when we opened in Melbourne, I was keen to make them as invisible as possible.’
 

Just five months before the Melbourne production began, DPA released the 6000 Series Subminiature Microphones. Although preparations for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Melbourne were well underway, Fry made the decision to move to the new d:screet 6061, which measures 3mm across.
 
‘It’s often better to make the show work with the venue, than to try to force it to fit,’ Fry noted. ‘The changes are rarely major because what we have works really well. But we’ll never turn down the opportunity to refine aspects of the show, and each new ensemble of actors brings something new to the show. Often in theatre, we’re trying to balance the need for vocal reinforcement, without it being immediately obvious that we are doing vocal reinforcement. Not always – it does really depend on the style of the show.’
 

During the play’s preview period, when the sound team tried out various miking positions, Fry received notes from the directors and producers.
 
‘Since switching to d:screet 6061 mics I’ve had significantly fewer notes,’ he said. ‘Plus they sound as great as the original 4061s – and they are incredibly water-resistant. In the past, if you have a scene where the actors come in to contact with water, you have to go to extreme measures to protect the microphones, or use something like a heavy duty d:screet 4661, but the IP rating on these makes them seem impervious to water. They are so tiny that they just disappear. With a 4061, if it isn’t well hidden you can definitely see a microphone, especially if you are double miking, but with these you just mistake them for a small mole. They are effectively invisible. The actors prefer wearing them too, because they are less obtrusive.’
 
 www.dpamicrophones.com
 www.garethfry.co.uk

(source: https://www.proavl-asia.com/details/62230-harry-potter-and-the-subminiature-microphones)