Rycote Microphone Windshields Explained – Tailored & Hand-Made

by Mark ZdunnekNovember 21^st, 2019

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Rycote is a company with a heritage of over forty years, specializing in developing state-of-the-art microphone windshields and shock resistance products for field audio productions. Our own Johnnie Behiri met John House at Inter BEE 2019 in Japan. They talked about the Rycote “hand-made” production process and facilities, their specialty tools, individual manufacturing requests, sound quality, and real-life onset product performances. Let’s take a closer look!

Rycote selection – image credit: cinema5D

The Rycote Brand

Rycote is a brand is now owned by the Vitec Group that holds many of the well-known brands of our industry such as SmallHD, Teradek, Sachtler, Vinten, Manfrotto, and OConnor. They acquired Rycote just over a year ago. Rycote’s production line is still in Stroud, Gloucestershire in the UK and its products are created hand-made, 1-by-1 testing their products directly with the microphones and audio-equipment, which they are designed to fit.

Their products range from categories such as production sound, through news & sports broadcasting, to live & studio applications as well as on-camera sound solutions. They create everything from mini windjammers, via lavalier mic solutions, to slip-on systems like their “Super-Softie” or “Classic-Softie”, to all sorts of windshields and basket systems like their “Cyclone” as well as PCS Range and specialized systems.

Rycote- Solutions (Examples) (Credits: Rycote)

Special Applications & Individual Requirements

In the video, Johnnie (cinema5D) and John (Rycote) show several of the products mentioned above and describe profound use-cases. They especially linger with a sizeable specialized project for the Japanese TV broadcaster NHK. Rycote has been creating custom-made solutions for the NHK Golf Course coverage with hundreds of Sennheiser microphones placed to cover events such as the Japan Open Golf event in Yokohama.

If you want to learn more about fabrication solutions, material options, color choices to blend in with the natural environment of your productions, John House offers a great set of explanations and real-life examples within the video. He also goes on to explain on-camera solutions for DSLR and DSLM cameras, meant to support “one-person production crews”. The BBG Windshield is such a small-sized solution that offers the properties for wind attenuation of a full-size windshield.

Rycote – BBG Windshield (Credits: Rycote)

Since Rycote’s efforts always focus on actual utilization, their website helps professionals to search their specific products by application, by product, and by category. If you have less connection to these types of sound and audio gear, it is worth taking a look, even for educational purposes.

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