[Parsons]

   

Watching ITV evening news with Charlene White made me wonder...  what's the deal with the really rubbish indiscrete earpieces popping up all over the shop these days?

Take a look at the pic above, generic telex stainless steel earbud, white elbow, used on somebody with a darker skin tone... I mean, what's going on here? it looks like the poor lady is wearing a 1970s deaf aid. 

I can remember how producers back in the day would go out of their way to frame shots to conceal the presence of the presenters earpieces -  don't they care any more? 

I know the high resolution of modern tv has made acoustic tube earpieces more difficult to conceal, but the new Sidekick IFBs and the other various wireless  options are pretty discrete.  It's not just ITV or Channel 4 News, the One Show as well - I spotted Jermaine Jenas with a piece of micropore tape stuck to his neck holding his in place the other day. 

Seems like there are few shows moving away from acoustic tube to the SideKick to make them hard to spot in vision, but still can't understand now many generic buds seem to be in use by onscreen talent - any thoughts? and who generally decides which technology is used on screen on any particular show?

[Neil Jones]

But of course it could have been worse...

   

[Manclad83]

I guess the genie is out of the bottle. Even your most non-observant viewer knows that Tv presenters wear an ear piece. Why go to any real lengths to conceal the fact.

Indeed, ear pieces have almost become a parody in news sketches. (Finger on ear whilst receiving info)

[Neil Jones]

Okay I'm going to have to ask - Here's the Sky F1 Grid walk from last night:
www.youtube.com 

And you can see Martin Brundle wearing two earpieces particularly on the shots behind him. This isn't a new thing for him, I hasten to add.

I presume there would be a reason for this, to do with the noise of the environment?

Or is it more of a a personal decision for Mr Brundle, since I can see him wearing two earpieces even back in the day of the later BBC F1 coverage, though he used to wear headphones in the ITV days.

[Steve in Pudsey]

I suspect those are similar to the in-ear monitoring musicians use on stage. They act like earplugs, which I imagine are needed as PPE in that noisy environment.