Links to parts are at the end of this article.
Before lockdown, I was asked to do an audio-only recording of a contributor. The prod company booked a hotel room for the purpose and I provided a remote audio link to the production company’s office so that the director could hear my feed and talk back to the contributor. I took stands and sound blankets to treat the room if needed but when I got there, the room was TINY and there was no space to even put a stand. It got me thinking about how I might approach that situation if it arose again so that I could rig blankets without stands and I’m sharing my solution here in case it’s useful to anyone else.
I bought three Manfrotto Autopoles (76B) 1.5m-2.7m so I can get them in the car, and found plumbing/bracket fittings (Munsen rings) that have M8 and M10 threads inside them. I attached one to the top of each pole and threaded an M10 eyebolt into each one to create a suspension point. I have two options for attaching the cloth to the pole: using a tarpaulin bungee through an eyelet in the cloth or, if there’s no eyelet at the point where there’s a stand to hang it from, I use a Holden clip with a karabiner.
I had cause to rig some blankets to use as a backdrop to take better pics of my Sound Devices 633 which I was selling and took the opportunity to take some pics to share here.
I bought some black draw string cotton bags to keep the blankets in neatly. Now all I need are some more voice recording jobs in pokey hotel rooms to properly put this method to the test in a real-world situation!
Links to parts (These were my options during lockdown. Other, more local/Earth-friendly options may well be available):
Manfrotto Autopoles. LTT Group (Germany) – https://tinyurl.com/ycdub5be
Rubber lined Munsen rings – You need the 38-43mm size. JTM Bracketry (UK) – https://tinyurl.com/y84lls86
M10 Eyebolts. Amazon (UK) – https://tinyurl.com/y8pebhf6
Holdon clips. Amazon (UK) – https://tinyurl.com/yb847pmj
Tarpaulin bungee cords Amazon (UK) – https://tinyurl.com/y9tessb9