Omar Bobat: real pros use audio hooks

Omar films with the 2017 Shotgun Microphone from DPA Microphones. By his estimate, he has used it for about a year and a half to two years, and he says he can't go back to his previous setup, "which is a blessing and a curse."

The mic also changed how he thinks about sound. "I wasn't really nerdy about audio before, and this actually opened a whole new world for me," he says.

Why audio hooks

"In social media and content creation, hooks are basically invaluable," Omar says. His focus is on sound: terror, torment, jeopardy, pure joy, captured as it happens.

"Audio hooks normally contain context and story. They add a whole extra level to your game, and you're only really able to get those if you have good audio equipment."

Without it, he says, you struggle to capture those hooks cleanly enough to use. "This essentially gives you a whole new resource just by leveling up the quality of your microphone."

Same event, a year apart

Omar saw the difference firsthand at a big competition in the Netherlands. The first time he filmed it, his audio levels were blown out. "It was driving me nuts," he says.

A year later, he went back to film the same event, this time with 2017. "It was completely different. I can have an athlete shout at my camera. I can get it cleanly, but I won't get blown-out crowd noise at the same time."

Before the 2017, he says, the noise at events like this left him “basically no chance of hooking anything of value.” Now he can capture those moments at a noisy live event.

Heat, snow, rain and height

Omar's shoots cover a broad range of conditions. "We go through heat, snow, rain, dangling off high things. Basically, all you can think of apart from actually submerging in water."

"And this microphone has done fine," he says. "I've had no problems with it."

His verdict: "The versatility of 2017 is high, and I like it."

Watch the video

Hear Omar in his own words.