Producers ask me all the time what’s actually in the truck when I show up for a commercial shoot. Here’s the full picture — not a gear list for its own sake, but what each piece does for your day.

The core: two wires and a boom

The North American standard is “two wires and a boom,” and it’s the foundation of every commercial package:

• Two wireless lav systems — industry-standard Lectrosonics transmitters and receivers paired with DPA, Sanken, or Sennheiser lavalier mics. One per principal talent, hidden in wardrobe, mixed against the boom.
• Boom microphone — typically a Schoeps, Sanken, or Sennheiser shotgun or supercardioid on a boom pole, operated to follow the dialogue. Still the best-sounding option when the frame allows it.
• Multitrack recorder — Sound Devices, recording every source on isolated tracks plus a live mix. If post needs to rebuild a line from the lav because a plane flew over the boom take, the isolated tracks save the scene.

The commercial add-ons

Commercial sets move fast and clients are watching. The package grows to match:

• Plant mics — wired mics hidden on set (in a car visor, on a table, behind a practical) for coverage the boom can’t reach.
• Timecode lockboxes — jammed to every camera so picture and sound stay in perfect sync all day. No clapboard babysitting, no post headaches.
• Comtek/client monitoring — receivers for the director, agency, and clients to hear what’s being recorded, live.
• Digital slate — for multi-camera commercial setups where timecode needs a visual reference too.
• Expendables and power — topstick, moleskin, hush lavs, and enough batteries for a 10-hour day plus overtime. Running out of power at hour 9 is amateur hour.

How it plays out on a real day

Call time. While camera builds, I’m scanning RF and locking clean frequencies for the lavs — every city block has different interference, and what worked yesterday may not work today. Wardrobe brings the talent; lavs go on first, hidden and sound-checked before hair and makeup finishes.

First setup: boom finds its position, plant mic goes in the car for the driving shots later, timecode gets jammed across all cameras. Director calls action — I’m riding the boom and both lavs live, keeping dialogue clean under whatever the location throws at us: the HVAC we asked them to kill, the refrigerator hum nobody noticed on the scout, the leaf blower three houses down.

Company moves twice. Each time the whole RF picture changes and gets rebuilt in minutes, not hours. That’s the difference between a mixer with a real package and a rental: the day never stops for sound.

Wrap: cards handed to the DIT with organized files, sound reports done, everything labeled. Post gets clean, synced, properly tracked audio — which is the whole point.

Why the gear standard matters

I’m a believer in industry-standard gear — Lectrosonics wireless, Sound Devices recorders, and top-tier microphones (Schoeps, Sanken, DPA, Sennheiser) — because I’ve heard what happens without it. Prosumer wireless drops out. Cheap recorders distort. On a commercial, where the client is on set and the schedule has no slack, “good enough” gear is the most expensive option.

Posted on: October 3, 2026, by : Jimmy Gilmore