In recent years, more of TV and internet news features recordings made on mobile phones. iPhones and Andoid phones are also being used by professional journalists. The art and science of using consumer technology this way is known as Mobile Journalism. There are blogs, Twitter hashtags and conferences on the subject.

Final Cut Pro X is the editing software ‘for the rest of us’ – designed for professionals in many fields as well as editing. That means broadcast news organisations are training all sorts of staff in using X (Some would say everyone but the editors).

After a few years of steadily improving camera phones and video editing applications that run on iOS and Android, the quality of mobile audio recording is now catching up. Recent devices bypass microphones designed for telephone conversations.

Recently Glen Mulcahy of Irish national TV and radio broadcaster RTÉ compared two systems that connect via the iPhone’s lightning port:

Today I got my hands on the Sennheiser ClipMic Digital mic for iOS so I decided to shoot a quick unboxing video and then do an audio test and a video test to pitch it against the iKmultimedia iRigPro and AKG 417pp Lav which we currently use for Mobile Journalism here in RTÉ.

He used the Apogee MetaRecorder iOS app which includes metadata tagging for those editing MoJo footage in Final Cut Pro X.

Ripple Training’s video on how marker, keyword and role information captured on location can be imported into Final Cut:

ClipMic Digital is a new Microphone from Sennheiser that turns your iPhone or iPad into a professional digital audio recorder. By downloading the companion App from Apogge, you can record and add metadata to your recordings that can be read my Final Cut Pro X via XML. This is one of the COOLEST app/mics we’ve ever used!