The DPA 4017 shotgun mic has won the Producción Audio 2008 Award in the "best audio product for broadcast" category. The publishing group Editorial Bolina presented the award to Carles Ribo, product manager of DPA's Spanish distributor Seesound, at a ceremony in Madrid.
Award winners are chosen in a two-stage procedure; the first being an online poll where readers can vote for their favourite products. After nomination, the 4017 won out over two competing products in this category when put before a jury of eight independent specialists and three members of the magazine staff.
"This gave me the chance to talk to the jury members about the qualities of the 4017," says Producción Audio's editorial director Gabriel Albornoz. "It has the characteristics of a much longer shotgun, and the on-axis gain is really high. But I was especially impressed with the off-axis response. I tested it in a small theatre, recording the acts from behind the seats. The surprise came when the actors moved from the centre to the sides of the stage: the transition from on-axis to off-axis dialogue was extremely smooth, and I didn't even have to touch the gain knob on the video camera. It's clear the excellent characteristics of the 4017 convinced the jury."