Recording an instructor while filming him from a distance

Question

OK, so here's my problem:

I snuck myself into our Ninjutsu club's sporting event as the "photographer" - I have to video the event using my consumer Canon HF10 camcorder, and I'll have to produce a DVD of the event.

Now, I have also videoed the previous event, and have detected a problem with recording the instructor's speech:

The process is that the instructor demonstrates a technique, and then everyone practices the technique. The instructor then walks around, correcting mistakes. During the demos there is little problem: Everyone is (mostly) quite and the instructor wears a mike (connected to a little box worn at belt level) transmitting to an amplifying system (at least he did during the last event). So there’s no problem there.

However, when the instructor moves around he turns off the mike (because obviously he needn’t be heard all across the mat). It’s tough to run after him with the camera and the tripod, because people are spread all over the mat. Moreover, when he says the interesting things, people gather around him listening (and speaking). Also people around me go on training, which may get quite noisy. So I can't get a clear recording of the instructor and we miss the best parts, the corrections people could really learn from.

So, what I need is some way to capture what he’s saying while he's far from the camera. Any suggestions?

Points to consider:

1. This is Ninjutsu, so the instructor is moving around and is active, especially when doing the class demos. However, as he’s the one doing the throws etc., and considering he’s already “wired” to the amplifying system’s mike, he’s not overly active.
2. It’s a hobby. I’m not going to be paid – so expenses should be not too high.
3. The result should be merged as a soundtrack to the video.
4. The camera has no genlock.
5. I’m much more “into” it than the instructor is. It’s a little like the cat and the bell, so it needs to be as little a hassle as possible.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Simple solution is for you to get all your audio from the PA mixer, and for when the instructor does his walkabout, just turn down or mute the signal to the speakers instead of muting the mic.

This way you keep the same audio signal throughout for your recording, so no messing about with other microphones.

Answer 2

take signal out of the PA into the camera. If you talk more about the PA I can be more specific.