Using a Behringer DI box. Saved my backside more than once.

G

Is the cat5 extender a passive or active device? And does it have any attenuating capabilities? Like I said in my last post, this isn't exactly the solution to your problem and you'll still want to look into the device musicvid recommended. The Cat5 balun is a passive device, and does not have any attenuating capabilities. It solves two problems: running unbalanced audio (and composite video) over long distances; and it eliminates the ground-loop hum problem. Even though you say you haven't yet encountered hum, you almost certainly will if you use unbalanced audio.

The other solution to that problem is to use a cheap Zoom, or other similar portable audio recording device. I finally got around to getting one of these nifty little toys and in a recent job I connected it to the soundboard when the event manager changed absolutely everything from how it was set up up during my run-through. I actually spent three hours going to a remote location a few days before a fund-raising luncheon I was asked to record, just to check the room and set everything up. When I got home, I downloaded the PDF for the soundboard.

I really thought I was perfectly prepared.

However, when I got there on the day of the event, an hour and a half ahead of time, the soundboard had been moved to the other side of the room, and the only way to get sound to the camera (room logistics more or less fixed its location) was to gaffe down my cable through twenty-five tables. That was going to be a nightmare and a safety hazard. So instead, I connected my Zoom to the soundboard and did about a dozen sound checks. Fortunately no one was actually attending the soundboard (it was in a country club, and this was simply the ballroom mixer) so I was reasonably confident no one was going to tweak the levels, like what happened to you. The sound came out perfectly and I was able to mix it with a little room ambient sound from one of my three cameras to achieve a very nice balance. If you go this route, make sure your portable audio recorder handles line levels: my H2n is actually not the ideal device for this purpose, although with the appropriate adapters, and attention to detail, it can be made to work just fine.

BTW, one of the replies in this thread suggested that you never rely on one source for sound. I heartily agree. My backup in this case was an old SD camera that I mounted as close to the podium as possible. Not as good as the hand-held, but better than the cameras mounted in the back of the room. I mounted it low, pointing up at the podium. I used this video, occasionally, to break up the tedium of watching someone speak in front of an audience. Since it was SD, and I didn't want to "hurt" the quality of my HD production, I used this video as a small inset and overlaid it on a wide shot of the entire room. 720x480, when put in a small box, actually is HD.

I also considered setting up my wireless, with the microphone fixed on the podium, but then I realized that most of the speakers (the event featured multiple speakers) were going to roam with the club's wireless mic, rather than standing at the lecturn, and any wireless gaffed down to that podium would lose them when they wandered away.

Two great audio references for recording audio and more:
Yamaha's Sound Reinforcement Handbook, Davis & James
Mastering Audio, Bob Kats

Kramer Electronics has all kinds of boxes for extending many different types of audio and video signals over CAT5 cabling.

http://www.kramerelectronics.com/products/#filters?&groupli=5

Another great audio book is Producing Great Sound for Digital Video (3nd Edition) by Jay Rose.

Mike