I was returning from vacation with my family and was at the airport in Ft. Myers, Florida heading back to New York. Going through the security checkpoint is pretty standard now and my family knows the drill:
Show your ID, proceed to the line for the x-ray machine, start unloading backpacks, jackets, remove shoes, put laptops in a separate bin, yada yada. Push the bins on the rollers into the x-ray machine and walk past the TSA agent by the magnetometer. Assuming you don’t set off the machine, wait for your personal items to pass thru the x-ray machine, and you now get dressed again.
Except this time, an agent grabbed my carry-on bag and took it back to the x-ray machine to be re-x-rayed. Ok, I thought, this is unusual. In my carry-on I had the following items: GPS unit, my video camera, some audio equipment, and my Macbook laptop (which I took out and put in a separate bin).
After watching my bag come through a second time, I watched the agent take my bag from the rollers and pass it again for a third time through the machine. Now I was very curious. After this third pass, the TSA agent grabbed my bag and asked me to come to the inspection area. Ok. She started to remove the items I described; the GPS unit, my video camera, and then came the revelation, “Aha, this is what the problem is.”
She was holding my XLR adapter and asked me what it was. I told her it was audio equipment that allowed me to attach professional microphone equipment to my video camera.
Here’s how it works: I use a wireless lapel microphone which is attached to a transmitter that gets attached to my belt. I also use a receiver which is powered by a wall outlet, which sits near the video camera. In order to send the audio signal from the receiver to the video camera, there must be a connecting wire from the audio receiver to the camera.
I use a Sennheiser G100 Evolution system 
and this unit has only an XLR plug
, which is a standard three prong plug. The XLR wire has to attach to the camera. Since my camera has only a mini-jack (like a headphone jack) I need an adapter, hence the need for an XLR adapter. Without the adapter, I would be unable to use my wireless microphone. (There are other wireless microphone systems that have a mini-jack and do not require an XLR adapter, however, mine was not one of them.)
After I explained to the TSA agent what an XLR adapter is and why I used one, she looked at me and said “Oh, OK. We never saw one of these before. Go right ahead.”
The moral of the story: Next time I’ll pack my XLR adapter in my luggage.
Have a great Labor Day weekend!
About Gerry
Gerry is a New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer in practice for 21 years. He has produced and created over 170 educational and informative videos to help consumers understand how lawsuits work in the State of New York. If you want to see how Gerry has used video to promote his own practice click here.
Gerry created the Lawyers’ Video Studio to help laywers get onto video. If you’re interested in getting started with creating video to market your legal services, Gerry now offers consultation services. If you want a turn-key system where Gerry does everything for you except appear on camera, click here. You can reach Gerry personally at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com.
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