As an entertainer, you learn early that a microphone will always be hot at the worst moment. A “hot” mic is a microphone that is turned on and will carry your voice to the audience. People in Zoom meetings, Google’s Meetup, MS Teams, etc. learned the hard way during COVID that microphones will carry your spoken word, bathroom sounds, barking dogs, and whiny children and the most inopportune times.
If you have a microphone nearby, assume it is hot. Assume that someone is going to hear what you say because of that microphone. Even if it is unplugged assume it is listening. Think of all the microphones near you. It’s not just the boom mic for your meetings or recordings. It’s the microphone in your phone, the voice assistant in your house, the mic on the Roku remote control, your camera, your security cameras, your drones, your Xbox and other game systems, and so forth. You are surrounded constantly by listening devices.
