Los Angeles, CA (October 14, 2026)— For award-winning filmmaker and producer Keith O’Derek of Upfront Productions, capturing authentic, unscripted human stories is a lifelong mission. On his acclaimed television and web series, Music and Medicine and other productions, O’Derek relies on his go-to Lectrosonics wireless kit, featuring an SRc dual-channel slot-mount receiver and LT Digital Hybrid Wireless® transmitters to capture pristine dialogue. To manage the series’ more complex, multi-person interviews and live musical performances, O’Derek enlists three-time Emmy-winning location sound mixer Sean Garcia of SRG Sound, who deploys an extensive Lectrosonics-based field setup.
“With Music and Medicine, we’re often miking multiple guests and managing live performance feeds simultaneously,” explains Garcia, who has mixed the series for five years. “Our primary setup is built around Lectrosonics LT transmitters and a SRc dual-channel receiver paired with seven UCR411a compact receivers—five on block 21 and two on block 25. While the 411s take up real estate in the bag, their front-end tracking and RF reliability are unmatched. When we have a lot of moving parts on set, I don’t have to second-guess the signal, even when I can’t actively monitor a channel.”
Executive Produced by O’Derek and Dr. Moshe Lewis, Music and Medicine explores the intersection of music, healing, and lifestyle. Currently airing on YouTube and Roku TV while working toward a PBS broadcast deal as well as other outlets, the show features interviews with notable musicians and performers like Patrice Rushen, Ray Parker Jr., MC Lyte, Kurtis Blow, Jeff Lorber, Will Downing, Arturo Sandoval, Tom Browne, Tim Reid, Najee, Dionne Warwick, and Vivica Fox. It also highlights inspiring everyday stories, such as Paul Jackson, Jr.’s niece,
Alexis Wardlow—a poet, songwriter, and survivor of both sickle cell anemia and a liver transplant—who shares how music helped guide her recovery.
Most recently, O’Derek was inside the Hollywood Bowl capturing footage of the historic Miles Davis centennial celebration, Herbie Hancock Celebrates Miles Davis. The spectacular night featured a reunion of jazz heavyweights who didn’t just admire Davis’s work—several of them, including Hancock and bassist Ron Carter of the Second Great Quintet, helped create it. “Capturing these living legends performing iconic compositions like So What was incredibly powerful,” says O’Derek. “With a massive crowd and intense RF traffic, my compact Lectrosonics gear performed flawlessly, delivering the crisp, hit-free audio needed to preserve this piece of musical history.”
This dedication to documenting real, powerful human moments has defined O’Derek’s storied career. His passion for videography began in childhood, playing with cameras and projectors brought home by his Navy veteran father. Determined to make his mark, O’Derek worked as a dancer on American Bandstand solely to meet Dick Clark. After securing Clark’s mentorship, he gained unprecedented backstage access to the American Music Awards, capturing rare, intimate interviews with Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, and Smokey Robinson.
O’Derek’s quick instincts were further proven during the 1992 L.A. Uprising. He captured a raw, historic street interview with Ice-T that caught the attention of KNBC News. O’Derek negotiated the sale of his footage into a full-time union job, working as an NBC News cameraman for two years. Later, Fox gave him his own Emmy-nominated show, Straight from the Streets, where he documented positive community stories and interviewed icons like Johnny Cochran, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Notorious BIG, Snoop Dogg, and Venus and Serena Williams, whose footage was later licensed for the Oscar-winning film King Richard.
Throughout his career, O’Derek has relied on a unique, unintimidating interview technique. He holds a compact camera in the palm of his hand while keeping natural eye contact. “I’m talking and having a conversation with the subject rather than pointing a giant camera wall at them,” O’Derek explains. “And the last thing we want to worry about is fussing with the audio. That’s why I rely on Lectrosonics, because I’m confident I’ll capture what we need. I find taking this approach makes people relax completely on camera.”
Whether shooting historic documentaries or intimate interviews, O’Derek knows that high-caliber audio is foundational to his work, which is why he refuses to use anything but Lectrosonics. “When you are capturing history, you need gear that is absolutely fool proof,” O’Derek concludes. “We’ve used Lectrosonics in every conceivable environment. The reliability is incredible, and the support from the company is unmatched. It is simply the best in the business.”
About Lectrosonics
Well-respected within the film, broadcast, and theatre technical communities since 1971, Lectrosonics wireless microphone systems and audio processing products are used daily in mission-critical applications by audio engineers familiar with the company’s dedication to quality, customer service, and innovation. Lectrosonics received an Academy Scientific and Technical Award for its Digital Hybrid Wireless® technology and is a US manufacturer based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Visit the company online at www.lectrosonics.com.
