Hello,
New here so pardon the questions. I tried searching this info but didn't find what I was looking for.
here is my back story on this. I am part of a local theater and have a lot of experience in recording studios, audio editing and some live sound, but very little experience with wireless mics. About 20 minutes before a show I was in, I noticed they were still struggling to test sound. I texted the music director up in the booth with the person running the board to check if PFL buttons were pressed and they were which solved some of their issues so they asked if I could come up to the booth. They didn't have their mic signals split so there was no way to control how much signal from mics got to on stage monitors and it was feedback city. So I quickly re configured the setup and showed them how to work it. The show went on swimmingly. So naturally... they all turned to me and I'm the guy LOL.
They've now asked me to try and sort out their Wireless issues which I have some suspicions as to the causes but I don't know enough about it to give them confident solutions so would like to bounce them off the right people.
Using a Creative Audio CA.81 system.
Issue: We do a mic check and everything is clean. Show starts and one or more mics will crackle sometimes to the point that we just mute it.
1. They have the receivers about 100 feet away in the balcony. Is there a rule of thumb on max distance? and someone removed the directional antenna and put the whips back on. Can I put the Directionals back on but try and mount the antennas on the side wall and split the distance using a long BNC cable? Or would it be better to move the receivers to the wings.
2. Reading the manual for the system and am going to head there today and try rescanning the frequencies on all channels. Should this be done before every show? periodically?
3. Could the more elaborate costumes be the issue? or is it generally fine to have the transmitter pack inside the costume?
4. I wouldn't think cell phones and house wifi would be the cuprite but it did cross my mind considering its fine at mic check then show time comes and there are lots of people with cell phones in the house.
could also be the ghost of the theater... its old and has a reputation for being haunted.
anyway... thank you so much for reading this and any assistance you can provide. We have shows this weekend so hoping to help iron this out for a smooth show.
New here so pardon the questions. I tried searching this info but didn't find what I was looking for.
here is my back story on this. I am part of a local theater and have a lot of experience in recording studios, audio editing and some live sound, but very little experience with wireless mics. About 20 minutes before a show I was in, I noticed they were still struggling to test sound. I texted the music director up in the booth with the person running the board to check if PFL buttons were pressed and they were which solved some of their issues so they asked if I could come up to the booth. They didn't have their mic signals split so there was no way to control how much signal from mics got to on stage monitors and it was feedback city. So I quickly re configured the setup and showed them how to work it. The show went on swimmingly. So naturally... they all turned to me and I'm the guy LOL.
They've now asked me to try and sort out their Wireless issues which I have some suspicions as to the causes but I don't know enough about it to give them confident solutions so would like to bounce them off the right people.
Using a Creative Audio CA.81 system.
Issue: We do a mic check and everything is clean. Show starts and one or more mics will crackle sometimes to the point that we just mute it.
1. They have the receivers about 100 feet away in the balcony. Is there a rule of thumb on max distance? and someone removed the directional antenna and put the whips back on. Can I put the Directionals back on but try and mount the antennas on the side wall and split the distance using a long BNC cable? Or would it be better to move the receivers to the wings.
2. Reading the manual for the system and am going to head there today and try rescanning the frequencies on all channels. Should this be done before every show? periodically?
3. Could the more elaborate costumes be the issue? or is it generally fine to have the transmitter pack inside the costume?
4. I wouldn't think cell phones and house wifi would be the cuprite but it did cross my mind considering its fine at mic check then show time comes and there are lots of people with cell phones in the house.
could also be the ghost of the theater... its old and has a reputation for being haunted.
anyway... thank you so much for reading this and any assistance you can provide. We have shows this weekend so hoping to help iron this out for a smooth show.