Ravenbar
Active Member
I'm the lighting guy, so know little of the audio side of the space. I've done their lighting for a decade. It seems every year, no matter how much testing and prep goes into it, the wireless mic system experiences all kinds of issues once we get an audience in the space, but is fairly reliable during rehearsals and testing.
It's a fairly new system, with 28 wireless mics spread over ~80mHz of band, from ~470 up to 540. As I'm a ham radio guy, 28 signals spread over 70mHz(likely 12.5kHz bandwidth) seems like interference between the mics isn't the issue. I've considered buying a TinySA spectrum analyser to watch the frequency spread during the performances, but I doubt it covers 70mHz spectrum in one go.
The space also is 60-yrs old, has no sound deadening, and the walls are 30' tall and drywall/plaster mounted to 4" vertical trusses, so the walls tend to act as speakers from the vibrations. The orchestra is also very LOUD, depite the music directors attempts to hold them back, so the mics are cranked up to an almost painful level to be heard over the orchestra.
I only work on this one show per year for them, that closed tonight. I'm trying to talk them into some space mods, including adding sound deadening to the vertical walls(which would hopefully cut down on the reverberations and mute the pit somewhat), and some much needed structural repairs to the ceiling, as well as a booth relocate.
Thoughts on why the audiences presence might be affecting the wireless mic system?
It's a fairly new system, with 28 wireless mics spread over ~80mHz of band, from ~470 up to 540. As I'm a ham radio guy, 28 signals spread over 70mHz(likely 12.5kHz bandwidth) seems like interference between the mics isn't the issue. I've considered buying a TinySA spectrum analyser to watch the frequency spread during the performances, but I doubt it covers 70mHz spectrum in one go.
The space also is 60-yrs old, has no sound deadening, and the walls are 30' tall and drywall/plaster mounted to 4" vertical trusses, so the walls tend to act as speakers from the vibrations. The orchestra is also very LOUD, depite the music directors attempts to hold them back, so the mics are cranked up to an almost painful level to be heard over the orchestra.
I only work on this one show per year for them, that closed tonight. I'm trying to talk them into some space mods, including adding sound deadening to the vertical walls(which would hopefully cut down on the reverberations and mute the pit somewhat), and some much needed structural repairs to the ceiling, as well as a booth relocate.
Thoughts on why the audiences presence might be affecting the wireless mic system?