How many wireless mics do I need for school musicals?

So, the question is "How many wireless mics do I need for school musicals?"

Those with a sense of humour will say "More than ya got! Always more than ya got."

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My question ISN'T "How many mics do I need for my current musical?" I know that.

The question is "If I am building a capability to support future junior/middle/high-school musicals, how many mic systems should I aim to acquire?"

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

Lyle,

I can't say how many you might need in the future, but I can say after having provided production for school and community theatrical shows for 30 years, the most I remember using is 22 wireless units. I have 24 Sennheiser EW100 G3 systems in a 16 space rack with the necessary splitter/power boxes and patchbay. On average, I'd say it's closer to 12-16 units per show. Of course that may depend on the size of schools you're serving and the size of their productions.

Over the years we've worked many different musicals, including The Wizard of Oz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Adams Family, Mamma Mia, Newsies, Sister Act, 9 To 5 and many others I can't remember anymore!

Best,
Joel
Glaser Audio Productions, LLC

Joel - Studio 52 said:

Lyle,

I can't say how many you might need in the future, but I can say after having provided production for school and community theatrical shows for 30 years, the most I remember using is 22 wireless units. I have 24 Sennheiser EW100 G3 systems in a 16 space rack with the necessary splitter/power boxes and patchbay. On average, I'd say it's closer to 12-16 units per show. Of course that may depend on the size of schools you're serving and the size of their productions.

Over the years we've worked many different musicals, including The Wizard of Oz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Adams Family, Mamma Mia, Newsies, Sister Act, 9 To 5 and many others I can't remember anymore!

Best,
Joel
Glaser Audio Productions, LLC

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Thanks Joel,

I've been accumulating wireless without an overall plan, and had reached the point the splitters needed replacing. I thought it was time to work out what target I should be aiming at. i probably should have asked the question years ago!

-Lyle

It also depends on how much sound reinforcement the venue needs for the vocals ... if it's a small space, the band isn't overwhelming and the ensemble can be heard directly, then 6 channels may be enough to share between all the leads to boost the singing numbers. For a larger venue where non-reinforced actors simply won't be heard or where the band will drown out direct vocals, I would shoot for 16-24.

12 is a good starting point. I've found most shows can cover all the important people with 12 mics and in some cases some swapping if you really want. 16 is my usual, but remember if you buy you have replacement elements (they are disposable) maintenance, and replacement if theres another auction in the future. Often, renting is preferable because it takes maintenance off your hands and it takes multiple shows a year to make mics pay for themselves.

For a musical, one per person onstage and at least one spare. The reason for this is swapping is a PITA for a show with an adult A2 let alone a student who is also the ASM or flyman or some other thing. Now it's been a few years since I worked a high school production but I have always had student operators and in those pre-X32 days the best I could hope for in terms of automation was MIDI mute groups. Swapping mics was a EQ and gain nightmare. That being said for my university needs I am trying to reach 24 since my average show is 20-22 . We have done larger and rented, Legally Blonde had 31 in it's cast and I hope not to do that again. I support three venues with my equipment so I while I have distros and splitters I also rack my units up so they can go to different places if need be, 8 channels each in two racks and 4 in another two (not quite there yet but that's the goal). The last day we had shows here, March 13th, which was a Friday, I was running 16 in the concert hall and 10 in the blackbox. So to sum up, only you can figure out how many you need. What are your cast sizes, how many shows a year, budget size, operator skill level, director expectation and of course your own expectations. If you are mixing and your desk can make your life easy to swap you will need less. If you are teaching the operator how to mix in the professional world, which is what education is about, then maybe you need more.

We have a good size space (636 seats). We support both middle and high school productions from all of our schools. For 17 years now I have been working with 16 wireless systems. Yes, I wish I had more, but that number has been comfortable for us to work with. We have never had any major issues with lack of reinforcement. I second the thought that you need to account for spare elements and supplies such as tape and pouches and belts for the transmitters in your budget. I have a spare transmitter in each frequency set, and at least 3-4 spare mic elements at the start of each production. I have also become savvy with the common repairs needed on the transmitters such as soldering the mic connectors and antennas. That has saved us many times.

~Dave

The usual answer is ”I need just 1 more.”

In the planning phases, I would PLAN for a system that can work with 24 channels. I've never used more than that in a HS/College level production. The problem is if you buy something that only supports 12 or 18 in that brands group/line/whatever - you run into compatibility issues down the road. Build out your RF plan so that you can easily pop in more channels as you get the funds. I get that usually this level production doesn't have the capital to go buy 24 channels outright, but that's the number I'd shoot for. maybe 18 or 20 at minimum.

I'd also take 12 higher end systems over 18 crappy systems every day of the week.

I started with 9, and it was rough but we made it work. I have 17 now (two 8 unit racks and one built into the house system) and that seems just about right.

As Aaron said, look at the capabilities of the systems you want to use. I believe the max number of units that worked with my antennae distro was 8. So we started with one 8 pack, and when we got the funds together added another 8.

As was mentioned a lot of this depends on the size of the room, the size of your program, and the amount of amplification that is really necessary.

Thanks everyone. I've got ten channels for the show today, but it's a bit of a rats-nest. 6x ew100 (two depend on 'ENG' bodypack receivers) and 4x Line-6. I have two more racked ew100 receivers in the mail.

It sounds like I probably should plan for 16 racked receivers, with overflow into the accumulated scrappy bits. Probably split into three roadcases 4+split+mixer, 4+split, 8+splits, as theatre hasn't been the only activity to support.

In my experience there's 3 categories.

1. Pro. Everyone gets a mic
2. Funded Regional. As many wireless as your console size. So somewhere between 24-36. Paid for by grants etc.
3. Community/ Teen. 8 owned, rent more.

The reason why I believe these categories exist are 1) Money + 2) Flexibility.

In teen theatre, you know ahead of time that there isn't money to buy or rent more audio, so from the beginning of rehearsals, you consult the audio engineer and place microphones in certain areas and adjust blocking to either utilize speaking into someone else's mic or a floor mic.

Regional theatre is where I usually see the mic swapping because they don't realize how many mics they own until tech week. Then they realize this one actor has a line, is too far away from any other actor with a mic and there's no floor mics. Then because of all the mic swapping, they break a pack and a couple elements and could've just rented the extra systems.

My suggestion:
Make sure audio is consulted from the beginning. Not just a 1 hour meeting but come to a few rehearsals. This is what happens in lighting. No way would a director come up with a vision for set and lighting and costumes, only for those designers to show them on the first tech and the director not like them. Somehow sound is always left to the wind, so do yourself a favor and get involved.

Mixers will be another challenged area. Currently I have 16 channel mixers (Qu-16) so I'd either be sub-mixing or finding something bigger.

Lyle Williams said:

Mixers will be another challenged area. Currently I have 16 channel mixers (Qu-16) so I'd either be sub-mixing or finding something bigger.

Click to expand...

Yeah. That is definitely a 'Limiting Factor'.

Lyle Williams said:

Mixers will be another challenged area. Currently I have 16 channel mixers (Qu-16) so I'd either be sub-mixing or finding something bigger.

Click to expand...

I used a combination of Yamaha 01v (original silver face, 60mm faders) for wireless mics and the PAC's old Soundcraft... hell, I can't remember the model (it's been a long time). The pit, curtain speech mic, playback, and area mics were on the analog desk along with stem mixes from the 01v. This let me 'automate' wireless mic recall sufficient for youth theater in 2006. After a season of this kludge I added a Behringer ADA8000 to give me 20 XLR inputs (along with the mixer's 2 channels 1/4" TRS that I fed from a smaller analog utility mixer for playback, SM, and curtain speech mic). Upgraded the mixer to an 01V96ii, better EQ, EFX, less noise. I still have all of that somewhere...

So with the Hebbard-esque recollection done, I'm not sure what advice to give you. The Qu-16 is... 16. Plus 3 stereo inputs... from the block diagram it doesn't look like adding a digital snake can up the mixable channel count. The stereo inputs appear to have full-featured input strips, so the question would be "what inputs go to the sidecar mixer?"

So which bigger mixer? Ah... fantasy time... ignore the grinning cat, little/big/little girl, and the rabbit with a compunction problem...

It needs MATRICES (that IS the plural of matrix, right?). These will feed main PA (L/C/R), subwoofers, front fills, dressing rooms/green room, and lobby/ALS/other house-routed stuff, and a mono feed to video or a press mult. If there are no system controllers for these things, it's useful if the matrix outputs have dynamics (compression), Bessel/Butterworth/Linkwitz-Riley filters in the EQ section, and have delay available (on some mixers the delay is in the physical output block).

It needs MIX outputs for foldback to stage (orchestra or keyboard 1, SM, director during tech), dialog foldback mix to conductor (high ratio compressor, long release so the singing doesn't overwhelm). The music director may have additional orchestra foldback needs in the pit or backstage.

With a dozen mics or less I can throw faders faster than I can program a scene recall; a marked up script is all I need. Above that, or if there are lots of audio SFX cues, audio 'sweetening', things like that... I need DCA GROUPS. Male/female leads, male/female chorus, solo, orchestra, playback & SFX, EFX.

Inputs? Enough to do the show plus the additional needs during tech - director's "shout" mic to foldback mixes, conductor/MD shout to stage foldback mixes, accommodation for piano-only rehearsals... plus utility inputs like curtain speech/emergency announcement mic, SFX, maybe inputs from VDO, and any area micing you might do (PCC foot mics, miniature hanging mics, mics built into props or set pieces). If you think you need 24, get 32. Or at least get a mixer with sufficient architecture to permit you to mix any channels added by a digital snake system if the local input count is limited.

Figure 12 - 16 wireless, 8 - 12 from the pit, 4 area mics, "stereo" SFX... and you've about filled up an M-32.

Now if nurse will bring me my meds, I can flash back to the days when the only microphone at a musical was the curtain speech mic.

It gets out of hand pretty fast, eh?

Especially if you need to load in/load out multiple times. :^)

Lucky for me "the pit" is an iPad running cue software.

Also, apart from carrying this stuff around, another advantage of two smaller mixers is that if you have a failure it's not a show-stopper.

Lyle Williams said:

Also, apart from carrying this stuff around, another advantage of two smaller mixers is that if you have a failure it's not a show-stopper.

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I'm not sure either of those are really advantages. Carrying two semi-bulky things around doesn't seem to me any more or less convenient than carrying one definitely bulky thing around, and there are the additional interconnections to make and break (and troubleshoot). Likewise, a failure of either the main or the sub mixer is realistically going to prevent the show from progressing as planned until a replacement or a kludge can be implemented--assuming, of course, you want to hear both the actors and the music/SFX. A failure of a single mixer does exactly the same thing.

The advantages of not having a sub-mixer are in my opinion substantial: it's less confusing, you have significantly simpler gain staging, there's generally more flexibility available in sending this signal to that destination, and if you have any sort of automation the work in setting it up is not doubled (or more). In theory a single mixer should also have less total noise, but I doubt it's enough of a difference to matter for live theater.

That is probably me trying to justify the current gear! I definitely agree on the automation front that it would be a pain.

12 mics and I'd be ok on a 16 channel board (which also has 3 stereo line in plus talkback.) 16 mics and it is possible but getting right on the ragged edge.

But given that 16 mics is a goal (and I might be holding two out of as spares) then getting to this need-a-bigger-desk threshold is a trigger for more expenses and bulk.

Lyle Williams said:

That is probably me trying to justify the current gear! I definitely agree on the automation front that it would be a pain.

12 mics and I'd be ok on a 16 channel board (which also has 3 stereo line in plus talkback.) 16 mics and it is possible but getting right on the ragged edge.

But given that 16 mics is a goal (and I might be holding two out of as spares) then getting to this need-a-bigger-desk threshold is a trigger for more expenses and bulk.

Click to expand...

It's always a surprise when the scope of ones work exceeds projected needs. So you do a great job with the middle school shows with playback and next you're offered work with musicians and tigers and bears, oh my! That's why in my input estimate, on the very short end you could make do at 24 inputs. Make do being the key. Think 32 inputs to 32 channels.

If you don't need a fader per input and can deal with layers you'll seldom use in run of the show (scene recall, operating from DCAs), whatever control surface with matching i/o and mixing architecture that has some expandability or is big enough right out of the box. As you're an A-H owner, take a look further up their food chain.

Alas this is a sport that costs me money, but doesn't make me money!