Wireless Lav Mics

[gmff]

The director said that we needed to pull out the wireless lav mics for Grease. We struggled. Are there any basic guidelines that could help. A lot of dropped sound, ringing and batteries dyeing. We have Audio Technica and a mix of models. When these were put away back in 2003 the were just put in one big box. I sorted them out so we had the same model sender with the same model receiver (we had several different models). I got them so they were not on each others channels, everything worked great in the testing and ringout. What happened during the show was disappointing at times. Although the sound reinforcement was much better but the gaffs were bad, anything anyone could suggest to help would be great.

 

[FMEng]

The RF landscape has changed a lot since 2003. If any of those mics are above 698 MHz, those channels are now illegal to use, and interference is to be expected because cell networks now use that spectrum. Some of the others might be on channels that are occupied by HDTV stations that were not there prior to ~ 2009. Still others might be tuned to channels that cause intermodulation products. Can you list all of the frequencies you have chosen?

 

[lakota651]

It sounds like you might have a couple of problems going on, so let's start with your setup.

How many of each model are using?
Are all like models in the same frequency range? And what are they?
Are you using any antenna combiners and paddles or just the whips on the back of each unit?
Are the receivers on stage or at front of house? (a photo of your setup might be helpful)

What mics are you using?
Are they head or chest/collar mounted?
Did you ring out the mics while walking the stage, and with multiple mics open/on?