OK, has any one had any experience of people not being compatible with radio mics.

I have worked for a few shows, with a certain performer that seems to have a geat absorbing effect on UHF radio mics, it took me ages to figure out, the first show I tried changing frequency, different bodypacks, new aerials, everything including trying 3 different makes of radio mic (obviously changing the receiver as well.) moving the antenna, even putting the receiver, with its own antenna at the side of the stage, between 6 and 30feet away, all made no difference, it kept dropping out all over the place

in the second show I did with this person, I gave them one of my VHF mics, and no problem at all.

Im confused!

UHF are more easily absorbed... I'd bet that if you had tried a 2.2GHz system that you'd have potentially more problems.

Just out of interest could this have anything to with the bodys natural electrical signals? I only ask because I've known people mostly 16 year old boys that have effected electrical equipment in some very strange ways with out touching it!

Love your tag Alex......

Tim, sorry I don't understand, "absorbing effect"? dropping out"?
You mean the signal?

John Denim.

Body absorption is more significant at higher frequencies, so
[politically incorrect]
It's usually something to do with being a big fatty...
[/politically incorrect]

..or because the antenna is touching bare skin... or because the person is unusually sweaty. The moisture increases conductivity between the the mic antenna and the skin, effectively detuning the antenna

I have heard it phrased as "UHF mics are more susceptible to the Fat Lady Effect"

Under-wired bras are the bane of radio-microphones!

Aahhh. So thats what the problems were in the last dance show I did sound for were.

Josh

However, non of the cast will believe you when you ask for underwear to be removed "for technical reasons". In fact, that little gem managed to find its way into the BBC's excellent comedy show, "Bonekickers"....

Well I'll leave that to one of the other students.

Knowing some of the dancers though thet wouldn't say no.

Josh

absorbing effect, as in the ability of a body to absorb the RF, and yes as in loosing signal, dropping out.

strangly the person in question is definatly not on the larger size, quite a slim 30-40ish female.
its the only person Ive had this issue with.

similar things have been narrowed down to other things, bad antenna, foil costumes (yeah dance schools love that stuff!)

dont know about the underwear, I dont think I`ll ask that one !!

People are bags of mostly water (I know - but it's one of my favourite programmes), and UHF is more prone to attenuation than VHF, often has less efficient antennas, and many performers sweat a lot, which is salty. On top of this often the packs are stuffed into tight costumes, pushing the antenna against the sweaty body. A good test of a system is to move a transmitter pack away from the aerials until the signal strength drops well down. Then stand somebody in the way, or experiment with the actor turning through 360 degrees - some people just seem to really soak it up! Others don't seem so bad.

Just an exuse to get the ladies to take them off! lol

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YOu Nailed this one right on the head! most of the time its the BMI

Almost always weight-related or costume-related.

I've had several costumes which came with either metalised fabirc, or stiff wire supports, which completely screwed over the radio mic transmitting. The first time it happened I was musing out loud with a colleague "It's as if she's wearing a Faraday cage under her skirt... Hang on, what if she is?"...

I find putting the boby pack in an un- lubed condom helps

(when you go to Boots and ask for 150 condoms (un-lubed) you get some funny looks, and rember, they are vat free

If underwired bras are a problem does this mean that the performers in my "all singing" production of "Ivanhoe the Musical" would be better off without the suits of armour?

Also, the condom thing sounds clever, but are catholics performers allowed to use these? I see potential problems with Rome. LOL

Incidentally, although your £1000 wireless unit won't pick up a fat lass singing 10 yards away, I'll bet it picks up taxi 10 miles away.

I've used an AKG unit for lead vocals and never had any problems with it (other than the odd squelch) and also a Sennheiser unit on my guitar. The only time that the wireless on the guitar played up was at a NATO military base in Germany. Needless to say, the gig was in a marquee right under the base's main radio transmitter and in fairness EVERYTHING, including the Disco gear which was all hard wired, was picking up the stuff they were transmitting.

Regards

WAL

Yes, I had the problem back in May this year. Fortunately I have a few VHF units and swapped her to one of those and all was OK. She was not especially large.

Also have had problems with principal boy's shiny metallic costumes in several panto's.

Ahh, at least I can rest easy it not me, or my kit!

Slightly off topic, but I did a gig last week, (I'm a drummer): two bands on the bill, I play in both; we set up a vocal PA, sound checked it all ok, turned it down a bit as we had no FOH engineer, everything was fine until the singer in the second band arrived, when she stood anywhere near the vocal mic the FOH started feeding back. If anyone else stood in the same position there was no feedback. Does she have a resonant head?

Would this ever be a problem with a VHF system, or is it just UHF affected this badly?

Just wondering really...

Chris

presumably it can happen with both, but UHF is more suceptible to it, because of the higher frequency.

I hae only had it happen with UHF though