nickb12345 Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Hi We have 6x Audio Technica Lapel Mics in our theatre and we are not convinced where the recievers should be housed. At the moment they are in a metal rack next to the sound desk on the open technical balcony at the rear of the theatre. The main problem we have is that they tend to hiss and crackle a bit, where ever we put them! So the question is... Where are your recievers located? Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmonk Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 In alot of cases its better to have them side of stage so there is less distance to cover from transmitter to receiver... On a practical case its often more convienient to have them front of house, so that you can monitor battery levels, rf and audio ( if the receiver offers these luxuries ) Kind of depends on how good a reception you get and what best suits you... IMHO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Some Bloke Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 On a practical case its often more convienient to have them front of house, so that you can monitor battery levels, rf and audio ( if the receiver offers these luxuries ) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> We like to have the receivers at the desk for the same reasons (monitoring levels), so we run co-ax extension leads out so the antennae can be nearer the stage. With boosters on the ends of the leads it seems to work well for us. With different types of mic though...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanG Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 I've always preferred to have them in the wings, ideally near to the SM/DSM for emergencies. It's handy to monitor battery/rf/audio levels, but: - Batteries should be fine if you change them for each show- Audio monitoring can be done using the PFL feature of the sound desk- If you have RF problems it's unlikely you can do anything about it during the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Receivers near the desk (for monitoring of battery life and reception quality...also the ability to swap frequencies quickly in case of problems) but with the antennas run as near the stage as practicable (and on two sides for maximum reception diversity. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 Have you read WIRELESS MICROPHONES AND THE AUDIO PROFESSIONAL by Jim Brown? It's a good guide and contains a fair bit of useful information. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 Canford will sell you low-loss 50ohm coax to run your antennae down. However as far as being ale to see the recievers goes, surely that means having them onstage where the radiomic runner onstage can monitor them: not much use for the guy on the desk FOH to be told the battery's running low! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Showcomms Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 I just read The Jim brown article it is really quite good. Some questions to consider. What kind of noise does it sound like? Any of the usual culprits? Sashing, humming buzzing, crackle, dimmer buzz, earth loop buzz? Does the noise follow any specific pattern? Do you have this noise all the time the rack is on. from switch on, after a while, only during the show, add odd time no specific pattern? Are your receiver aerial stubs on the back. Is it a diversity aerial system Can you attach active remote aerials What frequency bands are you using? Have you checked that the specific frequencies are good channels to use together? www.jfmg.co.uk can help you on this if they are licenced channels. What state are the body pack aerials are they the frayed. The wire may be in but the centre pin may not be in contact? Do you know someone who lend a a Tx and Rx unit for a day and see if it does the same thing? Ideally get a battery powered receiver and a mains powered receiver. If it proves to be the rack location for whatever reason you can then try it elsewhere on flying leads in down time to isolate the cause in logical steps! Audio Technica or your original supplier may lend you kit for approval for upgrade to new models!!! If you are in London area and get stuck the offer is there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 Canford will sell you low-loss 50ohm coax to run your antennae down. However as far as being ale to see the recievers goes, surely that means having them onstage where the radiomic runner onstage can monitor them: not much use for the guy on the desk FOH to be told the battery's running low!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Er...generally (least on shows I work on) the FOH mixer is in contact with the A2 backstage...usually a walkie talkie in my case. Since the backstage "runner" is...well...running and not sitting watching the receivers, I find the FOH position works better. It also lets the guy at the mixer get a handle on what the problem is if he PFLs a channel in advance and finds problems. Besides just battery issues, the displays on the receivers will generally also let you know things like RF level (if it's strong but no sound, check the mic, if it's weak/gone, check the pack) and so on. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.M Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 Recievers should be as close to the transmitter as possible. If you have remote arials then it is best to have them at different levels to each other and if possible either side of the stage. This way you have two different possibilities of getting reception. The number 3 (Runner?) should be watching the recievers and responding to any problems that may arise. Changing batteries at the beginning of the performance doesnt neccesarially guarentee that they will work! They need to be monitored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnhuson Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 We generally site radio mic receivers at the FOH mixer position for shows, and use active antenna as close to the stage as possible, fed into aerial distribution amps to feed to receivers. The RF, AF and battery level indicators generally mean a lot more to the engineer and can speed up fault finding no end, and faults can be relayed by the engineer to the stage management team or radio mic tech. on stage via the comms/headset system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 Check out this website http://audio-technica.com/using/wireless/compat/index.html it allows you to plug in all the frequencies you are using and it calculates them to see if you have any that will interfere with each other. Re: the batteries, yes even if you replace at the start of every performance, it *is* possible to have a dud one in a batch. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted November 21, 2004 Share Posted November 21, 2004 Very nice to have the meters where the foh micer can see them, then when things go wrong, they get a visual confirmation that backs up your ears. That said, I always put them as close to the talent as I can. Audio meterng is just as good from the desk, and any rf problems can be confirmed with pfl/solo. Having the rf levels (and batt etc) on stage seems the best solution, as the problem needs to be fixed at that end anyway. Plenty of decent cable around to enable antenna placement close to the action, but the size and stiffness of the cable make it diifcult to handle. It has always seemed very odd to move the receiver antennas firther away, and then use an amplifier to restore levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 Well, I'm a lampy not a noiseboy - but many of the shows that I've worked on recently which have used radio mics seem to have been Sennheiser systems which are capable of sending graphical information about things like RF strength, audio level, battery level, etc. to a remote VDU at the sound desk. So the receivers can be with the other sound racks backstage, hooked up to a control/monitoring PC with a monitor on top of the racks for the sound no.2 to look at and another monitor FOH for the engineer to look at. This seems to me to work pretty well, but, as I said, I've only ever seen this system in use by other people and never used it personally (why would a production electrician need radio mics?! ;)) so I can't comment on it first-hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted November 23, 2004 Share Posted November 23, 2004 did a show a while back where they had video camera focussed on the on stage rx box. worked very well - it was fed as composite video up the audio snake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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