From its 7,000-square-foot street-side multi-stage studio complex in the W Hotel at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, BiteSizeTV’s Hollywood Today LIVE serves up a daily diet of entertainment news, pop culture stories, lifestyle segments and celebrity interviews.
The studio, which opened in January 2014, is located in a dense RF environment in the heart of Hollywood, so this summer the facility added Lectrosonics SSM super slight micro transmitters and Venue2 receivers to ensure trouble-free audio on its in-house productions.
The local RF environment, in combination with the city’s numerous over-the-air television channels, proved too hostile for the studio’s previous wireless microphone system.
“We were getting lots of hits with our previous gear, which really wasn’t broadcast quality,” says chief engineer Jassen Hansken, who worked on the redesign project together with broadcast engineer Bernel Nery and audio engineer Jon Brunner. “We got midway through our season this year and realized that audio was a real problem. So we decided to redo the audio booth, and upgrade all the microphones in the studio.”
Following a site survey and system recommendation by Phil Soussan of Soussan Pro Audio the facility is now equipped with 12 channels of Lectrosonics SSM super slight micro belt-pack transmitters and two six-channel Venue 2 receivers. The miniature transmitters are paired with Countryman lavalier microphone elements.
“There are four to six hosts plus various guests on a daily basis,” Hansken elaborates, also noting that the new Lectrosonics equipment has been working well since it was installed. “It has been perfect. And the small size of the SSM transmitters is great – our female guests especially appreciate them. ”
The studios are situated less than a block from a number of live entertainment venues, including the famed Pantages Theatre, and above a Metro rail line, demanding a robust and reliable wireless system. “It’s the worst RF environment I’ve ever seen,” says Hansken, a 20-year veteran of the broadcast industry, “and the Lectrosonics gear is up to the task.”