All Roads Lead To… Wireless?
This last muse is on a topic to which I’m very close, since I work for a manufacturer making wireless microphone products. But my observation isn’t about being a supplier, it’s about the fact that whenever I’ve been around a show, and anything, I mean anything goes wrong with the sound; the first blame gets placed on the wireless microphones.
Let me relate a story about that…
A while back, I provided the wireless microphones and backline wireless for a show in San Diego. Between comm, IEM, microphones and backline, we had about 45 channels of wireless on the stage – certainly not a system where you would want to “guess” the frequencies. To coordinate everything, I used IAS software from Professional Wireless Systems.
During rehearsals, one of the main guitar players in the house band was having problems and he mentioned to me that his level was going up and down, sounding “weak”, etc. Note that he came to me first… and that’s the point of this story.
I proceeded to swap out his transmitter and receiver and put him on a different pre-coordinated frequency, thus eliminating any one of the three things that could have been causing the problem IF the wireless was at fault.
Guess what? He still had the same problem. He was very understanding and realized that it probably wasn’t the wireless, although he didn’t know what to check next. Meanwhile, the stage manager started giving me a hard time, and no amount of calm explanation on my part would sway him. He was simply convinced that it was the wireless causing the problem.
I knew that the problem was likely the guitarist’s pedal board, seeing that it was the most complex part of the chain and had the most opportunities for intermittent connections, etc. I made a note of this, and worked in a quick trip to Radio Shack. There, I got some contact cleaner and ran across the street to a hardware store to get some Scotch Brite.
After I got back, during a break in rehearsals, I went through that pedal board with a fine-toothed comb—cleaning all the quarter-inch plugs and jacks, and DC connectors—then put it all back together. From then on, it worked perfectly. I was there to provide RF mics, but I was the only one convinced that the wireless had nothing to do with the problem and thus set about to find a solution.
After that, the stage manager seemed to give me more respect. And I think this is one way that we can all improve our standing when handling wireless mic systems – know your system inside and out and be prepared for anything.
A lot of people still seem to believe that wireless systems are run on voodoo because they don’t understand some of the fundamentals involved. But math and physics are what determine success in the RF world.
A quick side story is that one of the house IATSE guys told me that just a few weeks before, he’d had a show in that same theater with all kinds of problems with the wireless. When they called the manufacturer for help and described their location (downtown San Diego), they were told, “You guys are basically screwed,” because of the heavy use of the spectrum by TV broadcasts.
I was pretty shocked to hear that, and invited the house guy to listen to some of my channels. Not a blip, hit, dropout, nothing. He asked how this was possible, and I explained that we had done careful frequency coordination and set the antennas up properly.
Another related bit is that the monitor engineer told me that he wasn’t surprised that the wireless mics worked so well, but he wanted to know, “How come the IEM system seems so solid?” His experience had been that wireless IEMs were usually prone to problems.
Again, I explained that we had done a good coordination and thus we would be able to count on these systems to work – end of story.
The Bottom Line
All these issues are inter-related and to me, they point to the fact that we really have to know our craft inside and out. I’ve said it before, and here it is again: We should never stop learning and never think that we know it all.
We can’t assume that what worked before will necessarily work again. And we have to be studying our systems and the underlying technology all of the time in order to stay current. As we move more and more into digital consoles and wireless mics and IEMs, there is no excuse not to master these systems.
Things are constantly getting more complex, but at the same time, the possibilities for excellence are ever more available to us. Don’t forget to rely on your quality resources—the good manufacturers are always there to help.
And the basics of physics never change—until scientists and mathematicians tell us they do. Until then, have fun and make some good sound.