Wireless Lav Fading and White Noise

[Steve Crow]

Oh I did some tests at home and it does definitely look like there was something about that environment I was filming it that caused the mic fading in and out and the noisy signal….next time I will try scanning for a clear frequency, funny that didn’t occur to me in the heat of production.

[Jordan Wolf]

Steve,

Make it a habit to scan for open frequencies EVERY TIME. That’s the only way you are (almost) guaranteed a stable signal. You’ll want to have every transmitter on set powered on when you do it…you never know when you’ll get asked for another wireless mic, etc.

Also, if your unit uses some form of deversity antenna pickup, keep the antennas somewhat perpendicular to each other to increase the likelihood or the unit picking up direct RF from the transmitter and little/no reflected RF.

You’d be surprised how much RF a waterbag, er…person can absorb/reflect. Oh, and be glad that most of you only deal with wireless microphones (albeit a large number sometimes, I’m sure) – when you throw wireless In-Ear Monitors into the mix, the bandwidth gets even more crowded!

Wolf
<><