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posted by martyb on Monday August 13 2018, @12:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the project-your-voice dept.

The email blast from the head of my son and daughter's theater group relayed a frantic plea: "We need to raise $16,000 before the upcoming spring performances," Anya Wallach, the executive director of Random Farms Kids' Theater, in Westchester, New York, wrote in late May. If the money didn't materialize in time, she warned, there could be a serious problem with the shows: nobody would hear the actors.

Random Farms, and tens of thousands of other theater companies, schools, churches, broadcasters, and myriad other interests across the country, need to buy new wireless microphones. The majority of professional wireless audio gear in America is about to become obsolete, and illegal to operate. The story of how we got to this strange point involves politics, business, science, and, of course, money.

Story: https://www.wired.com/story/wireless-mics-radio-frequencies-fcc-saga/


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  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday August 13 2018, @03:44PM (1 child)

    by RS3 (6367) on Monday August 13 2018, @03:44PM (#721013)

    As a "sound guy" I'll agree in part, and not feel insulted by the parts I know you meant well but are incorrect. But I am critical of most "sound guys", so I probably agree with you, but I hate being stereotyped.

    In fact, "latest" is often most definitely NOT the greatest. Try buying some 1960s and 1970s European (German, Austrian, Swiss, Swedish, etc.) condenser or ribbon mics- AKG, Shoepps, Telefunken, on and on, and you'll find out how much more valuable that old stuff is. I have some Japan-made AT mics that compare well to Neuman which have a 10x price. The mics are no longer made in Japan- the Chinese ATs are HORRIBLE. Scraping a blackboard with a rusty nail is more pleasant.

    Generally product quality peaked many years ago. Now profit is more important. Oh, you can still buy good mics, for sure, but you have to know that the newest AT or AKG is not necessarily the best.

    Show continuity gets lost when some actors have mics and some don't. I've done shows where we have a limited number of wireless mics and set up a matrix / schedule where actors pass mics around (behind the scenes) for different lines. It worked well as long as you have someone keeping track of who's on what mic when.

    Rentals are quite expensive- price it out. As hard as they try to keep the gear in good condition, it's often beat up, flaky connectors, intermittent wires, etc., but you don't find that out until the live show (Murphy's Law at work). Also, some shows run for many weeks, but only on the weekends. You either pay huge $ for all the weekdays you have the stuff sitting, or if you try to rent each weekend you risk the likelihood of not getting the same mics, or mics at all. And there's the running around... Amortized over the 10-20 years the gear should last, you do better to buy. I have some 1980s VHF stuff that still works very well, btw. IE: no reason to assume things are only good for 5-10 years. Well, I can't speak to the newer stuff. I've repaired more newer mic packs than older ones, but I blame most of that on lead-free solder...

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  • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday August 13 2018, @11:16PM

    by Alfred (4006) on Monday August 13 2018, @11:16PM (#721166) Journal
    I have some sound guy time under my belt but I'm sure not as much as you. I think I can agree with everything you said. I would love to have a mic locker of some of those old mics. But alas, money and my ears probably aren't good enough to tell the difference.

    When I bash on sound guys it's not all their fault. For every sound guy that insists on the lastest rev of ProTools there is often an artist or producer demand behind them pushing them for it, because the artist is a prima donna who thinks anything less wouldn't be worthy of their talent. Of course I generalize and I would like to the experiences of another guy. The other position that annoys me is when someone says "if only I had that new widget then i could do X." Sure kid, all the tech to compensate for all your shortcomings ... not gonna work. Then there are audiophiles, a special mixed breed, who most of just like to brag about how much they spent on it and they can't tell the difference. There are a few golden ears that can tell but if I say there are none in the audiophile community then I'm not that far off but it isn't fair to them so I usually don't. There are many cases where an increase in spending results in an increase of quality but that is not always the best path nor does it always fix the weakest link.

    Rentals can get expensive for a real show but for a kids show like this it will be 2 maybe 3 nights and they may or may not know how to take advantage of the edge it gives them. My kids were in a program where they had rental sennheisser g3 wireless but not enough mixer channels so they daisy chained a mackie to a samson that was a mixer that poped out of some too small portable speakers or something. Seemed like some skewed priorities. These are the times where I sit back and don't admit I know anything.