Pro Sound Web: By now, we should all be well aware of the fact that our production audio “RFscape” is changing dramatically due to the introduction of digital consumer devices within the wireless microphone spectrum. The next two years will separate the women from the girls and the men from the boys when it comes to wireless audio operation in the United States.
3 comments:
I don't know all that much about Wireless Audio, but I know enough that I was able to understand what this article was talking about. From what I understand, the state of Production Audio Wireless is about to under go some major changes. Switching frequencies, microphones, and maybe even the locations we use wireless audio. I can see how all this could become daunting, and in fact I have read a few articles on the green page that take a defeatists approach. I really like that this article finds solutions in stead of just talking about how the government is out to get Wireless Production Audio.
I don't fully understand how much work is involved in switching the frequencies that our devices use, but I would imagine that it would involve buying a lot of new equipment. I know that a lot of smaller theatres don't have the money to buy new audio equipment very often, so this could be a major problem for some.
The article doesn't go in to details, but it implies that digital microphones create some delay. I would like to know how that can be minimized and how it will effect things like live theatre. Switching over to digital might cause some problems because of that delay.
The article suggests a hand full of fixes for these problems, but I don't think any of them are really getting to the core of the problem. It seems to me that what really needs to happen is someone finding a way to make the radio waves that we can use for data transfer to be more efficient. Not sure how or when that will happen, but for things to go on working with out major changes I think it is going to need to happen sooner or later.
I remember in high school when the 700Mhz auction for cell carriers went through, rendering several of our wireless mics technically obsolete. Fortunately, the theater didn't get very good cell service, so we were not that concerned about interference.
That being said, obviously most production audio environments will not be that fortunate. It is too bad that the FCC can't reserve some bandwidth for only wireless audio. Although unfortunate, I understand that spectrum is limited and it most often goes to the highest bidder..
Having a pretty decent amount of experience with RF systems and wireless audio I can see where this can be a huge problem. Most of my audio experience has been in live musical theatre where we run up to 40 wireless mics at a time. One experience that I immediately think of when talking about wireless audio was a production of Les Miserables that I was on. In this particular instance I was FOH engineer and my designer wanted 42 wireless. This covered all the leads as well as the entirety of the ensemble. To top it off the system we were using was a Sony system from the late 90s with all of it's operating frequencies in the range of 700Mhz-800Mhz. This being said we spent a lot of our time mapping out RF frequencies to ensure that we would have a smooth show. With this experience I can understand why a major cut to the existing frequencies could hurt the industry we are in.
I agree with Ben in saying that it would really be nice if the FCC could reserve bandwidth but I understand that the highest bidder often wins in this scenario.
Post a Comment