Radio mic receiver placement

[boswell]

I've thought of trying the aerials (Yagi) in the grid or flown from bars but not had the bottle to do it, my concern is that the belt pack aerials are vertical so that overhead aerials would be pointing end on to the beltpack aerials.

Or do we rely on the beltpack aerials getting bent.

Vertical polarised aerials above head height in the wings seems to be the best bet but then it can get obscured by flats etc

My system works at the moment so I'm leaving well alone!!

[GR1]

I've used a set up similar to that detailed by S&L for years whilst touring. When possible I sit the aerials on the Proc booms. Very, very rarely are there problems. As has been said earlier you need to know your kit, and you can get excellent results with Yagi, Ground Plane or Paddles as aerials as long as you use the correct cable and keep the runs as short as you need to give the aerials a clear view of the action.

 

When Radio Mics started to be used in large numbers they were expensive and not that good. Now they are much better and comparatively cheap. I think that each manufacturer has a range to mics that are too cheap and therefore not quite good enough for anything but the simplest set up in the most hospitable conditions. The cheapness opens the market up to inexperienced users and a lot of problems are caused by a mix of inexperience and the lower performance of cheap kit combined woth very high expectations. If you think about what is being asked of a headworn system ata price of £150, the factory door price is probably £30 which leaves very little for the components.

 

Use good kit, set it up in accordance with the manufacturers instructions until you have the experience to experiment and you will get reliable results. Most manufaturers have alot of information on their website.Don't use radio mics where a cable mic will do just as well.

[mackerr]

We recommend paddles on stands to get them up, so why not up into the clear with the lights. My thinking is that if you lit the stage from where we put paddles and other radio aerials, there would be many shadows and dark spots - so we stick the lights up high where they can light everyone, yet we don't do this with RF? Thoughts?

 

In my experience that is normal on Broadway. We want the antennas up high for the reasons you stated, but not usually on electrics pipes since that requires longer cable runs to accommodate the fact that will be flown in and out during techs. The mounting I see most often is on the proscenium up high, although mounted on scenery is another option. Up high is good, and choosing the right antenna for the job is good, as is keeping antenna cable as short as possible, and low loss.

 

 

 

Mac