Page Two - ARTICLES
75 or 50 Ohms?
Inserting EQ's into Mic Groups. Be careful.
FEEDBACK!!!
Next time you open the wireless receiver case, check the antenna cables if you use them. It is not uncommon to find that someone tossed a BNC video cable in there.
As you know video wants to travel down a 75 Ohm cable however, antenna signals like to travel down 50 Ohm cables.
So if you use the higher resistance cable you are reducing signal strength right off the bat by as much as 25%.
The 50 Ohm cable generally cost more and can be mistaken for video cables (but they tend to be a little fatter).
If you do have video cables in there then make sure you have the receivers up over the heads of the audience and as close as you can get to the lav and handheld transmitters.
Because, you don't need the agita of looking at those A/B antennas switching back and forth like crazy with a low RF signal and sporadic dropouts.
Grouping your wireless lav’s, handhelds, 58's, etc. is a great way to free up your time and apply one EQ, compression, gate, so on to multiple devices at once.
I have seen this done many times and is very effective...usually.
Here's the problem unless the mic's and or transmitters are all the same and fairly new you may wind up wasting time instead of saving it.
It only takes one mic in the group to sound different from the others to have you back at the channel EQ to bend it back to where you need it.
If you are using road weary mic's there is a good chance that you are better off not using this technique as many of them will require separate attention to get them to sound similar to each other.
But if they are in good shape and sound similar to each other...group those bad boys and insert an EQ!
We have addressed this topic many times over the years and although it appears to have improved in the world of meetings and events; I am still surprised at how often I see the first rule of feedback broken.
Mic’s need to be behind the speakers!
I see this mostly in stage set ups where the speaker stacks or hangs are to the extreme left and right of the stage. It is possible that it may be out of the throw pattern if the room is wide enough but many times this is not the case.
Move those speakers well ahead of the stage front and if you can put some center fills on the floor or front of stage. This should greatly improve your level before feedback.
...then try to stay awake!
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