THAT PESKY MICROPHONE

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THAT PESKY MICROPHONE
Topic Started: Dec 6 2009, 06:50 AM (78 Views)
mouser	Dec 6 2009, 06:50 AM Post #1
Posts: 7,735 Group: Super Moderator Member #8 Joined: Feb 7, 2008	Has anyone ever wondered how the microphone that Broadway performers wear really works. What is its purpose? Here is the answer to that burning question . OK, so you were not losing sleep over not knowing about this subject, but humor me !!!! LOL Broadway Fan club newsletter , presented by the Broadway League say:: Q: How do cordless mics work? When are they turned on? Who controls them and makes sure that they're not on while actors are offstage? Are the mics turned off when the actors are onstage, but don't have any lines or songs? A: We passed on your questions to Scott Lehrer, the sound designer of South Pacific. He won the first-ever Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Musical for that show in 2008: Cordless mics (or RF mics, as in “radio frequency”) are small lavalier mics, like you see on TV newscasters’ lapels, wired to miniature battery-powered radio transmitters that broadcast on an otherwise unused UHF television frequency. An offstage receiver picks up the signal, and that receiver is wired to the audio mixing console in the back of the theatre. Through careful frequency coordination we can often use 30 or 40 RF mics in a show. When the crew comes in at show call, our backstage audio people "battery up" and test the RF mics. From that point on the mics are not shut off until the show is over. The sound people distribute the mics and receivers, and the actors (with the help of costumers and hair people) hide them in their costumes and hair before going out on stage. Each actor has their own channel on the mixing console. It is the responsibility of the mix engineer in the house to bring up those channels only when the actors have line cues, are singing, or are doing stage business that the audience should hear. If too many mics are left on, the overall sonic impression for the audience is hollow, and it’s difficult to understand the actors' speech. The engineer must balance the mics musically and hit their cues with pinpoint timing. Mixing a show is truly one of the most demanding and unheralded creative jobs in musical theatre. Of course everybody has stories that vary from hilarious to horrifying of wireless mics being mistakenly left up when actors go off stage. After that's happened to you (and the actor) once, you try your hardest to make sure it never happens again!



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