4 steps to professional wireless mic set-up (video)

[Guy Cochran]

I just had a friend come in and do a little demo on setting up a wireless system. The four key points he went over were:

1. Antenna placement, positioning and line of sight (try not to cover the antenna or bend it)
2. Autoscanning for open frequencies
3. Adjusting the Transmitters "Sensitivity" or levels for optimum results
4. Adjusting the Receiver's output level

We shot a video to help anyone interested Super high quality Wireless microphone set-up for church, school, corporate, or live event on Vimeo

It's also a good chance to listen to the Sennheiser MKE-2 lav. Very crisp, detailed sounding lav. I'm recording using the 100 series Evolution G2 wireless camera mounted receiver into a Panasonic HPX500 camera. It's pretty low noise, I was impressed.

[Anthony McErlean]

Thanks, good post.

[Michael Wisniewski]

Thanks, that was a good video.

I have a question, do you still recommend wearing the wireless transmitter with the antenna pointed at the floor? I think you mentioned it in another video, but I can't remember the details.

[Ty Ford]

Guy, Imagine seeing you here!

**2. Autoscanning for open frequencies

Many auto scanners are simply not smart enough. They give an all-clear, but those frequencies may not really be clear, especially if there's an analog TV station on that frequency.

Otherwise, good info. And if you do have reception problems, try moving the receiver closer to the transmitter and cabling back to the mixer.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Wesley Cardone]

Originally Posted by Michael Wisniewski

Thanks, that was a good video.

I have a question, do you still recommend wearing the wireless transmitter with the antenna pointed at the floor? I think you mentioned it in another video, but I can't remember the details.

In theory a maximum energy transfer will occur if the receiving antena polarization matches the transmitting antenna's polarization. This then means that energy from a vertical transmitting antenna will be best received by a vertical receiving antenna. In practice, though, I have never noticed any differences that made any differences I could detect at least with wireless microphone systems, anyhow.

[Guy Cochran]

The other reason to flip over a belt pack transmitter is that a lot of the time the antenna will get bent when facing directly up (usually by clothing). When you flip it over there is less chance of this occurring. You can maximize your range by making sure the antenna is not bent. Even better if the antenna is not covered by clothing, but we all know that usually doesn't happen. The worst is putting the transmitter in an inside pocket with the antenna all bunched up. Clip it upside down so the antenna is straight down in the pocket, if it's up sticking out, it'll get bent and you'll decrease the range.