The last two consecutive weddings had audio issues during the vows. The only things I can think of that they had in common were the fact it was during the vows, when the Officiant wearing the iRiver gets very close to the groom wearing a UWP-C1 Sony wireless transmitter. The first wedding had a feedback hum and the audio from my wireless was clipping and cutting out. Audible noise was heard over the church speakers as well. This was only when the Officiant was close to the couple.

THIS wedding (which audio clip is attached) I hear a (feedback) hum during the vows. Again I only hear it during the vows and coincidently it's when he's really close to the couple.

In both weddings the church was using their own wireless system. The Officiant was double mic'd, his own (wireless) and my iRiver. The groom was wired with a UWP-C1 wireless w/ ECM77 lav mic.

Are the last two wedding a coincidence- or is my setup flawed somehow? Do you think it's the Officiant's transmitter affecting the grooms transmitter...or does the fact the Officiant is double mic'd (with both Lavs very close together on his collar?) have anything to do with it?

Take a listen:

http://www.msprotege.com/members/LazerBlueP5/Feedback.mp3

I might not be the expert here, as it has been awhile since I dealt with audio on that level - but some time ago I did a lot of church work in setting up for events, and I remember having a lot of trouble working with wireless audio depending on the specificities of each structure - considering that some churches, like one I remember in particular was designed with alot of audio resonance issues - nice for pipe organs, but lousy for microphone control.

This one place we found a setting that worked well for the pastor who regularly used the wireless- but since he was hard of hearing, and really wanted to hear himself loud (some do you know) it was a very delicate scenario to avoid feedback depending upon where he was in the building where his own voice getting 'double looped' when screaming too close to stained glass or marble or what not would cause feedback on his own system.

The same might be happening in your situation where when they are standing in really close quarters - the levels from the house system get every so slightly mucked in a way that a lav tuned a little to sensitively would register differently and provide the audio feeback you are dealing with. Standing back a little gives that audio bounce a little more breathing room and cuts down on the bounce.

Playing with audio signal paths in different environments can be quite a 'hit and miss' science - although some higher end lav systems response systems that help eliminate such feedback.

My best guess is that one of the lavs is tuned a little to sensitively. If only one is running into the house system, it is that one. If they are all running through the house, I guess it would be either the the ministers or the grooms because those are the two close to each other when the problem occurs.

If the minister is 'visiting' and is not the one normally using the system, the settings on the system might already be set for whoever uses it on a usual basis - and those settings might be 'sacrosanct' so to speak - so try to run some tests early in such a situation because the only solution you might find allowable is in the placement on the body of the minister to fix with such problems.


(A little aside - but this is funny- having to do with lav placement problems- 12 years ago I ran audio on a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and during one performance, when the guards grab Joseph and throw him in jail - they accidentally ripped his lav from its placement and it somehow fell into his underwear - we were in mid show and were unable to tell what had gone wrong - but we also were unable to make the sound work from theat point. While in jail, he sang a number. We punched up the audio to hear him, but then he started rattling his chains - waist high- and it hurt to hear - later, after his release and his brothers are bowing before him over and over while singing - as their heads bowed down to waist area, their voices would "whoosh" and back out as they bowed away again. It made for a very strange audio/visual moment)

-Jon

I think what you're hearing is that when the officiant gets close to the couple, it causes feedback. What you're hearing there can only be caused by feedback (acoustic, not electronic) from the mic to speaker. Electronic feedback has a different sound.
In other words, it's likely a one-off thing