Posted by Richard Crowley on 12/02/07 15:25

"Jacques E. Bouchard" wrote ...
> "PTravel" wrote :
>> I'd add to this that virtually all Broadway shows are miked these
>> days, and use wireless body mikes quite effectively without the least
>> concern about rubbing or chafing noises. If vigorously-dancing,
>> heavily-costumed Broadway performers can use wireless body mikes, I'm
>> sure the OP's talent can as well.
>
> I bought a wireless lav mic on ebay for about $10. It feels very
> flimsy
> (the battery compartment is hard to snap close), there's writing in
> Chinese and Russian on the transmitter, but it's always performed well
> at
> distances of up to 20 feet (haven't tested it above that). The sound
> is
> still better than an expensive camera-mounted shotgun mic, and I don't
> have to lug around my heavy boom mic stand (or an even heavier boom
> operator).
>
> I definitely recommend it for people who want to see whether wireless
> lavs are suitable for their needs before investing in pricy units.

Note that the future of wireless microphones is in some doubt.
Most of them use television channel frequencies. By selecting
frequencies of TV channels that aren't used in your city, there
is lots of space to run such low-power devices.

However, with the shut-down of traditional analog TV in the
USA, that spectrum will be auctioned to the highest bidder
by the FCC, and will likely end up being used for several kinds
of wireless data services for computers, telephones and other
mobile devices, etc.

In some European countries where their schedule for replacing
analog TV with digital is farther along, they are already having
problems with finding available spectrum for wireless mics. This
is a frequent topic of discussion over on the sound production
newsgroup: news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound

While the kinds of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum digital
communication (such as used by cellphones, BlueTooth and
wireless networking, etc.) could be a solution, the latency
(delay between the original sound and the signal out of the
receiver) is so-far a show-stopper.

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