Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469840
78 S U M M E R 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y controlled. It is a risk that should be avoided, in my opinion. As it pertains to tuning in the digital realm, there really are no significant issues. In fact, digital should be pre- ferred. The fact that for all practical purposes, intermodulation errors are effectively eliminated, digital should be the first choice. In the simplest terms, transmitter signals can be placed much closer together because of the lack of intermod. Also, the latest digital gear filtration is much more precise with better front-end performance. With an analog system, the degrada- tion of transmitted signals and the interference of intermodulated fre- quencies all conspire to create unwanted signal-to- noise, and ultimately corrupt the audio that is desired. When one or more analog radios are intro- duced into a congested or highly dynamic RF zone, they create even more RF energy in the space and create even more conges- tion. Increasing the power output level on these radios actually makes the problem worse, and results in adding even more poor performance. Here's a basic reality—for Digital antenna. Photo by Scott Beatty signal-to-noise, and then RF coordina- tion. There is simply too much garbage in the air for any system to work at peak performance, or even marginal perfor- mance for that matter, without at least a basic understanding of RF spectrum scanning coordination and manage- ment. There are many great tools on the market to begin this process. Many are free, some are very low in cost, and some are substantially more expensive. The features and benefits with each are mostly commensurate with the price. Some are designed to work with propri- etary gear, such as Shure Wireless Workbench and Lectrosonics Wireless Designer. These each also have the ability to add non-brand specific models or channels to a profile and, therefore, coordinate usable frequencies. I have and use both and highly recommend them. One limit is that they are each designed to primarily work with their own hardware for scanning, acquisition, and deployment, but they can also import scans from other devices if done so with the correct file formats. Also available is the RF Explorer Pro, which is a handheld scanning device that will give real-time and continuous scans of the immediate environment so that users can devise their own coordination scheme. IAS (Intermodulation Analysis System) is another top-tier software package that Lectrosonics Wireless Designer nearly 20 years (some more), radio mics have been very robust, dead simple, and work in a near plug-and-play manner. PSM's have not really had to be terribly well versed in RF management or coor- dination. Grab the radios, find a few clean frequencies, and go to work. This worked fine when there was wide open RF space, little to no wireless on set from other departments, and low radio channel counts for sound. It was not uncommon for a PSM to have a single set of six or seven frequencies scrawled on a cheat sheet in the drawer and not change them for years. Today, it's seem- ingly impossible to even cross the street in the same shooting day without needing to do a full system analysis and tune while needing a dozen or more channels to use. Manufacturers recog- nize this horrible reality, and now rou- tinely supply users with RF manage- ment software, super-fast scanning and coordinating capabilities, and some will even automatically hop frequencies to maintain a clean line of transmission between the transmitter and receiver. Going digital will indeed solve a lot of problems. But, like any high-perfor- mance machine, weakness at the core will grow exponentially in the final run. Every little weakness in your RF man- agement will be highlighted. The abso- lute rule for any radio system, be it analog or digital, is first managing the