Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469942
12 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2022 Wireless Microphone Receiver Pro Plus Diversity Dynex II, better known as "the new Vega," had become the industry standard for our programs. They were often delivered in miscellaneous cases and cardboard boxes always requiring the A2's to create a setup with blocks and boards, not unlike a college dorm bookshelf. These VHF Hi-Band (174 MHz to 216 MHz) units were not frequency agile. Some of you will remember the long antennas on the body packs that were fastened to clothing with a small safety pin or an alligator clip. Although each receiver came with a pair of whip antennas that could be attached to the back panel, the mic package was often accompanied by an additional box filled with antenna splitters and a pile of cables, like a "real find" at a Winegard garage sale. With those parts, we would piece together a useable diversity antenna system that would optimize RF reception. Members of Local 695 and other Audio Engineers throughout the television landscape have many varied jobs. I don't know how to do most of them. Quite often, overlapping but different skill sets are crucial in the A2 world while working on complicated shows. You may be an accomplished band tech, a trusted lead A2, the patch master, a specialist in hair mics and hidden lavs, or a proficient troubleshooter. You're probably a combination (my nephew Jonah Horn is a pharmacist and an expert at tossing pizza dough). The fact is that with successes at work, we get hired over and over for the same specific tasks. In time, we achieve a level of efficiency and try to adapt to new technology, but we are not interchangeable in our audio expertise. You can be a Y-7A, a Y-me, or a Y-not, in the end, you know what you know. One of the rarest of these positions is the RF Coordinator. There are so few, they could barely have a minyan to mourn the loss of many frequencies to government auctions. This job is now part of nearly every entertainment special and awards show because producers have decided everything that moves should have an RF mic. And that everything should move. In 1987, my first Grammy Awards, the show opened with a little RF kerfuffle. The next year, when we returned to the Shrine Auditorium for the 1988 Grammys, we had an RF specialist. When Andy Strauber came on the scene as the first RF coordinator/ technician, things were primitive. Most of us couldn't spell IFR. He owned one. Much of Andy's job was inventing, improvising, and sometimes willing the equipment to do his bidding. Calculations Ric Rambles Today we're gonna talk about RFs. First, a disclaimer: My viewpoint on the following subject comes entirely from my personal experiences in entertainment television. I readily admit I am not familiar with the history or the current state of RF's in what is commonly referred to as single-camera work. Rather than try to fake my way through, I'll sum up my knowledge. They're mostly Lectrosonics. You hide 'em. Sherman set the Wayback Machine for 1981. More than forty years ago, while I was on staff at KTLA, I filled in as the PA mixer on a daytime talk program called Hour Magazine, starring Gary Collins. It was one of my first show calls at KTLA. The audio crew consisted of a mixer, a booth A2 playing music and sweetening with a stack of cart machines, and a PA mixer. At KTLA, boom operators were part of the stage crew, not audio. The Yamaha PM1000 PA board was somewhat familiar. I had seen that console at the iconic Stanal Sound in Kearney (it's pronounced Car-knee, not Keer-knee), Nebraska. Sitting on top of the mixing board were two Vega RF receivers. The ones that were taller than they were wide, I can't remember the model number. Neither can Google or Siri, they're too young. Almost all the audio for the show was done on a Fisher boom except the occasional exercise demonstration segments that required RF lavs. So, we had two RFs but no A2's. The PA mixer put mics on the host and guest. That was, I believe, the only show I've ever done with wireless, but without an A2. In entertainment these days, every game show, talk show, awards show, and contest show employs one or more A2's to put mics on the talent, contestants, and guests. I believe we set the record at the Academy of Country Music Awards in March. Someone recently asked me, "What is the origin of the term A2?" How the hell should I know? That term predates the start of my career. I may be old, but I was not the A2 on The Sermon on the Mount … yes, I have worked with him. KTLA used those Vega RF mics for talk shows, game shows, and the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade where they were handed off to celebrities in cars and on floats on Sunset Boulevard. Other RF mic manufacturers included Nady, Samson, Swintek, and Sony, but in those days, Vega was the nearly unanimous choice for the entertainment. By the time I started freelancing. the more familiar Cetec Vega R42 by Ric Teller I'd like to thank the tens of readers that have responded to my articles for Production Sound & Video. (My friend, Robyn thinks I am eloquent adjacent.) Please know I appreciate hearing from you. The new Vega