Running Interference for Wireless Mics
HOW DO YOU MAKE ACTORS HEARD 50 ROWS back? How do you make them heard as they sing over an orchestra? How do you make them heard as they mutter conspiratorially to themselves?
The answer to all these: wireless microphones. Large theatres (and even many small ones) rely on this technology to make sure audiences hear every word of a performance. Unless something goes wrong with the equipment, like interference, most audience members don’t even think about what makes it possible. But many U.S. resident theatres worry that interference in their systems might increase, and it’s out of their hands. It’s in the hands of the Federal Communications Commission.
To understand why, you need to understand how these devices work. Wireless microphones turn audio signals into radio waves and transmit those signals through the air to receivers nearby. Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation with frequencies between 3 kilohertz (3,000 hertz) and 300 gigahertz (300 billion hertz). Those numbers will be important later.
The benefits of wireless microphones were immediately obvious to theatres. If microphones followed the actors, the technology would produce better sound quality. As the devices got smaller, more reliable, and more cost-effective, their use spread. These days a Broadway production will likely have more than 50 microphones running each
