wireless funny

[Lensmith]

I had to share this with you people.

Yesterday I was stuck in a hotel lobby with half a dozen other crews covering a meeting of the World Boxing Association. The story subject doesn't really matter other than it was the usual news coverage where stations are shooting stories for their daily newscasts so there is constant activity.

The hotel had a big convention going on apart from the boxing meeting. Mid morning a wild eyed hotel worker comes running out wanting to know who has wireless mics. It turns out the hotel bought the same low budget wireless system sold at Radio Shack as a local tv station.

In the middle of the main convention speakers presentation the audio coming through all the speakers is audio of a long interview being done with a boxing judge. It embarassed the hotel and caused a clash between the offending news crew and hotel employees who were trying to stop them from doing any more interviews. The photog and reporter refused to stop using the wireless because they had work to do and NO AUDIO CABLE!

The local press here can get beligerant when told they can't do something. Thus the whole thing blew up into a shouting fest...solved by me when I gave the crew a spare cable I always carry on my vest.

Writing and reading this, I'm thinking it may not sound as funny to you as it was to watch but...I'll let you be the judge ;o)

 

[<Whoolz>]

i think that's a knockout Lensmith

 

[Shaky & Blue]

I think it's funny. Especially if you picture them all shouting at 100 miles a minute in Spanish.

I have one too. It's not as funny, but I'll share anyway.

I often cover events and briefings at the Carnegie Institute and the Brookings Institute, which are right next door to each other here in Washington. I always plug a cable right into the mult box, but both of these think tanks use wireless mics for their scholars.

One day I was at Brookings for the weekly Iraq briefing and could hear what sounded like voices far away in the system. Brookings' sound guy flipped a few switches and frowned a lot, but couldn't get the faraway voices to go away. It wasn't that bad, so I figured I would live with it.

My producer then decided to ask a question. Usually her questions are stupid, but this one was actually pretty good. The scholar got three words out, when suddenly a voice came booming through the audio system talking about water rights or something. Our answer was ruined.

It turned out that Carnegie was having a conference next door and had rented a bunch of additional radio mics, one of which just happened to be on a Brookings frequency. The Brookings guy was furious, but said that Carnegie did that kind of thing all the time and they have an ongoing feud over it. At my next Carnegie event, I asked their sound guy about it, and he instantly turned red and angry and said Brookings wouldn't cooperate with them.

These are two of the most prestigious think tanks in Washington, with the power in some cases to shape US foreign policy, and they're having a petty war over wireless frequencies.

At least they always have pastries and coffee.

 

[<Grip>]

Thats friggin hilarious.

 

[satop]

where is the fcc in these cases? I have always heard stories about someone or something called a "frequency coordinater" but have done many events with multiple crews from around the world, and have never actually seen any of them. Do they exist?

 

[PhrozenPhoto]

They exist... but I've only seen them at sports events mostly. NFL will make you "register" your freqency with the on-site guy. At Arrowhead they usually hire a local engineer from one of the stations to come out and keep track of everyone's freqencies and watch the game I guess. I'm sure it is more for either CBS/Fox's protection.

I also saw a coordination notice at the Final Four in New Orleans. At the top was a giant CBS logo... so I'm sure the coordination is more for the rightsholder so they don't get a reporter roaming around with a mic in the last 2 minutes of the game that jumps on their audio.

 

[Currentchief]

I was shooting a Packers game at Lambeau Field when my reporter decided to do a stand up on the sidelines.

I handed him the mic with the wireless transmitter and he turned it on and gave me a mic check. Over the entire footbal stadium PA system we hear the reporter's voice sayng, "...testing,1-2-3, testing 1-2-3..." At first, it didn't quite set in that our frequency was the same until the repoter started talking again. In a huge booming voice I suddenly heard,
"Tourism dollars generated by the Packers brings in more than..." With horror, I stopped recording and set the camera down.

I looked to my left and saw all of the referees checking the mic switches on their hips. I quietly motioned to the reporter to bring me the mic and I swapped out the transmitter for my back-up cable. They never did find out it was us, but the Packers put out a memo to everyone who was there asking them not to bring that transmitter back at the next game.

 

[<satpimp>]

great stories!!!!

during Elian once a week we had a photog that would come back to the station with these "phantom voices" on his audio. We stumbled over the answer duringa scrum to move stakeouts duringa storm. A German crew that was coming every couple days was using the same freq. All of a sudden the light bulb went off. Same photog, same gear, same problem during Versace but didn't come back until that crew came back for Elian. Some times those gremlins really are intermitent!