Intel really really loves their creator challenges and we are back with another edition in 2023. This show happened in January and I've been so swamped with work that I didn't really have time to write this reflection until now. This show was the most hectic of any show I've done and I learned an incredible amount doing this production.
We had just recently acquired new wireless equipment leading up to this show with 12 channels of Wisycom. We got 12 MTP60 bodypacks, 3 MCR54s, a MRK16 rack unit, and 2 ADFA omnidirectional antennas. I had some experience in RF/wireless leading up to this event but I spent a considerable amount of time learning how to navigate radio frequencies and coordinating frequencies in a large city like LA. I watched basically every available Webinar and masterclass for Shure wireless workbench to learn my way around finding, assigning, and deploying frequencies to devices. All of this prep paid off on the day of the show but my brain was quite literally mush from watching so many videos.
Location of the event
Intel ICC KS was being held in downtown LA at the bike shed. The bike shed itself is a bar/restaurant and they rent out the location as a event venue that they cater to themselves. I wish I took some pictures of the food because it was pretty pog but I completely forgot...I also just didn't really have time to eat except on the setup days.
Oh wait you can see the remnants of breakfast on the table. Fresh pastries, vegan brownies, and fruit tarts but that's the only food pic I have.
So usually I talk about what went on in the show but I think what I'll be doing from now on is reflecting on what I did during the show and what I could've done better. This was my first show working wireless due to our wireless guy getting covid the day before the show so I had to step up to work wireless while running around as A2.
The wireless rack with our Dante network switch. We were having some problems with our ubiquiti switch on our main rack so we moved our Dante network onto this cisco switch instead.
So in total we had 23 channels coming into this rack. 12 Wisycom TX, 8 Shure Axient RX, 2 Shure Axient TX, and 1 Sennheiser TX. All of the Wisys were on talent with DPA 4088s, the Shure RXs were IFBs, and the 2 Shure TX were handhelds for on stage talent. The one Sennheiser TX was hooked up to a CMIT 5 for a behind the scenes stream.
Unpacking everything to get a sense of what I needed
I actually didn't have much trouble finding all the frequencies I needed for the bodypacks. I thought it would've been much harder considering we were basically smack dab in downtown LA. Leading up to the show an audio engineer from Seattle made profiles for the Wisycom MTP60s for wireless workbench so that I could use workbench to find and assign frequencies for all of the devices I was using on that show. This was extremely helpful because I didn't need to bounce between companion apps to find frequencies for all the devices. I mapped out the frequencies, assigned the priority channels (hosts 1&2) to a clear, isolated band and deployed them across the devices.
Main Production room
On the day of the show I ran into a couple problems that I managed to address without hindering the show. The first was interference on the main host's frequency. I realized when I saw the interference that I saw a wireless rack outside for a movie shoot and suspected that they must've assigned some of their devices closely to some of mine. I first switched her bodypack to a backup frequency before printing out all the RFs I was using with my priority channels in bold and had a PA run it out to the shoot. The other problem was the BTS stream mic kept on draining the Sennheiser bodypack and cutting out so I just plugged it into a battery pack, something I should've done from the start of the show. I also learned a good lesson on making sure IFB wires are firmly secured on the bodypacks so that they don't pop out. There were a few instances where talent IFBs would come loose as they moved around and they would lose comms. Its something I usually do but I had 25 minutes to mic up 11 people and I forgot to double check. I should've prioritized the talent who were going on air first and worked my way around to the talent going on air last. Making sure everything was placed well and secured. The last problem was the antenna placements, I didn't learn till watching a webinar with Jason glass that you shouldn't double up TX and RX antennas right next to each other. The RX antennas should be placed within the null patterns of the TX. Even though there were no issues in the show, I will be doing this in future productions.
