How do you keep track of mics at events?

Lisa Lane-Collins

Lisa Lane-Collins

Sophomore
Dec 9, 2012
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Adelaide, Australia
I’ve never lost a mic at a gig before but it happened today. Two techs sharing sound duties, 4 handheld wireless mics became 3 over the course of the first half of the day. Asking around and searching all the likely places hasn’t yielded it and I’m tentatively going to say Long Fingers took it.

Which gets me wondering what systems do people put in place to ensure that mics, especially wireless ones come back after use and don’t end up where they can get nicked or lost?
 
Step one make the client pay for the lost mic. Presumably it was the client who decided who would get mics. Step two make a note of the names who gets mics and when. Step three train your crew to watch the receiver meters. A receiver whose RF level meters go to zero is a cause for concern for lots of reasons beyond theft.
 
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The only thing I'll add to Riley's excellent advice is that I try to collect wireless transmitters as soon as possible after the act is done with them. This is primarily because the performers are usually easier to track down before they have a chance to wander too far, but has the side benefit of making it easier to keep track of the mics.

And I'll especially agree with Riley's step one. It's amazing the amount of help you can get from the client in hunting down missing mics when it becomes the client's (financial) problem that they are missing.
 
In this instance we two techs felt the responsibility landed squarely on us due to an absence of step 2 and step 3, we wouldn’t have asked the client to take the hit (not our client, we’re contracted in by the hire company to op), but the client was super helpful anyway.

The mic since turned up, inside the hog 1k case underneath the desk! (How the ever loving heck it got there I don’t know but if one of us had been doing steps 2 and 3 I think we would have caught it.) Since we had 4 and needed between 0 and 1 most of the day that mic that hid under the lighting desk had been turned off to conserve battery. Step 3b, if it’s off it’s back in its road case!

Thank you.
 
Lisa Lane-Collins said:
In this instance we two techs felt the responsibility landed squarely on us due to an absence of step 2 and step 3, we wouldn’t have asked the client to take the hit (not our client, we’re contracted in by the hire company to op), but the client was super helpful anyway.

The mic since turned up, inside the hog 1k case underneath the desk! (How the ever loving heck it got there I don’t know but if one of us had been doing steps 2 and 3 I think we would have caught it.) Since we had 4 and needed between 0 and 1 most of the day that mic that hid under the lighting desk had been turned off to conserve battery. Step 3b, if it’s off it’s back in its road case!

Thank you.
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Something that can help with this sort of scenario is to make sure that wireless microphones have a dedicated "landing spot" when they come offstage, and that every user of the microphones (tech or performer) knows where it is. This can help reduce the incidence of microphones being set down "wherever is convenient" - the mic should only ever be in one of three locations: with the performer, in its case, or in the designated landing spot. If you're familiar with the theater world, this is analogous to the props table.
 
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It's very standard procedure to store wireless mics that are powered on in aluminum foil baking pans when say lined up on a table. Wireless mic can interfere with each other when close together and the product of that interference can affect other mics further away. Why not just turn the mics off to save batteries you're asking? You want to block anyone else from using that frequency first off and you also want the confidence of being able to look at the receiver and see a solid RF meter and cue the mic up just before someone grabs it. This also becomes your inventory control at a glance option. Empty tray means its on stage or its MIA. Extra points for labeling the trays with the name or the user or the mic ID.

If you want to save batteries and the planet use rechargables.
 
GPS tracking chips are becoming smaller and cheaper everyday. I don't know if just an official slicker on it would deter "sticky fingers" or if it would mean people would be less careful because they would think you'll find it if misplaced.
 
I've never put mics in foil containers, or needed to? I also never use rechargeable batteries. Not remotely a technical reason, but a practical one - you need a very good charging regime or you will ALWAYS end up with somebody with a short lifespan. So easy to take the late returned pack and stuff it on the charger and then somebody else not realising it has only just started charging, assumes it's been there overnight and grabs it in a panic. Almost impossible to prevent. At the end of this panto I'm on we will have over 1500 AA cells, half used in a box and the cast grab handfuls to take home for toys and other things. Rechargeable would be vastly cheaper, but just too risky.

On the missing mic point - you have two pathways. Accidental loss - they're put down in the wrong place and probably get thrown away or dropped into half empty trunks or get put in a lighting flight case. Best solution will be stickers with phone/email on for the honest people. For the dodgy people, they'll just nick them I'm afraid. Others are more honest, but would consider finding a radio mic in a lighting flight case fair game. I once got back a 'stolen' antenna distro. It still had my sticker on it, although with an old address - I was given it by a visiting music show tech person to wire up, and I pointed out my sticker - they got it from another band, who got it from a production company I'd never heard of. Not just mics - I took a picture of a music show and a guy emailed me to say he had painted the back cloth they were using 20 years before for a theatre on the west coast of the UK - we were on the east coast and had no idea where the cloth had come from.

If you lose something and can bill the client, do it. If you can't then unless you know who pinched it, suck it up and move on and treat the item as consumable in your accounts, and write it off.
 
Yes I agree about the recharging and missing batteries, but the big negative on rechargeable batteries is that the AA's are rated at 1.2 volts, so even at full charge a little bit above that, they are below the voltage of a brand new regular one which says 1.5, but generally is more like 1.8, and the wireless mics say batteries are low at about 1.2 volts. I have some things at home, like a electric razor that a fully charged battery barely works in it because of that. I'm sure with technology these days they could make them have a higher voltage, or units able to operate at a lower range. Same thing with 9 volt. We go through alot of batteries because of this.
It's always a thorn in my side when a handheld goes missing, because not only are they worth close to $500 Canadian for just that piece, but you also have to find that frequency range. Depending on how it goes missing, I think people don't realize the price, either not knowing they are so expensive, thinking it's no big deal, or do know and it's an easy pocket or up the sleeve score, more bang for the buck as they say. With that one missing piece, a $1500 unit is suddenly useless. Don't get me started on the money down the drain because of the cel phone companies "buying" the frequencies the wireless mics use making them illegal or sketchy to use if you were unlucky enough to have that frequency block.
 
Paul Lewendon said:
Yes I agree about the recharging and missing batteries, but the big negative on rechargeable batteries is that the AA's are rated at 1.2 volts, so even at full charge a little bit above that, they are below the voltage of a brand new regular one which says 1.5, but generally is more like 1.8, and the wireless mics say batteries are low at about 1.2 volts. I have some things at home, like a electric razor that a fully charged battery barely works in it because of that. I'm sure with technology these days they could make them have a higher voltage, or units able to operate at a lower range. Same thing with 9 volt. We go through alot of batteries because of this.
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The discharge curves (time at current until a specific end voltage is reached) vary with the battery chemistry, and depending on the low voltage cutoff, NiMH rechargables may actually have higher capacity than alkaline batteries. And designing a wireless pack to work well on rechargable batteries is a straightforward design problem, with commercially available solutions. The Shure packs designed to use their rechargeable batteries, for example, work quite well on rechargeable batteries, perhaps better than on alkaline batteries, and the convenience of having a time-based battery meter is quite nice.
 
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