Features

The Playback Company That’s Also a Software Developer

by Dave Henri

At Modern Motion Pictures, a boutique playback/graphics company run by three Local 695 Playback Supervisors (Chris Cundey, Matt Brucell, and myself), we were as busy as we’d ever been—supervising video playback on The Morning Show, For All Mankind, Black-ish, How to Get Away with Murder, and several other shows. On top of that, I was preparing to fly to London to look into opening our first office outside of the U.S. At the same time, we were also expanding the capabilities of the software tools we had created for our team in-house.

The company had grown significantly since I founded it in 2009 as a way to invoice the occasional graphic I designed while working as a Playback Engineer on set for supervisors like Matt Morrissey and Dan Dobson. I had only been in the union for a few years at that point, having started my career as an assistant to directors such as Rob Cohen and Nancy Meyers. As I gained experience on the set, I was also drawn to creating the content that we played back on so many TVs and computer monitors. The company was an outlet that allowed me to do that without giving up my time on set—time which I really loved. Within a few years, Modern Motion Pictures grew, especially as I began supervising shows of my own. It soon became unfeasible to operate as a one-man show, which is when I turned to my good friend Chris Cundey to join as a full partner.

Chris grew up in a film business family (his father is DP Dean Cundey) and had spent several years running his own video assist company, Graphic Nature; which also created graphics for on-set use and post-production visual effects. When Chris joined Modern Motion Pictures, things really took off. We had complementary skill sets and worked really well together. We would tackle large shows such as the third season of HBO’s The Newsroom together (a massive video show, which was originally supervised by Matt Morrissey before schedule conflicts took him to other projects; Steve Irwin was also instrumental to the show’s success as Lead Engineer), and assist each other as we ran some shows more or less individually. For example, Chris would run Silicon Valley while I would work on several projects with Director Steven Soderbergh, such as Contagion and Magic Mike.
As things continued to progress, we added a full-time staff of coordinators, graphic artists, and coders.

In 2018, when we were asked to supervise video for The Morning Show and For All Mankind for Apple’s new streaming service, we knew that we would need even more help and approached another old friend, Matt Brucell, who had recently won his third Emmy Award for broadcast graphic design while he was at ESPN. Matt had been the playback department PA on The Hulk when I was a Graphics Coordinator, and he and I had stayed in touch in the years since, even after he moved to broadcast television graphic design. We knew The Morning Show was going to need a lot of realistic broadcast graphics, and that Matt had the proper background to understand the specific needs of playback. Matt joined Local 695 as a Playback Specialist and Modern Motion Pictures as our third partner. The Morning Show, much like The Newsroom, was massively complicated to get off the ground. We leaned heavily on the mad skills of Playback Engineers Justin Edgerly and Justin White, and the close coordination with Sound Mixer Bill Kaplan and Utility (and “Master of Comms”) Tommy Giordano, as well as dozens of other video and sound professions each season.

As our company continued to expand, we began to look for ways to streamline our on-set workflows. For example, many Playback Operators use off-the-shelf tools such as Keynote or ProtoPie for creating and cueing phone graphics during a scene. However, we found that both of these programs had serious limitations, both in their capabilities and the time it took to program and design individual graphics. A custom solution was needed by 2020. Chris Cundey had already spent several years developing our proprietary programs, Magic Phone and Scene Builder. This allowed us to effortlessly recreate common smartphone actions so that they could be easily cued in an on-set environment. With these two applications, we could create simple phone calls and texting gags in just a few minutes. Even more complicated actions, like posting a live photo to Instagram or scrolling through Twitter, became straightforward to build and easy for an actor on set to operate under the guidance of a Video Playback Engineer. In fact, the accuracy of the graphics was noticed by phone manufacturers and Magic Phone quickly became a preferred program amongst product placement teams in order to ensure the proper look and feel of the most popular smartphone brands. We made plans to license Scene Builder and Magic Phone to other Playback Engineers and companies, but our commitments to film and television clients kept us too busy to devote the necessary resources beyond sending alpha versions of the programs to a few friends.

And then COVID hit.

Like everyone else, we were stunned by how quickly everything shut down. Between Wednesday, March 11 and Friday, March 13 all of our shows pulled the plug. My trip to London was canceled and no one knew what was coming next. Once we realized things were going to be locked down for more than “just a few weeks,” we pivoted to the very large list of tasks on our internal project board. Adding functionality and flexibility to Magic Phone and Scene Builder was Item #1 on our list.

A few months into lockdown, we got an interesting call from Josh Levy, a Video Assist/Video Playback Engineer, with whom we’ve worked many times over the years. He had been contacted by an HBO project called Coastal Elites, which was going to shoot a series of remote sets with actors in their homes. They were looking for a solution which would allow them to stream secure high-quality video from location to the director and other stakeholders in real time. Josh knew we had been developing a remote camera software (which would allow remote control over certain camera functionality in addition to the standard video feed) and wanted to know if it could be modified to work for this use case.

After several meetings with Josh and DP Jim Denault, we created SetLink Live, which securely streamed an extremely high-quality video feed with sound to the production team with a 200ms–300ms latency, or approximately the same lag you’d experience on a cellphone call. Additionally, Josh was able to record the feed on his QTAKE system and play either live or recording for the director.

(It is worth noting that QTAKE has since added similar functionality to their software.)

The shoot was extremely successful, and we realized that once production came back, a similar service would be needed. We revised the software, added the ability to stream from cameras, and were ready to meet the demand when production returned in the fall of 2020. As expected, there was a huge need for streaming from the set. SetLink Live went on to be used on multiple shows, such as The Morning Show, Black-ish, and Insecure. Even today, nearly two years later, this application continues to see daily use on several shows; often with two Local 695 Engineers running both the software and the safety cameras. It remains a valuable tool that can be used either standalone or in conjunction with video assist tools like QTAKE. Additionally, it can be used for custom remote video playback feeds (such as scripted Video Chats), whether from one stage to another; or from one side of the world to another.

Streaming video from set has become an integral component of production in the post-COVID world and we’re pleased with the adoption of SetLink Live and the opportunity to expand the skill sets of fellow Local 695 members who are now working as full-time streaming engineers. The program is available for license to Video Assist Engineers, Playback Engineers, and directly to productions (where we can provide 695 Engineers).

Our success in the past two years led to the development of several additional programs to make on-set life easier and more productive in the ever-expanding world of the Video Playback Engineer. Modern Gamma is a color-temperature control program used to handle multiple displays, powered by either Intel or Apple Silicon processors. Modern Chroma, our green screen generator, allows the operator to quickly dial in a preferred hue and brightness level, place or remove tracking marks, and even using various effects when the camera is shooting over the monitor toward an actor. It can also cue between various colors/effects, allowing an operator to start with a green image at the start of a camera move and then automatically change it to gray once the monitor is no longer blocked and then change again to another effect once the screen is no longer being photographed. Simple Cues, our QuickTime control program, allows a user to quickly jump between multiple clips and then set separate loop, pause, and advance rules for each one. All three of these programs are available to license monthly as part of a package with Scene Builder and Magic Phone.

Additionally, we have also developed Vitals, an easy-to-control heart rate monitor program for hospital and EMT sets. The program can run multiple custom cues, including various heart rates, blood pressure, temperature, etc. It has multiple looks and can run on monitors of nearly any aspect ratio. Vitals is available as part of a standalone package, which can be licensed on a monthly or per-show basis.

We’re excited to be able to offer the tools we’ve been using for years to our fellow supervisors and engineers. All of our product licenses are priced to be affordable to operators so as to be sustainable within the industry. As for that canceled trip to London, well, we ended up changing plans slightly and have just opened a new office in Berlin to cover European and UK productions. Europe tends to shoot most screens as green screen on set. We’re hoping to introduce productions there to a workflow where skilled engineers can provide a better experience on set for a better price than constantly relying on a burn-in. Two years after the initial COVID shutdown, it’s fascinating to see how our industry evolves and adapts. And it’s exciting for us at Modern Motion Pictures to be a small part of that change.

The Story of Vadym Medvediuk

We all recognize the hum of a helicopter’s blades slicing through the sky. It’s something that most of us are used to, right? Now imagine getting used to an air raid siren. Picture that surreal noise becoming a part of your daily routine to the point that you just stop reacting to it—you stop going to the bomb shelter. Why so reckless? Because “it might just be another false alarm” or “it’ll probably miss home again” or you are “too tired to walk seven flights of stairs a couple times a day.” These are the quotes my mother told me after the first week of the war in Ukraine. She was trying to explain something that I, luckily, never experienced before and hopefully never will. 

I was born in 1993, right after the USSR collapsed, in the free independent country Ukraine. I studied journalism in Poland and, during summertime, I would go back to my hometown to work as a local news correspondent. You see, being able to study abroad and travel to Europe was very much an “eye-opening” experience. When I’d go back home and see all the unfairness my own people would go through, my heart would ache. I needed to do something. So I started writing blogs, attending demonstrations and protests, finding likeminded people to unite, and hopefully help our country fight the internal enemy. It happened right before the revolution that took place in the end of 2013. During those years, I was getting more into film craft and understanding the possibilities of the art form—the way you can interact with the audience, communicate with them. Speaking your mind is as subjective as it is liberating. It’s up to the viewers to agree or to disagree after all. I didn’t feel that my message ever went far enough in journalism, so I started working in film. Parallel with that, I started to have a lot of problems with the government of my country. They did not take kindly to all of the protests over as quaint an idea as “free speech.” Pfff who needs that anyway? Things got so bad that in 2015, I had to leave Ukraine to protect my freedoms, liberty, and probably even my life. I was forced to seek political asylum in the U.S. 

It took about three years of travels across America for me to experience life here and to have some solid integration into the local society. I knew eventually I’d have to end up in LA. All of my goals were there. As I would explain it to my friends, “Yes, you can make films anywhere, but why hit blood vessels if you can target the heart?” And so the pursuit of the big dream began. Targeting the heart of the industry was a bit of a long and difficult process. As is the case for most of us, I started as a PA, working for free, chasing coffee, driving trucks, and taking out the garbage. I worked on a lot of college and passion projects until my first big breakthrough—reality television! I booked my first solid big gig after almost a year of trying to break in—the overnight success—PA on an MTV reality show. I was proud of myself. Though it may not have been exactly what I aspired to, I now had a massive opportunity to network and develop contacts. And so I did.

While I was hustling on small gigs and nonscripted productions, I spent the next year writing and shooting personal passion projects. While shooting in my apartment complex, I met Michael Kish, one of my neighbors who has since become a close friend. We met in the elevator in the middle of the night after we’d both come home from our long workday.

I said, “Hi, long day at work huh?”

He replied, “Are you the guy who’s shooting porn in his apartment?”

For the record, no, I was not. But after a bit of an awkward silence, we both chuckled and introduced ourselves. Mike, as luck would have it, would be my insider into the scripted world. He was a background PA for ABC’s Black-ish at that time and he would always do his best to bring me on board. I will always be grateful to Mike for the opportunities he gave me. I started developing a new circle of colleagues who would help me find film and TV work. I started gaining more knowledge and understanding of what I want to do in the industry.

Then came March of 2020 and the entire world locked down.

Like most people reading this article, I was absolutely terrified by the pandemic. I lost my job. I felt cut off from my friends. I was afraid for my family and I was afraid for myself. And I had nothing but time on my hands. So I started writing and developing projects with my roommates, Dilek, Kyle, Natalie, and Emre. They may not have been filmmakers but they were passionate artists and I am thankful for all of them. It took bravery to go out and shoot in those strange days. We, of course, made it as safe as possible. Experience shooting during the pandemic helped me to start work with a German reality/challenge show as early as May of 2020. That job led to another one at the reboot of Saved By the Bell, which I believe was one of the earliest shows to resume production. And that show brought me to Star Trek: Picard. Boom baby, was back at it!

I started working on set of the second season of Star Trek: Picard in the COVID Compliance Department. I was that safety guy for a whole season of the show. But I was overjoyed just to be in that environment. I could watch and learn so much. Obviously, the safety of the set was the priority, but my job was literally just to observe people’s behavior and compliance. So I made a point to pay attention to the specifics of each department while I was at it. That’s how I met Amber Maher, the Video Assist Operator on the show. The possibility of watching the creation of the show through the QTAKE system sounded absolutely marvelous. She got to see and hear every single take and even strung together light edits on demand. It was the coolest thing. So, naturally, I went up to her and said, “Hi, my name is Vadym. Can I ask what you’re doing on set?” That went a long way.

Amber fought tirelessly to get me placed in the Y-16A Training Program with Local 695. I got my first official day in the end of October 2021. Since then, I have worked as a Y-16A Video Assist Trainee for eight hundred hours and about one hundred more as Y-7 Video Assist Engineer. Local 695 has been very supportive; keeping contact with me almost every week, checking on extra practical trainings or theoretical material I might need and you know, and just supporting me in any way they can. I mean you guys are reading this article right now, I’m blessed that the union has offered such an amazing opportunity just so I could share my story with you and hopefully, that will inspire something good in you. Thank you, Casey and James. 

Star Trek ended up being more than just a job and the Star Trek family has done so much for me. They gave me experience, they gave me friendship, they gave me support, and a place to call second home for a while. Were it not for Amber’s decision to become my friend and mentor, I may never have made it into Local 695. And were it not for the compassion of my cast and my crew, I may never have been able to send money back home to evacuate my family to Poland following Russia’s invasion of my homeland. Words cannot express my gratitude to all of them and, particularly to Sierra Haworth, our on-set Camera Utility for organizing the crew’s GoFund me campaign to save my family.
My family escaped the acts of genocide that have spread across Ukrainian land and killed thousands of innocent people while forcing millions more to flee their homes. My family was lucky to have the support of my Picard fellowship. They could just as easily be among those we bid farewell to in our prayers each night. Under different circumstances, I could already be among the fallen. Any of us could, really.

That is why I am coordinating with my friends from the Filmanthropy nonprofit organization to gather funds in support our friends and loved ones still struggling in Ukraine. Our efforts ensure that any donations will go directly to those in need. If you have the means to donate, consider going to https://givebutter.com/SupportUkraine/vadymmedvediuk and making a contribution. With the help of my Local 695 kin, I hope we’ll be able to gather more support and do the right thing, the most humane thing, in order to help the ones in need.

Thank you for reading the glimpses of my life story and all the best to you, reader.

by Amber Maher

In December of 2020, I got the call.

I had just finished working on King Richard as the Video Assist Streaming Engineer. Jeb Johenning from Ocean Video called me up and told me he had recommended me for another streaming video assist position. He had described me as the go-to wizard for anything to do with video assist and streaming media to the team he was working with. He and I had developed a good rapport together while I was working with Dempsey Tillman, Jeff Snyder, and others over at Man in the Box Video Assist. After working on King Richard, WandaVision, and Space Jam: A New Legacy, I had Jeb on speed dial. He was our go-to QTAKE Rep for the West Coast. QTAKE is the gold standard premiere software platform used for Video Assist Operators in Hollywood to record, playback, composite effects, stream, and live view everything that we film.
I’d often call him up to discuss QTAKE jobs. He had helped train most of the video assist people in the union on both coasts, including my mentor, Lee Hopp of LH Video in New York City. I was profoundly flattered by his recommendation and appreciation of my technical know-how but I never expected how that call was about to change my entire world. We discussed my workflows on previous projects like King Richard and Space Jam: A New Legacy, and I told him a little bit about what I’d been dealing with.

COVID-19 changed video assist work on a profound level. No longer could executives and Producers huddle behind a single monitor at video village. On King Richard, I had three Apple TVs that needed to be set up and broken down every day in the trailers. There were about five Executive Producers on iPads that could stream footage from wherever they were working in the world. We had about thirty-five iPads with a local stream for the crew, which I had to charge, disinfect, and maintain every day. Everyone was streaming the live and playback feed from the main QTAKE Pro computer system. Getting all these systems to work seamlessly required a lot of trial and error but we pulled it off and it was a big hit. However, if one screen ever went black, I’d get a text from almost every Executive Producer asking why they can’t see picture. From that experience and from working with the beta test version of the QTAKE Pro Stream on Space Jam: A New Legacy, I had added some new tricks to my bag to get it all to work.

Jeb was impressed with what he heard and began to tell me a little bit more about the show he wanted to put me on. I was told I’d have basics like my cart, cables, gear, etc., and that I’d be moving around different stages and locations. Everything would need to be streamed live. Production required a very complex workflow. The scope of it was almost overwhelming. He said that there would be between one hundred and one hundred fifty clients on the stream, including the executive team and those working remotely in Canada. We would be on six to eight different stages in addition to doing on-location work in downtown LA. The art department, production department, and all of the regular on-set crew would be utilizing the stream and would need service. COVID Zones A, B, and C would all need to be set up for streaming. New Directors would be coming in every other block and would need to be set up, along with their assistants. After doing the math, I realized this would be about ten times more clients than we had on King Richard or any other film I had worked on. And just one video assist person? It was massive! What show was going to need so many people? I had a lot of ideas of how this all could work. Every scenario was rather a tantalizing puzzle to solve. So I asked Jeb, “Well … when do I start?”

It wasn’t until later that I learned that the show in question was Star Trek: Picard and that we would be shooting show’s second and third seasons back-to-back. This was a dream come true. I grew up watching Star Trek with my dad. Having very keen knowledge of the show, characters, and episodes, I realized that this was monumental and could showcase all the new technologies that Video Assist Engineers could utilize.

Star Trek: Picard had a very strict COVID protocols, as most of the cast was over the age of fifty. The Producers were thorough and safety was their prime concern on the set. We had very limited crew allowed to be on set, as well as in Zone A. Everything that production had gotten familiar with over the past fifty years was thrown out the window. It was an odd experience, filming a science fiction story whilst seemingly living in one as well. COVID made its presence known on the set. One day, a co-worker would be gone and someone would inform us that they were working from home in quarantine. At the height of January’s COVID surge, we never knew who would show up to work each day.

Therefore, everyone had to be able to utilize the QTAKE. It became a vital tool for production. In fact, the production became so reliant on it that our Showrunner personally thanked me and told me they couldn’t have done it without my workflow. If video assist went down, we all went down. Jeb and I spoke about how this show, and this role could really set a precedent for video assist. This was the moment that I could get every Producer, Director, crew member, and the staff on our show to see and experience video assist and the stream like never before. Video assist would become the eyes and ears of production. There’s no other way to describe it. So we had to start from scratch and created it on the Star Trek: Picard set.

It was exciting to figure out all the possibilities. I got to work on the design and infrastructure of it. I ended up making a lot of flow charts and maps. On a show this large, it would have been impossible to wing it. I needed a complete plan in place. Maybe two or three of them. Thankfully, I was working with Todd Marks of Images on Screen, who was the Video Department Head on Picard. He was a veteran Video Playback Engineer and he spoke to production about getting me the essential prep time needed to create an ideal scene to stream for this show. He and his team of Video Engineers were able to understand the more technical aspects of our craft and vouch for it if something was needed. I was not alone and knew I had the backup of a full team of tech wizards at the helm of the show. Having such a large amount of Local 695 representation on set was wonderful. If I was getting a hard no from production and really needed the help, I was no longer a one-person band raising my hand.

For studio work, I decided to create a local QTAKE network for streaming by utilizing the stage’s IT department. I needed a bandwidth of 50mbps up and down on every stage. Then I created a secondary network for all the production offices, the art department, and to communicate with the other stages. Each remote stage required its own VPN (virtual private network) so that we could all be on one network that pointed to my system. The Ruckus (my Wi-Fi access point) beams a signal in a radius of about 100-150 feet, so I needed to set up several of them to boost the signal each time we were shooting. By setting it up this way, everyone on the QTAKE network could stream locally while everyone working remotely could stream from the cloud. This allowed the studio’s network to power the bulk of the Wi-Fi without having to rely on my individual Wi-Fi access point to supply the stream to the entire team. So in essence, a Producer or crew member could walk from one stage to another stage, into the office, out into the art department, through the production offices, and still be connected to the stream all using the QTAKE network I set up. This allowed for more crew to be able to be farther away from set and not have to rely on their cellphone signals (there was barely any service on our sets) to stream.

The minute I tapped into the Ethernet plug in the wall and my system was up and running, we could all be streaming. Once we were, I found it worked better than anyone could of imagined. At one point, we had two teams and six cameras on the stream. The team could open up an iPad and see everything being shot at one time. It was actually quite fun to see the look on a Director or Producer’s face when they realized what they had available at the tips of their fingers. They were thrilled that there was one place they could go to see everything happening at once.

Anecdotally, the team got so used to seeing things in real time that whenever cameras were turned off and the signal broke, I’d be inundated with texts asking what was wrong. On one occasion, a battery swap resulted in more than a hundred texts from staff and crew who thought they’d lost the stream. To solve this, I created a handy Star Trek-inspired graphic that read, “Please Standby for Assimilation” so that Producers would know they weren’t missing any of the action. This was appreciated, especially by my fellow Trekkies on the team.

On location shooting proved much more challenging, especially on the day I found out that we would be set up on an insert car. The Director, DP, DIT, camera crew, and I were to follow the action and I had to stream it back to the production team while going 45 mph. There had been some debate as to whether or not I’d be joining them but a word from the Executive Producers settled the matter. They’d grown so accustomed to being able to watch every frame in real time that they weren’t going to let a little thing like high speed vehicle logistics deprive them of that luxury. I’ll never forget the moment when the DP pulled out his phone, read a text from our Showrunner, and asked, “How can they even see what we’re shooting?!” Then he looked at me.

I was fortunate in being able to take advantage of Local 695’s Y-16A Trainee Program. Early on in production, a member of the COVID compliance team approached me and said, “Hi, my name is Vadym. Can I ask what you’re doing on set?” I soon learned that Vadym Medvediuk was a political asylum recipient from the Ukraine and that he was interested in finding his craft on the set. With a little work, he became a part of the Local’s program and became my trainee on the set. He was fascinated by the video assist system and was eager to help me in whatever way he could, so I decided to train him. Like my previous trainee (Antonio Rodriguez), Vadym was a hard worker and did his best to learn all the ins and outs of the video assist role. In many ways, this was the perfect show as it threw him right into the deep end right out of the gate. By the end of the show’s run, I could entrust him to set up one stage while I worked on another and even run the second unit video assist while I pulled his signal and fed it to the Producers alongside my own. This resulted in a seamless integration where the production team could simultaneously watch both units work on a single screen. Now, after completing his stint on Star Trek, Vadym is in the process of becoming a Y-7 Engineer and has already begun doing video assist work of his own.

I must say that in my dealing with this show, the support that I received from the Producers, the crew, and everyone involved was like nothing I had ever encountered working in the business before. The Star Trek family really was just that: a family. It was wonderful and it is and was one of the best and most professional crews in Hollywood. From the Executive Producers, Producers, Directors, DP’s, and the legendary cast, it was such an honor and privilege to give my all to these two seasons on this remarkable show. Creatively, it was a treasure trove to walk into the Star Trek universe and know that from my job, I was able to create an impact on one of the most beloved shows this world has seen. The cast was stellar and there were so many laughs. Forever friendships were created, tears were shed, and love could be found all around. Thank you everyone involved for trusting me and choosing me to do this job. We really did become family on this set during a very unique time in history. We created some amazing storytelling, filmmaking at its best, and I can’t wait to carry that future on other projects too.

by Anna Wilborn

The scent of the top drawer on my dad’s sound cart has never left me. An odd combination of black foam rubber padding, electronics, and Juicy Fruit gum. It was the gum I was hunting for every time I visited my dad on set. I can still feel the satisfying way the two side locks unlatched allowing the drawer to slide out on its own to reveal my prize. His crew christened the giant road case cart “The S.S. Wilborn” and printed it across the lid in big cutout stickers. He thought it was hilarious and left it. I loved watching their easy camaraderie.

My dad, Charles M. Wilborn, begged me not to go into production. The hours, locations, and grind were no way to live, he insisted. Oddly enough, on this very rare occasion, I listened. When visiting my dad on location, he’d always arrange a day for me with the Editors who, back then, went with the shooting crew to prep and screen dailies, as well as begin cutting the film. Everything was still on film and 35mm magnetic tape. I’d watch Billy Anderson ACE work the flatbed and puzzle together a scene for Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society. It blew my mind.

I started my film career right out of USC in post production. I was thrilled to get an unpaid internship on Cruel Intentions, with John Morris, Sound Supervisor at Sony Studios. Pro Tools was in its infancy and besides the manual, there weren’t any books about it yet, nor an internet to learn from. On-the-job training was the only way. I was using version 3.4 to load sound effects and dialog off of DAT tapes in real time onto clunky SCSI hard drives that only held a few gigs. I’d then deliver the drives to the Editors who cut the clips into the soundtrack. Even with this advancement, we still had to lay back their Pro Tools sessions to 35mm mag for the dub stage. I’ll never forget the day Sony threw all their Moviolas in a dumpster out by Cannery Row. The Sound Editors were incensed. Even at 22 years old, I knew this was a tragedy. I got a drive-on and heaved one into the trunk of my big old 300SD. I still have it in my garage, the giant letters “MGM” in white vinyl across its side. How can you throw away that kind of history?

Every day, I’d bring my highlighters and the only books I could find about editing and the new Avid system. John clocked them one day. “Are these your books?” he pointed. “Yes…” I said, not knowing if I was in trouble for reading at work. He nodded and walked away. Next thing I knew, they were helping me get my days to join the Editors Guild. I was over the moon. From there, I got work in assistant sound and film editing, and eventually became a Music Editor. But years of sitting in a room by myself in front of a computer were starting to take a toll. It was lonely work and it just didn’t fit my personality. I needed a big family to work with every day. I needed the set.

In 1998, Local 695 ceded the jurisdiction of Re-recording Mixers to Local 700 and I was able to switch my card over to Local 695. With one fateful morning phone call from Joe Foglia needing a Utility for his show Scrubs, my career was finally on track. I absolutely loved being a Sound Utility. I now had fifty people to say hi to every morning. I loved getting to know the actors, forging life-long friendships with costumers and camera assistants, ensuring our department was running smoothly, and learning all the new technology that had come out since my dad’s days. We were still on DAT, but the CD-RAM was in the wings. Wiring, cabling, running around, snacks, whatever we needed. It was so much fun.

Here’s a fun fact: I never wanted to be a Sound Mixer. Anytime someone would ask me, my eyes would glaze over. The thought of buying all that gear (twice over), and worse, keeping track of it all is like herding a million little kittens made my stomach hurt. From tiny BNC barrel connectors to expensive, delicate mixing panels.

No thank you.

Watching mixers wrangle that headache was a cure-all for me. Plus, as a Utility, I basically had no homework, no off-the-clock stress. If the gear broke, I’d offer my sincerest condolences, send it out on a rush order, and run right back with the spare from the truck so we could keep rolling. By the time I hit thirty-eight thousand hours, I’d definitely reached my cruising altitude with a quick fix for any sudden fiasco. Nothing but a sports bra? I can wire that. Director threw their Comtek? Hello Keith, it’s me again.

In early 2020, Joe Foglia picked up a pilot and he, Kevin Santy and I were all set to have our usual great time for ten days. But on March 13, 2020, something truly terrifying happened. Transpo didn’t show up to pick up the gear. If that doesn’t send a chill down your spine, you’ve never worked in this business. If I ever write a horror movie, that’s how it’s going to start. Life had just been flipped upside down and inside out. COVID had arrived.

I think it’s safe to say we all re-prioritized our lives during the lockdown. Suddenly, we as hyperactive, workaholic film people, HAD to stay home, sleep in, and (hopefully) enjoy time with wherever and whomever we were stuck. We called people we hadn’t spoken to in far too long, spent time in group Zooms with old and new friends, drank too much, or didn’t drink enough.
We rediscovered what was really important. LIVING. I frickin’ loved it.

When things started to loosen up, Misty Conn, Yvette Marxer, and I started meeting for drinks at whatever watering hole would have us. We’d talk about everything, but conversations often revolved around the business. “Anna, when are you going to MIX?!?” Yvette suddenly hollered in her South African accent, slamming her hand down on the table for emphasis. There it was again. That question. Only this time my mind didn’t flood with the millions of tiny kittens I’d have to buy. Misty chimed in. “Dude. You have to do it.” This wasn’t just her third Diet Coke talking. Their sincerity, encouragement, and belief in me was completely overwhelming. From then on it was like I didn’t have a choice in the matter. The kittens were out of the bag and this time there was no herding them back in. Not only did I want the challenge, I needed the challenge. I’ll never forget that moment and will be forever grateful/totally blame those two.

I started workshopping the idea with others whose opinion I really valued. My husband Ted Mayer, Kevin Santy, Tom Williams, Glen Trew, Tom Caton, Chantilly Hensley, Hanna Collins, Forrest Brakeman, Scott Solan, Gunnar Walter, Carrie Sheldon, Michael Reilly, and Scott Farr— all were so supportive. I remember Kevin thoughtfully saying, “I really like this for you.”

Then I had to rip the band-aid off with Joe Foglia; sixteen years of insane locations and hilariously inappropriate jokes. “I’m going to buy a package.” I declared, feeling like I was asking for an unwanted divorce. “Good for you!” he replied. It was definitely the end of an era, but the future was way more exciting than I ever imagined it would be. I honestly didn’t even know how much I wanted it until it finally started to happen. So many hours, so much history, so many sets. I was totally ready.

I excitedly called my parents up in Santa Barbara. “FINALLY!!!!” My mom, also a former Local 695 member, screamed out. “I’m popping the champagne!” She handed the phone to my dad. I honestly didn’t know they cared one way or the other, but turns out they’d both been secretly hoping I’d do this for years. “I’m so happy for you!” my dad exclaimed as the Taittingers burst open in the background. Then he launched into his usual “I should have gotten you into mixing sooner, I could have helped you…” spiel. Nope. I like that I did it my way. My years in post and as a Utility/Boom Op are invaluable to my job and will only make me a better mixer and department head. I know what to fight for and almost more importantly, what not to fight for. I’ve earned my position through decades of training. As we all know, to truly do this job right, there is no shortcut.

Choosing my gear was an absolute no-brainer and my timing could not have been better. A few months later, the shelves at our local sound houses would have been bare. When I’m saying the stars aligned, I mean it was borderline eerie. I’d been curating the perfect package in my mind for years by osmosis, so the money quickly flew out of the bank account. I gave myself six months, but in less than three, I was already off to mix my first feature in Northern Idaho, a horror film called The Outpost, written and directed by Joe LoTruglio from Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Thanks, Kevin Compayre!).

I chose the Sound Devices 888 for my recorder with a CL-16 control surface fed via Dante from two Lectrosonics DSQD’s which I absolutely adore, thus leaving me all the free XLR and T3 inputs I need for playback and extra receivers. A Sound Devices MixPre-6II provides a true standalone backup, as I feed it directly from the DSQD’s XLR outputs. I have a mix of brand-new DBSM transmitters, along with SMWB’s and workhorse SMv’s when I need a little 250mw. Bulletproof HMas send me the Schoeps CMIT’s and CMC4U’s with MK-41’s, the latter being my dad’s. They still sound fantastic and once sucked up the voices of DeNiro and Redford, so it’s fun to have a little history in the kit.

I selected DPA 6060’s for my lavs since I was starting from scratch. “Buy once, cry once,” as they say. They’re just heavenly and have no equal in my opinion. I also have some Sanken COS-11’s and Countryman B-6’s, because they make for a well-rounded lav kit for any scenario. I have Denecke JB-1 timecode boxes that are so smal and awesome, and I just love the smile on the camera crew’s face when they see I have them. They go along with my dad’s Denecke slates that after eighteen years in a dark case, still shockingly powered up with the same batteries that had been left in them. A quick trip to Santa Clarita and they were upgraded to our new 23.97 standard. I went with tried-and-true Comtek PR-216’s and Lectro IFB’s for clients and crew. Power is distributed by a PCS Power Star Life that has definitely saved my life on a couple occasions.

All is packed into an awesome 80/20 Blackbird cart by Matthew Freed that will roll over anything with ease. Drew Martin custom-built all the cables for a super-clean final touch. I then loaded it up with remote-controlled color LED lights that complement the Sound Devices color scheme for a little flair (and so I can see). It’s a small, powerful cart that fits me perfectly. I affectionately nicknamed her Tina after Ms. Turner who is also small and powerful, and whose real name just happens to be… Anna. I won’t be writing “The S.S. Tina” across her however. OK, maybe in a small corner. As I conclude my first year, I’ve stayed pleasantly busy with a substantial amount of series and commercial work, even a couple Super Bowl spots!

My dad and I went through his gear a couple years back and that drawer still smells just like it did twenty years ago when he dumped it in the back of his garage, turned out the lights, and walked away for good. Now, I can’t wait for COVID restrictions to end so my girls can come see their mom at work as a Sound Mixer and they can make some of their own quirky little life long memories of what inevitably became the family business.

by Mark Weingarten CAS

It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than three years since I first began to write this article. A lot has occurred since then which either derailed and or postponed many of our plans. We started shooting Top Gun: Maverick in San Diego in May of 2018. We ultimately were in production for more than a year.

In 2018 during pre-production for Top Gun: Maverick, I met the film’s Director, Joseph (Joe) Kosinski. He explained that Top Gun: Maverick would not be a remake. It would be a standalone second act to the very successful Tony Scott-Jerry Bruckheimer-Tom Cruise-Val Kilmer film, Top Gun from 1986. Tom Cruise would be returning in the lead role as Maverick, and Val Kilmer would also be coming back to make an appearance as Ice Man.

In that meeting, I learned that Top Gun: Maverick would be shooting almost entirely in California, which is where I live. I had been shooting on distant locations for most of my projects over the preceding years. The opportunity to shoot a whole movie at home was very welcome.

I was very pleased when Joe and Executive Producer Tommy Harper decided to offer me the opportunity to be the Production Sound Mixer for Top Gun: Maverick. I could tell it was going to be exciting. It was going to present some very unusual problem-solving situations that would be rewarding to figure out, and it was going to be LOUD, REALLY LOUD! For certain, it was not going to be boring.

Joe and I discussed some of the major sound challenges that he knew we would face, and we kicked around what we thought might be the best approaches to tackling them. The most immediate issue to address was that we were going to film all the actors’ flying sequences actually inflight, real supersonic sorties while the actors and the sound equipment were being subjected to extreme G Forces. The request was for me to record all the inflight dialog in sync with the six cameras that would be mounted in the planes, with high-enough quality to be used in the final mix. There were to be no green screen-simulated flying sequences for this version! Everything was to be filmed actually in flight. I can’t say I had ever been asked to record in those conditions, but I was certainly game to give it a try… Going forward, I quickly learned that Joe was extremely calm, extremely prepared, and extremely supportive. He is an absolute pleasure to work with.
The TOPGUN Flying Team is a branch of the Navy. As such, we shot primarily at naval air stations. Those naval air stations are where the aircraft that we needed to shoot were hangared. We did shoot a little bit on stage at LA Center Studios, and also at some practical locations in and around Los Angeles and San Diego, but mostly we were at relatively distant locations all over California. It turned out that “shooting almost entirely in California” meant China Lake, San Diego, Lake Tahoe. To get to most of the naval air stations, it took a lot of driving, but at least I was able to make it home for most weekends.

We began shooting in May 2018 in San Diego for a one week pre-shoot at Coronado’s North Island Naval Air Station.

After the pre-shoot week, the whole crew went immediately into a couple of months of intensive scouting and prepping. During this time, all the departments scratched their heads and went hard at the work of figuring out how to approach filming and recording the flying sequences. We all had multiple scouting trips to several different naval air stations to look at, measure, inspect, and learn as much as we could about the F/A-18 supersonic jets that we would be using for filming.

Once each department determined what equipment they thought would be needed to do their inflight work, our Key Grip, the late Trevor Fulks, had to tackle how and where, to attach the equipment on the planes. We were told that any gear placed in the planes needed to be able to stay attached at up to 7G’s, and the gear could not interfere or prevent any aircraft functions or communications, nor could it interfere with the pilot or co-pilot’s ability to eject in an emergency situation if that ever became necessary. Having figured out how we could meet each of the Navy’s requirements, we began interacting with the Navy to submit our plans for their approval. We were asked to state every detail about each piece of gear: its purpose, its height, length, width, weight, the type of internal batteries it used, etc. The Navy had to sign off on exactly how and where we planned to mount each piece of our equipment for it to safely stay in place while the planes were in the air.

During scouting, we learned that in the Navy, all tasks are broken down and pieced out to very specific departments. Each department is referred to by its own specific abbreviated nickname. It took a lot of hunting to figure out which departments were responsible for exactly which functions. Each of these departments usually consists of a combination of naval personnel and civilian contractors. The mystery for me was which department(s) could provide me with the information that I would need to be able to figure out how to record our actors’ inflight dialog in a manner that would render it one hundred percent usable for the production? It took me many hours of scouting time to track down which departments were responsible for which aspects of the pilots’ communications: plane to plane, plane to ground, archiving of all the planes’ communications.

The planes have an internal communication system (Comms), which is fed to mics mounted inside of the pilot and co-pilot’s oxygen masks, and monitored by headsets built into their helmets. Who was in charge of the mics in the masks and the headsets in their helmets? How and where did the pilots connect the masks and helmets to the planes?

I learned that within the air station’s hangars, there are many doors. Each of these doors lead to the offices of one of the Navy’s various aircraft-related departments. Figuring out who did what and which unmarked door they were behind was both very time-consuming and very confusing. Eventually, I was able to find the right combination of departments to help me.

The mechanics were able to show me all the possible access points where I could tap into the plane’s Comms. Unfortunately, none of those access points would work for what I needed to do. I considered the possibility that I could record all of our planes’ transmissions from the ground (as the Navy does record all of their communications for archiving). However, the archive’s voice quality isn’t very good. Certainly not good enough to use for a final movie soundtrack.

Plus all of the Navy’s archived communications are classified, so it would be challenging to get clearances to use the recordings. Even if we were to receive clearance, trying to sync up all those un-slated recordings from all those flights would have been a nightmare. Obviously, this was not an option, the dialog had to be recorded in the plane while it was inflight at the highest quality possible, and it had to be available for us to be able to sync up and use immediately after each flight.

In addition to having the sound recording equipment properly secured to the aircraft, it was also imperative that its operation could not have any effect on the ability of the pilots’ mask to deliver oxygen to them at higher altitudes. Nor could it interfere with any communications between pilot and co-pilot. Given these restrictions, how could the inflight sound be safely captured, in sync, at the quality that the movie deserved?

During prep, I learned that there are specific connectors for fixed wing aircraft, and for helicopters, and that the wiring configurations for those connectors differ for the various branches of the service. All of the connectors involved in aeronautics are unique. They are connectors the likes of which I have never encountered before.

With guidance from the Navy and the help of the Parachute Room Team, I found the right place to tap into the plane’s Comms to be able to get the best possible inflight recording, while still allowing for uninterrupted communications, not interfering with the mask’s oxygen flow or compromising an emergency ejection.

I have made plenty of adaptor cables in my time, but considering the unfamiliar aircraft connectors and the absolute cannot fail operation of this mission-critical piece of equipment, I needed to seek out someone one hundred percent familiar with all of the elements involved to fabricate the Y cables I required. A Navy pilot introduced me to Par, at Pilot USA Communications. Pilot USA makes all sorts of cables and adaptors for all the branches of the military. I spoke with Par to explain all the specs for the Y cable I wanted him to fabricate. I explained that it was imperative that the cable would not interfere with any aircraft functions while being able to feed pure undistorted audio to two Lectrosonics transmitters via TA5F connectors; I would have a dual feed to two SM’s, in case failed. He asked me to draw up a wiring diagram. I sent him a very crude drawing of the cable, along with a copy of Lectrosonics TA5F wiring diagram. Par was able to read my drawing and understand it. He said he felt confident that he would be able to fabricate a Y cable that would meet all my requirements.

My initial concept for the flying sequences was to put two Lectrosonics SM transmitters on each actor, with two Lectro 411 receivers attached to a single recorder in the plane, and two additional mics attached somewhere inside the canopy for stereo sounds of the jet’s engines, rattles, and groans inflight. Four tracks would be enough to do the job so I chose a Sound Devices 744. I chose the 744 because it was the smallest four-channel recorder that I had, and because I thought it was one of the sturdiest, best built devices I knew of. I figured it was most likely to survive the potential forces of up to 7G’s. Given the intense G Forces involved, I thought it best to eliminate any moving parts. As such, I replaced the 744’s original spinning hard drive with a solid-state hard drive.

I brought the 744 and the 411’s to Trevor Fulks, for him to design and fabricate the mounts needed to secure them to the plane. While Trevor was doing that, I sent our Navy liaison all the requested specifications for the sound gear, which he forwarded to the appropriate Navy departments for approval.

Tom Cruise had requested that there would be a remote control in the plane that would give him the ability to start and cut all the cameras and the sound recorder simultaneously with a single button press. Keslow Camera was building the remote for the cameras. Dan Ming, our incredibly helpful A camera 1st AC, spoke with Keslow for me and they told him they thought it would be possible to incorporate record-stop control for the 744 into the remote. I sent Keslow a Sound Devices CL-1 remote control interface, along with the schematics for it. They were able to cannibalize the CL-1 and incorporate it successfully into the remote. Once completed, the remote worked perfectly. It was able to start and stop everything with a single button press.

The cameras we used were the Sony VENICE. They are large sensor, 6K, IMAX capable cameras. The VENICE lenses and sensors could be connected to each other by fiber optic cables. This gave them the capability for the lenses to be mounted separately from the camera bodies. Ultimately, the Camera and Grip Departments found that there was enough room to safely secure six cameras in each F/A-18. All six camera bodies were mounted in one cluster midway under the plane’s canopy. The separately mounted lenses were placed wherever was ideal for picture.

Curiously, we found that the camera bodies would fit better in one plane than another. We learned that no two plane canopies are the same; each one is handmade and is slightly different from any other.

Things were starting to come together. The Navy was reviewing our equipment lists. The remote was being made. The Y cables were being built. Trevor was fabricating the mounts to attach everyone’s gear to the planes. We just needed to get everything delivered in time to do a little testing before it would be needed for shooting.

The mounts, the Navy’s approval of the gear, and Keslow’s remote all arrived the week before we were to start shooting the flying sequences. In the hangar, we mounted all the cameras, as well as my recorder and radio receivers into an F/A-18. The Keslow remote worked perfectly, it reliably rolled and cut all the cameras together with the 744. We did one final shakedown test flight without an actor to make sure that everything Trevor had mounted for us stayed in place. It did. Unfortunately, the Y cables hadn’t arrived in time for that test flight. The next opportunity to test would not be until we started shooting, with an actor in the plane. Fingers crossed that the Y cable was going to work!

Time now for the rest of sound crew to come on board: Tom Huck Caton (Boom Operator), Cara Kovach (Utility to start), Kevin Becker (Utility to finish). Additional sound crew that worked on the film were Mark Agostino, Eric Ballew, Lawrence Commans, Jeff Haddad, Zach Wrobel, and Jeff Zimmerman.

Production officially started. The day had come for our first flight. Tom Cruise was fully suited up, the still untested Y cable had been connected by the indispensable Neville, a civilian contractor who worked for the PR Department. The SM’s were on, the 411’s were powered up, the 744 was awake with its timecode jammed to the same code as the cameras, and it was ready to record. Cruise climbed into the plane. There was silence. I heard absolutely nothing at the sound cart where I had tuned its receivers to the same frequencies as the 411’s in the plane. However, once the F/A-18’s system was energized, it came alive; I was able to hear through the Comms as the plane went through all its trouble warnings (it does this every time on startup) “engine fire,” “flap failure,” etc. When the warnings finally ended, Cruise spoke. I heard him loud and clear. Yes! The Y cable was working! Phew!

Soon after the F/A-18 Hornet took off, it disappeared and returned about an hour or so later. We retrieved all the media, brought it back to the hangar where we downloaded all the camera and sound files, backed them up, then brought the masters to the DIT for us to watch.

The pictures were spectacular. Claudio Miranda’s inflight cinematography is extraordinary. You can absolutely tell that the actors are really flying in the F/A-18’s, it is very clear they are not being shot against green screen. The Keslow remote worked perfectly throughout the flight. Cruise had been able to start and stop all the cameras, along with the sound recorder as he requested. The sound the Y cable provided was fantastic, crystal clear, absolutely, usable. A triumph. High fives all around… It turned out that on that very first sortie, the plane did, at some point, hit 7G’s, and nothing came loose. Trevor’s mounts worked perfectly, the 744, the 411’s and all the cameras and lenses remained solidly in place. In short, it worked. Everything worked!

Well, so we thought. During dailies, Cruise pointed out my 744 and the 411’s ended up very much in the frame. The sound gear had to move, however, I was told by Trevor that the sound gear was mounted in “the only place in the plane that it could be” and there was “no other option.” Even if we had been able to find an alternative mounting place, the Navy would have had to approve of that change, which would not be a quick process.

What to do? We had a week to re-group before we were scheduled for our next flight. I went back to my on-base Navy housing to try to come up with a new strategy. The Day One flight had confirmed that the Y cable that Par had made worked perfectly, but without the 744 and 411’s, how could I capture the inflight dialog? The Y cables were built with two female TA5 connectors to feed two SM’s. I got on my laptop and began looking through the Lectrosonics website, and found that they made a little standalone recorder called a PDR. The PDR accepted a female TA5 for an input. There were two versions of the PDR. The single AAA battery model was almost identical in size to a single AA battery SM, and the PDR was capable of jamming timecode. It would record two tracks of WAV files onto a removable micro CF card at very high quality. Great! With a 16GB micro CF card, the PDR would easily record audio for many hours, certainly long enough to record any length of flight (sortie) we would be filming. According to the specs, the PDR would be able to make recordings of a quality similar to a 744. I immediately ordered two of them from Trew Audio. We found that indeed the PDR’s easily fit in exactly the same place where the SM’s had been. When attached to our existing Y cables, they should produce recordings equal in quality to the SM’s. Because they would be placed where the SM’s had been, they would not require Navy approval.

However, the change to the PDR’s meant that Cruise would lose the ability for remote-controlled starting and stopping of the sound recorder in flight. With the PDR’s, my plan was that just before the actors were to climb into their planes, either Huck or I would put the PDR’s into “record” and attach them to Y cable. This meant that the PDR’s would be recording continuously from that point on throughout the entire sortie. They would not stop recording until the plane was on the ground and one of us could retrieve the PDR to push “Stop.”

We explained to Cruise the switch to the PDR’s and the reason for it, and how the change would negate his ability to remotely start and stop the sound recorder. He completely understood the situation and was fine with it. I had never worked with him before. I found him to be extremely pleasant, reasonable, and fabulous throughout.

Our next batch of flying dailies demonstrated that the PDR’s worked perfectly. Their timecode was accurate, they synced up easily, continuously recorded throughout, regardless of G Forces or altitude and they sounded great.

After our initial single actor flights, we started having sorties with two planes taking off at the same time, sometimes with plane-to-plane dialog being recorded. We often had two planes going up in both morning and afternoon sorties. We needed more PDR’s and more Y cables. I ordered a bunch more of both. All the PDR’s performed impeccably. Of the literally hundreds of sorties, we only had one single PDR failure. Sometimes the sorties would last for hours, but no matter what, the PDR’s would keep on recording. We even had an instance, when because of a mechanical problem, the plane had to make a forced landing at a different naval air station and we weren’t able to retrieve that PDR until it returned the next day. Regardless, we were able to recover the previous day’s recording easily.

Among the many nice features of the PDR’s was their ability to record two mono tracks from a single input at two different levels. I would always record one track at a level a few db’s lower than the other track. If someone got really loud and started blowing the hotter track, the lower level track always stayed undistorted. OK, I can see that I’m starting to sound like a spokesman for Lectrosonics. I’m not, I have no affiliation, but I do love their products and obviously I am now especially enamored with the PDR.

Working around the planes, we learned that there was great concern about something the Navy called FOD, which stands for Foreign Object Damage. (Everything in the Navy is represented by an acronym.) Anything that could get loose in the cockpit inflight would be considered FOD. Any foreign entity on the runway that could potentially interfere with take-off or landing would also be considered FOD. We had to make sure nothing that we were attaching to the planes could ever turn into FOD.

For Navy airmen, every day begins with a “FOD walk.” The entire squadron lines up across the width of the runway and walks its entire length, eyes to the ground, retrieving pebbles, loose screws, etc. The Commander told us that each morning before the FOD walk, he would place a tiny brass button somewhere on the runway. If the brass button was not found and returned to him during the first sweep, he would order a second, then a third. Until that button was retrieved, no planes would be cleared to take off or land. They also do FOD walks every morning on all aircraft carriers. FOD is serious business.

It was surprisingly quiet inside the cockpits of our supersonic fighter planes. After the first flight, we listened back to the recordings from two FX mics I had mounted inside the plane’s cabin. They essentially recorded a steady flow of air. The extra mics weren’t really giving us much, and they posed the risk of possibly becoming FOD, I decided to abandon them. The mics in the pilot’s masks gave us perfectly acceptable sound whether their masks were open or closed. Ultimately, there was no a need to put a lav on the outside of their survival vests. Eliminating the lav and eliminating the FX mics enabled us to use only one PDR per actor, per flight. Given the FOD concerns, the less gear we put in the planes, the better.

I also did do a lot of stereo recordings on the ground; the planes starting and warming up, taxiing away, taxiing toward us, taking off, landing, and doing flyovers. Fighter jets are LOUD. I mean crazy LOUD!!! You can feel the heat from their afterburners even when they are nearly an entire runway length away.

The carrier itself was a challenge. Aircraft carriers are enormous! They can be the equivalent of up to twenty stories tall. Everything you bring onto them has to be hand carried up many flights of very steep narrow stairs called ladders. Carts can’t be rolled through their hallways because there are multiple watertight doors that constantly have to be stepped over. All the walls, floors, and ceilings are made of metal, which does not make for a great environment for radio reception. Additionally, there is a ton of onboard Navy equipment that is transmitting a lot of RF. Naturally, on an active ship, anything that’s transmitting cannot be turned off. Somehow we were always able to find enough clear radio frequencies to get the job done; it took a lot of scanning to make that happen.

My main cart for Top Gun: Maverick was several stacked SKB cases. The larger top case contained a Zaxcom Mix 12, a Deva 16, two Lectrosonics Venues, a Meon power supply along with Comtek and Lectro IFB transmitters. This section held essentially everything needed to record all of the dialog on the carrier. The top section is relatively easy for two people to carry wherever it is needed. By adding a PSC Pelican lithium battery to the onboard Meon, it had all-day power.

When the carrier was docked, I did all the scenes. When the carrier went to sea for a few days, I reached out to Eric Ballew, who had been my go-to consultant for carrier research. Eric is a Sound Mixer, who, while enlisted in the Navy, had been deployed on a carrier. Being “deployed” was very familiar territory for him. He did a great job on the work at sea. Thank you, Eric.

In addition to all the inflight recordings and the work on the carrier, there was one other big sound challenge; a sailboat scene that was not boom-able and had to be lav mics only. This scene was filmed multiple times, in multiple locations. The big issue was that there would be a lot of wind on the lavs. This is one of the places where I’ve found that DPA lavs really shine. To me, the DPA’s seem to be the most wind resistant of all the lavs I’ve ever tried. Each time, I would set up down below with a Deva big rig and a couple of 411’s.

Below deck on a boat is where those who get seasick, really get seasick. For some reason, I am not afflicted. On Dunkirk, I spent forty-plus days below deck on the Moonstone, a small wooden boat that would pitch like crazy in heavy seas. It was not a boat that was really meant to sail on the ocean. For some reason, while almost everyone else was incredibly seasick, I found I was impervious. I never even took Dramamine. I don’t know why, but evidently I am immune to sea sickness.

Each time we shot the Top Gun: Maverick sailboat scene, we wired the actors up with SM’s and DPA 4071’s. The lavs worked and sounded great, despite the high winds on the water. The DPA’s always worked.

Most of Top Gun: Maverick was shot at several naval air stations that we returned to multiple times. Each location had its own set of particulars that we had to figure out. At one base, this block of frequencies didn’t work, at another, a different block of frequencies didn’t, or there was a big humming noise in the corner that we couldn’t turn off in that hangar.

Top Gun: Maverick ended up filming for more than a year of principal photography, during which many old friends came and went, and all of us who went the distance had the opportunity to really bond with each other. With all the problem solving that each department had to do, we all did our best to help each other figure out how best to get the job done. Everyone on the main crew was extremely supportive of each other. It really was an extremely collaborative undertaking.

For me, it certainly was a learning experience, both technically and philosophically. I came away from the experience with nothing but respect and admiration for every service member I met. From the pilots and mechanics who helped guide me to the PR Department that showed me the path to connect to the plane’s Comms, to the members of the Navy brass that I later spent time with. Everyone was kind and thoughtful and extremely helpful. On more than one occasion, I had an Admiral sitting next to me at the sound cart for most of the day. They were thoughtful, caring, well-educated people, whose main objective was to do whatever they could to act in a way that would always minimize casualties for those whom they commanded. None of them took that responsibility lightly. I was very impressed.

Summing up, Top Gun: Maverick was a very challenging shoot for all departments. Everyone, cast and crew, worked extremely well together. We all did our best to support each other, and to problem solve all of the unusual situations we were given. I’m proud to say that every line of the inflight dialog in the movie is from the production tracks. Even the labored breathing you hear from Tom Cruise in the trailer is production track. Everyone who worked on this film went above and beyond, and it shows. In the end, I think Top Gun: Maverick turned out to be a pretty darned good movie.

Now, grab some earplugs and go see it on a big screen in an actual movie theater, with a nice loud Atmos surround sound system!

Over and out, Mark Weingarten.

by Paul Ledford CAS

You get the phone call to do a space movie and after the first rush of excitement, the mind conjures the thought that a space movie on the moon means ten spacesuits on stages. Spacesuits mean helmets, and the need for a no-fail two-way communication across all actors, stunt actors, and many key positions on set. It is a must for safety, a must for the workflow to make our day, and then there is the sound capture thing. The basic concept is not new here, but every year, we have new equipment with new techniques to bring forward to fulfill the needs while working around new equipment from other departments that also need to be factored in or resolved. I have had my share of good turns at single- and double-billed shows with spacesuits, along with a most disastrous project of multi-crew spacesuits that proved to be two weeks plus of pure stomach aching hell. That toxic trial provided many lessons and I was a bit reluctant to repeat that same experience given this Disney production of Crater had the bulk of days in spacesuits with five teenagers and lots of wire work in the air. While not a huge cast count by most production standards, this could not be a show up, hook up, and go project. It gets complicated quick and the charting of signal flow starts to cross over the lines early on.

There has to be supported homework.

After lots of war stories about past projects facing these same issues and recommendations about possible solutions, production did the homework of speaking with folks I had pointed to. With the support of Linda Borgeson of Disney Post Production, and Producer John Scotti, they agreed to move forward with adequate support for homework, extra gear rental, and hard targets on testing before shooting was to commence. The concept of safety was the lead path in all decisions.

I was on another show, so from the very beginning, I asked Peter Schneider of Gotham Sound and Communications about his interest in providing the prep design of the comm system and gear rental for the spacesuit scenes. Peter and Gotham have provided support on many other shows for me when the needs were off the normal path and they made this prep as much of as a comfort zone as possible. Peter cleared the way for things like full RF coordination of all departments on set, manufacturer support of the equipment pieces selected, and follow-up on the interfacing of our gear with the suit and helmet design phase being done in Los Angeles by Legacy Effects. We hired Ed Novick for a day of test recordings in Los Angeles at Legacy with the helmets. From those recordings, we selected which lav mic we could use and where they had to play out of sight. The Shure Twinplex lav was selected for most of the helmets given the high max SPL and had some DPA 6060 for a couple of actors due to head versus helmet space and
tonal differences. The stunt team used Sanken COS-11 with the Clear-Com FreeSpeak II packs.

The Clear-Com FreeSpeak II package was the glue for our full system.

The design had to be a full duplex comm system where everything needs to go through, and be fingertip-controlled on set by our AD, Benita Allen, along with our Director, Kyle Alvarez, and the Stunt Coordinator, Dave Macomber, and his stunt team.

All of the leadership needs not only to hear all of the primary actors and stunt actors, but to be able to speak to them as a group and at times individually. All controlled from their own belt packs or base station.

The design needed to be able to move to different sound stages, as well as be duplicated for a separate unit to shoot stunt actors performing on different sets, while our first unit continued or reverted to our more traditional task of dialog capture without helmets for interior set work.

With Shure Axient transmitters, our lav mics, and Shure IEM units for the actors selected, the stunt actors were fitted with the Clear-Com FS II units since we were already using that system for the floor communications. The Clear-Com FS II provided the duplex needed for stunt actors rather than an expensive full duplication of what we required for our actors. The Clear-Com FS II could network with the stunt actors and on-set leadership by our dedicated comms technician who used a separate Yamaha QL-1 console. Auto mix and Cedar NRS were used for the comm feeds. We divided up the full task knowing it was too much for one person on one console to focus on because things were going to change. It is the nature of our work.

Kyle Lamy was hired to be our Comms Tech. Kyle came to us from NCIS: New Orleans which had just wrapped. He was their Playback Operator and had the skill set from stage and music venues to operate the mixer, the wireless system, and IEM system with intercoms. From there it was a quick step to fold in the new flavor of the Clear-Com FreeSpeak II on a network via a laptop.

I now cue it over to Kyle for the hands-on experience…

Range and Battery Life

I will admit that I was very skeptical when first learning this unit ran on a 1.9 GHz cellular band. In my experience, wireless microphones that run on a 2.4 GHz band will run out of range quickly. The FS II should never be put in this category.

On our largest stage with the full cast of stunt personnel and production, I was using up to twelve belt packs on three transceivers. The belt packs quickly jumped to the closest transceiver, and I was able to keep a 90%-95% stability on all belt packs throughout the filming.

The range of these belt packs are only outperformed by the incredible battery life that they can achieve. Very few rechargeable batteries can stand the test of all-day feature film working hours, but the batteries on the FS II proclaimed and delivered sixteen hours of life. After testing these on our setup days, the crew moved into a routine where the batteries were charged and added to the belt packs first thing in the morning and first thing after lunch. I was in no danger of ever losing a belt pack due to a battery, and we had many hours left by the time we wrapped every day.

Network Ability

The FS II really shines when networked together with console and other transmitters. Peter and I were able to quickly formulate a workflow that included role assignments, battery and range health indicators and gain structure. Logging into the Static IP address was a convenient way to make changes and monitor the different aspects of the belt packs while in use.

On our Splinter+ Unit, the stunt actors all had the FS II wireless belt packs assigned by their roles to be Force Talk and Listen. This allowed all of the stunt personnel to freely talk and listen to our stunt coordinator at all times.

As the day moved on, certain stunt actors not in the setup were quickly assigned to Force Listen. The off-camera stunt actors were kept in the chain of communication and allowed to listen to the conversation, but with their microphones turned off, clearing that line of fan noise, breathing, and chatter for everyone else.

All changes could be achieved on the hardware unit on set, but being networked turned this into a few clicks of the mouse and did not hold production up in the slightest. We could work from the behind the curtain stage position at the carts without having to go onto the set itself and keep in line with the COVID protocols.

Clarity and Expandability

The FS II provided the clarity and level that was always sufficient and quickly adjustable by the network ability to change the levels on the fly as each actor or AD’s requested. Not once did I notice the dialog or direction from our AD was in danger of being misunderstood. The preamps were clean and headphone outputs were more than loud enough for all various earpieces and headsets.

In short order, our 1st AD desired a bit more control from her belt pack in order to quiet everyone trying to communicate through the system. Our solution was to have the AD’s FS II belt pack trigger a GPI on the Yamaha QL 1, turning on or off the Actor’s Mute Group. The implementation of this mute group trigger allowed the AD to stop all side chatter and gain the attention of everyone in the system. This was particularly important working with excited teenagers or when a little focus was lost as the day grew long.

Deeper in our schedule, the actors and stunt personnel would move from main unit to splinter+ unit, and the belt packs were very quick to drop the base station that it was initially linked to and join the network of the new base station once it was in range. This worked seamlessly and almost became forgotten about in the workflow.

Over to Ledford’s side of the cart in pure production recording world…

I got a raw feed of each actor from the Shure Axient receivers for the iso tracks and the comm feed to monitor the Clear-Com FS II channel for on-set instructions. I got slates and did a mix of our capture on my board for dailies. I could also talk back with our AD via my board to her belt pack, if that was needed.

My crew of Zach Lancaster on Boom, and Colin Beyer, our Utility Sound, loaded up the spacesuit backpacks with the comm gear and guided the helmet on and off routine with the Legacy crew and Costume Department. Actors got a transmitter and an IEM unit in the backpack connecting a harness to the helmet. Lav mic and ear pad pieces were built into each helmet. The backpacks also held power, lights, and fan controls for the suits. Zach and Colin had my IFB system feeding into the FS II pack to help check the actors and on-set staff for any issues. The Clear-Com FS II packs could be programmed to fit each person’s need.

The original request had the actors being fully dressed with helmet fitted in a dressing trailer off stage. Then, like all the NASA footage we have seen, walk them to the stage and on set. Challenges were revealed by the amount of crew in an expanded trailer with many frantic hands dealing with our young actors. Add in our technical challenge of having a good RF signal to ensure we were good to go. A harness was made to run through the stage wall to a small box version with antenna tree of our system inside the trailer out in the parking lot. This extended our ability to hear, talk, and network with the gear and our crew. However, we could not see anything, and what seemed like a good idea did not complete in a smooth or timely fashion on the first day of spacesuits.

Sometimes the better solution is not always about more gear. The kids were not happy to stand for so long while this whole suit thing took place. Putting the helmets on is a routine of hold in the air, connect the harness, squeeze down, and fit to lock-in, without pinching the harness. For the unpracticed, this is another barrier if you are standing up. To listen to all of this and discern the flow while blind was a bit riotous in a kind observation.

We evolved to having a simple, long wood bench made for our talent to sit on within eyesight of our carts on stage. Clothing and packs were done in the dressing trailer. The helmets and final fits were done on the stage. This helped us to calm the energized actors and work both front and back of the actors and stunts suiting up. We always got a “good to go” check before anyone left our care and walked onto the set. If there was an issue, we could address it right there with eyes on and all within COVID protocols with less people and more space at each step. Production adjusted the expectations to give us the needs to make good. Then we all got better at the process together.

On first unit, we had six Shure transmitters going along with six IEM systems for the mix minus back to the talent, and then I had some Lectrosonics units running for boom and plants plus my crew IFB and video village on a Lectro IFB system. At no time did we have interference due to the homework in design and frequency selection Peter Schneider performed for us. We had full scans of all stages ahead of time, and we had the full cooperation of all departments using RF devices, i.e., walkies, running lights, camera crew, crane, controlling special effects gear, or visual effects capture devices.

As much effort we put in to making the helmets work, we had to consider setups with the helmets off. OFF due to storyline and OFF due to the actor being off camera, and the helmets are a pain to put on and off long into the day. Having the same connectors on the harness break point as my own lav mics was a convenient savings. This was important since my transmitter system was different from the spacesuit units. Zach, our Boom Op, could see the first time an actor snuck up on set without a helmet and quickly pull a lav out of his boom stand kit to connect the actor back into our channel lineup … so the actors isolated in the helmets could hear the non-helmet person in the dialog runs or just any other interaction. Having these extra lav mics were good for backups, and good for on-set workflow, as well as those extra lines of dialog for post.

I had lived through and learned more about other shows having the on-or-off face shield issue. Our helmets could remove the face shield for reflection issues. That was a bonus for us giving a more natural voice to record without lots of pressure build-up on those loud lines. Post can then decide what the flavor of that is to be in the final. With the shields on for the wide coverage, there is of course, the enclosed bubble sound of the helmets and then the fans running to keep the shield clear of moisture. Auto mixing and Cedar NRS on that comm channel did improve the clarity on the comm feeds in keeping with the FS II system. I got decent scratch recordings to hand off to post on those. On the tighter coverage with the shields off, I was happy that we could quickly flip our gain settings for a better base line voice worthy of the cinema venue. The helmet shields changed often and at times without much warning, so again having networked gear to keep up was impactful to us all.

I want to thank our splinter unit crew of mixer Richard Schexnayder and Boom Op Leonard Suwalski, and Jared Lawrie and Lewis Rhodes as our 2nd Tech Comm Daily Operators.

This was a fulfilling project to work on because we had support in time and resources to select people and the gear suited to the task. Computers and the ability to network the gear were our friends. We were given the time to sort out issues as they revealed themselves to us. We had a plan and committed to it and identified the bits that were not working and got rid of those in favor of something better. We had leadership that led by the idea to be fully engaged, stay calm, and carry on because the pumpkin time is coming for our young actors.

No doubt being contained on stages was a big help versus a live expansive location exposed to the weather elements and more RF density. Without the homework, networked gear and evolved knowledge, the friendly walls of that stage keeping our outer space cold in and the hot summer rains out, could very well have been those same prison walls of stomach aching hell lurking from the past.

We Congratulate All the Winners!

MOTION PICTURE – LIVE-ACTION

DUNE
Production Mixer: Mac Ruth CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Ron Bartlett CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Douglas Hemphill CAS
Scoring Mixer: Alan Meyerson CAS
ADR Mixer: Tommy O’Connell
Foley Mixer: Don White
Production Sound Team: György Mihályi, Senior 1st AS,
Áron Havasi, 1st AS, Eliza Zolnai, 2nd AS

MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED

Encanto
Original Dialogue Mixer: Paul McGrath CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: David E. Fluhr CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Gabriel Guy CAS
Song Mixer: David Boucher CAS
Scoring Mixer: Alvin Wee
ADR Mixer: Doc Kane CAS
Foley Mixer: Scott Curtis

MOTION PICTURE – DOCUMENTARY

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Production Mixer: Emily Strong
Re-Recording Mixer: Paul Hsu
Re-Recording Mixer: Roberto Fernandez CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Paul Massey CAS
Music Mixer: Jimmy Douglass
Production Sound Team: Alan Chow, Aisha Hallgren,
Rich Mach, Mike Stahr, Emily Strong

NON-THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURE OR LIMITED SERIES

Mare of Easttown
S1 Ep. 6 “Sore Must Be The Storm”
Production Mixer: Richard Bullock
Re-Recording Mixer: Joseph DeAngelis CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Chris Carpenter
Production Sound Team: Tanya Peele, Kelly Lewis

TELEVISION SERIES – ONE HOUR

Yellowstone: S4 Ep. 1 “Half the Money” 
Production Mixer: Andrejs Prokopenko
Re-Recording Mixer: Diego Gat CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Samuel Ejnes CAS
ADR Mixer: Michael Miller CAS
ADR Mixer: Chris Navarro CAS
Production Sound Team: Andrew Chavez, Danny Gray

TELEVISION SERIES – HALF HOUR

Ted Lasso: S2 Ep. 5 “Rainbow”
Production Mixer: David Lascelles AMPS
Re-Recording Mixer: Ryan Kennedy
Re-Recording Mixer: Sean Byrne CAS
ADR Mixer: Brent Findley CAS MPSE
ADR Mixer: Jamison Rabbe
Foley Mixer: Arno Stephanian CAS MPSE
Production Sound Team – Emma Chilton, Andrew Mawson, Michael Fearon

TELEVISION NON-FICTION, VARIETY, MUSIC SERIES or SPECIALS

The Beatles Get Back: Part 3
Production Mixer: Peter Sutton (dec.)
Re-Recording Mixer: Michael Hedges CAS
Re-Recording Mixer: Brent Burge
Re-Recording Mixer: Alexis Feodoroff
Music Mixer: Giles Martin
Music Mixer: Sam Okell
Foley Mixer: Michael Donaldson
 

OUTSTANDING PRODUCT PRODUCTION

Shure Incorporated for the Axient Digital ADX5D Dual-Channel Wireless Receiver

OUTSTANDING PRODUCT POST-PRODUCTION

Dolby Laboratories for the Dolby Atmos Renderer 3.7 

STUDENT RECOGNITION AWARD

Lily Adams, Savannah College
of Art and Design

Career Achievement Award

Paul Massey CAS

Filmmaker Award

Sir Ridley Scott

AMPS AWARD WINNER 2022

DUNE
Ron Bartlett, Gyorgy Mihalyi, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Theo Green

BAFTA AWARD Winner 2022

DUNE
Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Doug Hemphill, Theo Green, Ron Bartlett

OSCARS AWARD Winner 2022

DUNE
Doug Hemphill, Theo Green, Mark Mangini, Ron Bartlett, Mac Ruth

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

by Ric Teller

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 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 to avoid intermodulation were made with pencil and paper. I can’t recall how many RFs were in use at that Grammys, probably not that many compared with the shows we do now, but he made them work flawlessly. We hoped this new RF Coordinator position would catch on. Slowly, it became a reality, more and more shows added the position. For the record, twenty years later in 2008, the Academy of Country Music Awards Show held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, still did not have an RF Coordinator. There were thirty-eight RFs, predominately Shure, a few Sennheiser, and a couple from Audio-Technica, ugh. After many prayers to Our Lady of the Clean Frequency, I’m happy to report all went well. By the way, I recently found out that ugh is not officially part of the Audio-Technica name, maybe just an implied post-nominal.

In the ensuing years, there is no doubt that the position of RF Coordinator has changed drastically. The hardware has become more stable with numerous technical advancements, including the ability to make changes in the transmitter wirelessly. For example, if an unfriendly signal (a bogey) is detected, with the right system you can now change the frequency of one of your transmitters while it is on talent. When possible, RF Coordinators make advance on-site readings with a spectrum analyzer. That and knowing the characteristics of familiar venues is very helpful in pre-planning the allocation of available frequencies. Software such as IAS (Intermodulation Analysis System) by Professional Wireless Systems, and Wireless Workbench from Shure, assist in frequency selection and provide real-time information about RF signal strength, audio level, battery life, and potential interference. The strategy for a big entertainment show often includes the organization of RF mics by function (production, performance, instruments, etc.), a layout for the physical arrangement of the RF rack or racks, and an antenna design which may range from simple to complex, usually a function of the coordinator and vendor.

As the quantity of RFs has gone up (I had two shows last year with nearly seventy, and this year at ACM’s, oh my!), the usable frequency spectrum has diminished. In a series of government auctions, all the 700 MHz and most of the 600 MHz bands have been sold to private companies. With the transition to digital television in 2009, a repack or reassignment of TV channels to fit into the remaining space that has not been auctioned further reduced usable frequencies for RF mics. One bit of favorable technology is that nearly all RF PL’s have disappeared from the RF mic frequency spectrum, most now use the 1.9 DECT systems.

An unexpected change in our use of RFs has come as part of COVID-19 protocols. We no longer use a mic on multiple people without a thorough cleaning. This often requires additional units. In the case of a familiar quiz show, pre-COVID, we would use the same three contestant mics all day moving them from one group of players to the next. Now the A2, Mitch Trueg, mics everyone at the beginning of the day requiring much more hardware. I’ll take a dozen RF lavs for $200.

Near the beginning of this ramble, I reminisced about Hour Magazine and the two Vega RFs. Last September, I worked on The Tony Awards, where we had nearly seventy, and in December, we equaled that amount on The Kennedy Center Honors. The Justino Diaz Tribute at the Kennedy Center featured seven principals and sixteen in the chorus, all singing on hair mics. That was immediately followed by the tribute to Lorne Michaels with another fourteen RFs, almost all lavs. Easily the busiest back-to-back segments in all my years on that show. Or any show.

In Las Vegas, for this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards at the new 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium, RF technicians Stephen Vaughn and Corey Dodd from Soundtronics Wireless began planning several weeks ahead of the early March show date to put together the RF package. About a month out, Corey traveled to the stadium and did a multiple location spectrum analysis inside and outside the venue. Using those readings, a frequency plan was developed. The size of the venue and distances between the four areas assigned for performance and production required two separate filtered antenna systems for the microphones. One was divided into six diversity zones to cover three stages, the other used a Wisycom antenna-over-fiber system to overcome the long runs to the far end of the stadium. Next, hardware was assigned. The show’s thiry-two Shure PSM1000 IEM (in-ear monitor) units were programmed into the quietest available spectrum. The next cleanest frequencies were used for the twenty-four Shure Axient host and production hand mics followed by performance vocal mics, eight Sennheiser 6000’s in the A1-A4 and A5-A8 bands, and thirty Shure Axients in the G57 and X55 ranges. The last bit of the microphone puzzle was the addition of twenty-five Shure UHF-R bodypacks for instruments like acoustic guitars.

So, let’s review. Stephen and Corey found frequencies for thirty-two IEM’s and eighty-seven microphones. If that wasn’t enough (hint, it was), the comms department added in one hundred twenty-five Bolero wireless RF PL’s made by Reidel all on the 1.9G Hz DECT system. The two-hour live show with twenty-two performances, award presentations, and three hosts spread on stages all over Allegiant Stadium provided the lead A2, Steve Anderson, and his record-setting crew plenty to keep busy.

As my grandma Nellie used to say, “And that’s that.”