A wet & windy winter doesn't mean I've retreated to the comfort of Alfred Place. I recently joined one of our customers on location, where they were filming a popular weekly TV show. There had been some on-site problems with wireless microphone performance, and I offered to help out by investigating as to whether the issue was spectrum related. With the studio nestled amongst small industrial premises, there was scope for all manner of electrical noise in the area.
I was able to check there were no signals from external sources, such as local TV transmitters, unlicensed users, arc welders ( ! ) etc, - as well as other equipment on the set. Using one of our RF Analysers I could look across a range of mic frequencies - and in time domain too. This device would show up short bursts of interfering signals and even glitches in the mic signal.
It is so sensitive that it could detect one of the microphone frequencies after a presenter had left the set for a crafty ciggy break. The mic receiver rack had muted, my spectrum display had fallen into the noise, but a thin line remained on the screen’s waterfall display – it’s the second line from the left of the display in the picture below.
At the end of the visit I was confident the spectrum at the location was clean. The earlier problems haven’t re-occurred, and filming has continued since unhindered – so the problem has been attributed to a rogue event. However, it was, as always, great to meet some of our end users on the ground and provide some support during their busy schedule. My only regret was, me being so organised, I’d packed some sandwiches, so had to decline the offer of some legendary location catering. Maybe next time.