Wireless in Building with Tin Roof

S

Sumfun

Veteran
I will told that wireless mics will not work in a building with a tin roof. Is this true? If so, any suggestions to improve reception?

We will be shooting next week in a flea market, which consists of a lot of buildings with tin roofs. I can't remember if I've shot in these types of buildings before, but I've never had much problems with wireless reception, because usually I'm pretty close to the transmitter (~10 feet).
 
Mic on a Hot Tin Roof

Mic on a Hot Tin Roof

Even if one is 10', make sure one has 'line of sight' between the antennas, and one is not near metal pillars, cages, or whatever. The basic problem is the metal acts as an RF mirror, and so at the receiving antenna, one has a cacophony of the original signal, if the distance between the antennas is large, that cacophony can interfere significantly with the desired signal.

Since most of my looking at wireless mic signals was from strictly 'line of sight', I don't know how much the signal is attenuated when the mic antenna is placed on the back of a human body, and that body is between the mic antenna and the receiving base antenna...

But in all these sorts of things, pre-shoot testing is in order if there are questions...

I had wanted to title this response: "Mic on a Hot Tin Roof"... but I don't see it coming up... but I digress...
 
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Thanks guys. Unfortunately our schedule doesn't allow any time for testing. But we're bringing some boom mics to cover our butts.
 
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