Nick has spent the last 19 years working in the sound industry. He began his formal education in sound from the bottom - learning to coiling and cleaning speaker cables. He has since come a long way and has worked on many big name concerts and tours in Asia and in the UK. Nick is currently employed as the Head of Sound of a major production rental house based in Singapore.
Radio Runners have a pretty hard job to do. Running of radios, radio running, the mic guy, the mic girl, the mic person. They are called many things, but the job is really about one thing and one thing only - to get a good input into the mic. In Part One I covered the basics of the runner’s role and coordinating with the speakers. In Part Two I will elaborate on batteries and communication.
The changing of batteries.
If done wrongly, old ‘used’ batteries might just end up in the transmitters again. Many runners have their own individual method when it comes to changing the batts (batteries). Some are very comfortable with keeping to their own formula... which work. However runners should also learn from one another .
Try not to change the transmitters one by one. The batts you take out might end up mixed with new batts. If you have, let’s say, 20 to change, and if you have someone to assist you, you both might forget which are the ones that have fresh batts, which ones have not. A simple method a runner could follow is to take out ALL the batteries from the transmitters. Get rid of them. Then get out the new batts and put them in. In this way there is no confusion of which batts are old or new.
Contact with the Snd Op.
If all goes according to the plan/rundown, then all is fine. If it does not, then instant contact between runner(s) and Snd Op is needed. While the show is going on, runners should also be pre fading the inputs at the radio racks. Every now and then, before handing the mics out, a runner must listen.
This section is based on ballroom type shows, e.g., conferences. I will deal with the subject of theatre scenarios in a later article.
Now, If things don’t go to plan, it could be for a few reasons:
A: An extra mic is needed on stage.
B: A mic dies suddenly on/off stage.
C: Frequency problems arising out of the blue.
D: Transmitter being damaged.
E: Transmitter not turned On.
All the five reasons requires a change of sorts which the Snd Op needs to know ASAP. Your best bet is for both to carry a set of walkie-talkies. The Runner and Snd Op has to turn on their sets at all times.
If A happens, get a new mic onstage while letting the Snd Op know which one it is. All the op needs to do is to make it “live”. In the general run down of things, you should have one dedicated mic for this type of emergency. If it is that one mic being pushed up onstage, its easy. If there are more than one, the Snd Op just needs to know which is the other extra mic.
If B crops up, and the speaker is using a clip-on mic, immediately pass the speaker a handheld. There isn’t any time to put a new clip-on mic on them. Usually there is no other way than going onstage to pass the mic because there might not even be time to pass the mic to the speaker’s assistant - you have to do it. If it’s offstage, change it fast to a new mic and inform the Snd Op. Once the change is done onstage, check the faulty mic out at the racks and try to fix the mic as fast as possible.
If C happens, change the mic onstage if need be. Also check the frequencies again at the rack.
If D happens, which is rarely, however in such cases its likely the unit was dropped or liquid entered into it.
If E happens, shout at the MC. Turning Off and turning On a transmitter is not a good thing. When a unit is turned On, the receiver will be actively looking for that unit through the whole frequency spectrum. If the fader to this mic is up (live receiver), the receiver might pick something up on its way to finding the allocated frequency. This “something” will be heard live. Rule of thumb: During show times, always leave units turned On or Off. Try not to On/Off any of your transmitters.
Runners also have to be fast on their feet. Know where the location of the speakers are. Approach them in rehearsals and tie down where they are seating. I always do this with my speakers. Meet and greet them. It’s faster than going through 3 layers of their personal assistants. You need to know where they sit. You need to know where they get off the stage. Don’t forget, you need that particular transmitter back for the next speaker and while all this is happening, another speaker is going onstage and you need to be around too. A speaker might come down stage right instead of stage left. You need to be there before they walk away with your transmitter. If they do, let them go. You have things to do in the stage area. Take note: That mic is “out of action” until you get it back. Plan your mics. Where are your spares? If a new transmitter needs to be used, Snd Op must know the deviation from the plan.
What happens if there is a clip-on and a handheld used in the “dual role” format? As mentioned above, try not to On/Off any transmitters during a show. In this case, if this dual role format is being used, its a high chance that very few transmitters/receivers are being used. The frequency finding issue won’t be that great. The Snd Op does not have time to deal with things going on backstage, and that job will fall solely to the radio runner (from a mic input point of view), and if the runner is also the system person backstage, than that too.
Simply put
The Radio Runner is the Snd Op’s main person backstage. The job of the runner is to get a good input into the correct transmitter receiver into the correct channel strip up FOH way in order for the Snd Op to produce a good output.
You can reach Nicholas at:
nicholas@glorious.com.sg
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