"What do I do when the pastor forgets to turn on his wireless microphone?" – this is a common question I receive. Having been in this position, there are a few steps that can be taken to prevent this problem from ever occurring as well as
minimizing the problem when it does occur.
First, check that it's not something on your end. As you are asking the question, I'm assuming you already know that but let me explain. One time I walked into church on a Sunday morning and another one of the tech guys was at church early and had free time so he set up the stage for me. When the pastor started the service, there was no sound from the wireless. His channel was on and up so I thought he forgot to turn it on.
In actuality, the other sound tech had turned on all of the components except the wireless receiver. As I saw "everything" was on and the wireless mic was gone, I thought everything was good to go. While I should have caught this in the
sound-check portion of the morning, I didn't. I'm human. So always check power to your components.
Establish a Process
The morning during the sound check, I replace the wireless battery if needed and test the volume level. Right before the service starts, I make sure the wireless channel is muted and I give the pastor the wireless microphone with the power turned on. This way he doesn't have to worry about turning it on. This will prevent most problems. :)
Sometimes, for a reason known only to the pastor, he decides to turn off the wireless microphone after I give it to him. It's rare, but it happens. If he starts talking without turning it back on, I just hold up an 8×11 piece of paper with big letters that say "TURN MIC ON."
Note some receivers show you when the transmitter is on or off so you can catch the person before they take the stage.
Wireless issues such as this are typically the result of a process issue. By starting a standard process for handling the pastor's wireless microphone, from sound check to handing it to him with the power on, the chance of stage goofs is reduced.
What bad experience have you had with a wireless mic mishap? What process works for you?
Joseph Cardana says
April 3, 2015 at 9:07 pmOur Pastor took the stage and began talking. After a few words, I noticed I can’t hear him. I checked my Mute (off), Receiver signal (green), Gain (set), Input signal (nothing). I asked him if it’s muted on his end. He looked down and said no. I muted his channel, grabbed two batteries and headed up. While going to the stage another team member “my backup” had the thought to increase gain. But after not getting any signal, he didn’t lower the gain. I’m heading back to the booth, Pastor has new batteries and starts talking again “I don’t know what the difference is.” he said. Just before I got to the booth, my “backup” board op, turn off the mute! Well you know what happened. His voice boomed over the speakers because at that time, I didn’t know about the compressor. His batteries checked out fine… I dunno.
Jonathan says
September 23, 2012 at 1:23 amJust seeing this post. My church is completely wireless when it comes to vocal mics. We have one that we call the “community” mic for everyone that does announcements. Well, last week, we had two people doing announcements, and the Pastor’s Wife decided that they would both have a mic instead of handing the community mic off. So she grabbed one of the singer’s mics and gave it to the other person. That mic was turned off by the singer (which is normal when they leave.the stage) and she went the whole announcement without any amplification. Mrs. Pastor was looking at the sound booth the whole time, and there was nothing that could be done. She didn’t even offer her mic to the girl doing the announcement.