Wireless technology is now fundamental to modern live production. From radio microphones and in-ear monitoring systems to comms, tracking and data transmission, the demands placed on RF systems across touring, festivals and large-scale events continue to grow. At the same time, the amount of available spectrum has steadily reduced, creating it increasingly complex to deliver reliable wireless performance.For engineers who have worked across that transition, the change is not simply technical. It represents a broader shift in how wireless is understood within productions. What was once a manageable part of the audio system has become critical infrastructure and a layer that now underpins the entire show.
This shift has not happened in isolation. It reflects decades of technical evolution across live production, from entirely wired analogue systems through to today’s highly interdependent, spectrum-reliant environments. In its Centennial year, RG Jones is uniquely placed within the industry and benefitting from that history, its staff, past and present, have a shared knowledge of how expectations, tolerance and working practices have changed over time. It is this understanding that sits behind the perspectives shared here.
To explore how this has played out in practice, RG Jones Pro Audio Commercial Manager, Sam Thomas, joined RG Jones alumni, FOH Engineer Steve Carr, Monitor Engineer Becky Pell and Mission Control’s Ali Viles to reflect on how spectrum pressure is reshaping the way wireless is planned, managed and relied upon at live events.
THE STATE OF PLAY
The challenges facing RF today exist within a wider ecosystem. Wireless spectrum is shared with everything from consumer electronics and mobile communications to emergency services and environmental monitoring systems. Live production operates within a relatively small portion of that spectrum, meaning that any reduction in available bandwidth has an immediate operational impact. The lack of global harmonisation of spectrum regulation only exacerbates the situation for touring productions.
Over the past two decades, spectrum auctions and reallocation for commercial use have steadily reduced the frequencies available for Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE). From early mobile network spectrum sales to more recent clearances, these changes have significantly constrained the space available for productions.
As Ali Viles, Director of Mission Control added, the hidden cost of these changes include the exponential rise in additional hours of specialist work to make large format productions happen. Work has to happen far in advance, requiring detailed regulatory knowledge as well as communication skills and intermodulation analysis. “Large touring productions often run 80 to 100+ wireless carriers, all of which need to work legally and interference-free, often in multiple countries,” stated Viles. “Each territory has its own regulatory framework, and licensing requirements vary significantly. These high channel counts and the continued reduction of usable spectrum around the world have raised the stakes considerably. There’s far less margin for error, making advance coordination with venues, local promoters, and regulatory bodies utterly essential rather than optional.”
Those combined pressures have fundamentally altered how wireless is managed on site, too. Becky Pell has years of touring experience, and part of her role is managing RF devices for the band once on site. “If you’re a small rental company or band, it’s expensive to buy the new gear to stay ahead of the curve as your old equipment may become unusable long before it’s actually at the end of its life,” she said. “I’m in the fortunate position of having the support of a full-time RF Tech on my tours, but the sophistication of RF co-ordination software and networked systems has been a huge help technically as spectrum space has become more densely populated.”
While tools have evolved, expectations have shifted even more dramatically. Demand for wireless is growing, shows are more ambitious, and the creative possibilities that wireless devices enable are expanding. This is something that becomes particularly clear when looking at how wireless is now relied upon at FOH. “The majority of important sources come to FOH via RF,” said Carr. “Show designers and artists want to push the limits of what’s possible when delivering to a captive audience. Without RF, we couldn’t create the interactive situations that the artist and audience have come to expect. That makes the RF engineer’s role imperative to any successful large-scale production. Without an RF tech, FOH would be a very anxious place.”
This growing reliance reflects a deeper shift within the industry. Where once wireless systems operated with an accepted level of risk, dropouts and interference being part of the working reality are simply not tolerated. “Twenty years ago, there were certain things you simply wouldn’t have trusted wirelessly,” Carr continued. “Now, entire productions depend on RF stability every night. The tolerance for failure is completely different.”
FACING THE CHALLENGE HEAD ON
That movement, from acceptable imperfection to near-zero-failure expectation, is something all three perspectives return to, albeit from different angles. As productions have become more ambitious and audience expectations have increased, RF has moved firmly onto the critical path of delivery.
For Mission Control’s RF co-ordination team, the same shift is most visible in the level of legislative knowledge and forward planning required to set up a show. In Viles’ experience, the RF co-ordination industry is helping to keep PMSE afloat with better practice and specialist expertise, while industry bodies like WMSA Europe and BIERG are working to prevent further reductions in allocation to safeguard wireless technology.
“Manufacturers have responded with improved tuning ranges and WMAS systems, but these are not magic solutions and often bring their own complexities and licensing challenges,” he continued. “Lighting fixtures and LED walls can also produce significant RF interference which needs to be taken into account at the design stage of a production, not handed to the RF coordinator to work around on load-in day.”
Wireless allocation is no longer something that can be resolved at the point of deployment. It has moved upstream into planning, design and system integration, requiring more time, more coordination and a far greater understanding of how it interacts with every other part of the production.
Manufacturers have responded to these pressures by developing more efficient technologies capable of delivering higher channel counts within tighter bandwidths. Advances such as wideband tuning and the development of Wireless Multi-channel Audio Systems (WMAS) have allowed engineers to make more effective use of the all the available spectrum.
“Wideband frequency agility has been a really helpful development,” Pell added. “Early systems might have had a bandwidth of around 32MHz, and very early systems offered only one or two usable frequencies. Now we have far greater flexibility to move around problem areas. With developments like WMAS and the wider digital shift, we’re no longer thinking about frequencies in quite the same way. The way we work with RF is changing completely.”
However, greater efficiency has not reduced the pressure. If anything, it has enabled further expansion. Productions now rely on significantly more wireless channels, while the wider proliferation of wireless technologies across other sectors continues to place additional demands on a finite resource.
Regulatory bodies are continuing to examine how this demand can be managed. Ofcom’s recent Call for Input (CFI) into the future requirements of wireless technology highlights the challenge of balancing competing needs across multiple sectors. While emerging technologies and potential integration with 5G infrastructure may offer some relief, there is a shared understanding that the underlying constraints are unlikely to ease.
“This is ultimately an infrastructure issue, not an end-user issue,” said Thomas. “The industry isn’t going to become less reliant on wireless technology. If anything, that dependence will continue to grow. That means the pressure on coordination, planning and spectrum management is only going to increase moving forward.”
For those working at the sharp end of live production, that reality is already embedded in day-to-day practice. Wireless systems are no longer something that can be adjusted reactively on site. They must be designed, planned and protected as part of the wider production framework.
As spectrum continues to tighten and production demands continue to rise, the discipline of RF coordination is becoming more formalised, more integrated and more critical to successful show delivery. What was once a flexible part of the audio toolkit has evolved into a constrained, essential system that forms the backbone of modern live events.
Words and photos: RG Jones Sound Engineering
