Mixer Muses on Manhattan RF

New York, NY (November 1, 2024)—Wrangling wireless audio in Manhattan can be tricky, but production mixer Brett Ainslie says he has assembled the kit that can make it happen.

“The RF environment in New York City is very difficult at the best of times,” Ainslie comments. “Then, when productions come to New York, they often want to shoot in the busiest RF area—like Times Square. I’ve used exclusively the [Lectrosonics] Digital Hybrid stuff for at least the last 10 years, and it rolls like a tank.”

Ainslie mixes films, commercials, sporting events and reality TV series in Manhattan and its surrounding environs. Media brands that have employed his services include ABC, Bravo, Discovery, Disney, ESPN, Food Network, HBO, and the streaming platform Twitch. His personal kit consists exclusively of Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless; in particular, SRc dual-channel slot-mount receivers paired with SMQV transmitters. When he needs to maximize reception, these are supported by SNA600a dipole antennas.

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“Unlike how a lot of things are done on projects with more pre-production, I usually don’t have time for much frequency coordination ahead of time,” he says of working in Manhattan. “It could be ‘man on the street’-type interviewing or bouncing between lots of locations for an event like Fashion Week. Even on the rare occasion when we do have a little control over the environment, such as when we had one block closed off for a live-to-tape show, there’s still so much competing RF all around. Lectrosonics Hybrid is the wireless I trust the most to provide the reliability I need.”

Ainslie credits Lectrosonics’ RF tenacity for enabling him to continue working during the COVID pandemic, which upended production workflows. “I worked on a Hallmark film called Holiday in Harlem where they were shooting inside and outside a brownstone,” he recalls, “and my sound cart was outside on the sidewalk, along with the entire video village where the director’s monitors are set up. I set up the SNA600 antennas on my transmitter end for my camera hops, boom operator’s and director’s feed, and I never had to worry about dropouts. The work setup was something similar on any film or show I did during COVID, and the Digital Hybrid gear always performed flawlessly.”