The restrictive nature of a microphone cable upon the mobility of the user is almost too obvious to mention. Now that television seems to be here to stay, viewers are more than ever aware of the sometimes painful antics which performers must use to overcome the inconvenience of being tethered by the microphone cable. The obvious answer to this problem is to provide a small boy to keep the cable dressed properly at all times, if the master of ceremonies must hurry down the aisle to catch an immortal burst of wisdom from the audience, for it is equally obvious that the man on the boom microphone can't quite extend that boom that far. Or better, some astute manufacturer might provide a microphone cable of very elastic, conductive rubber. In this situation, it is dreadful to contemplate the results if the connector were to let go when the master of ceremonies was interviewing a housewife in the last row. Numerous attempts have been made, from time to time over the years, to eliminate the cable by using Hertzian waves. Some of these attempts have been rather rewarding. And some have fed more noise than intelligence into the mixer. Weight, bulkiness, acoustic quality, radio noise, radiated pattern have all been problems in these earlier systems.
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