Do we need a licence for the radio microphones?

Yes. Channel 38 (606-614 MHz) is a licensed band in the UK, so running radio mics on it needs a shared-use licence from Ofcom. Licences run annually and are held by the user, so a school can hold its own. Tell us about your dates when you enquire and we will talk you through what applies.

Is twelve radio mics enough for our cast?

Twelve covers most principal casts. The usual approach is to mic principals and named parts and let the room carry the chorus numbers. If you want the chorus reinforced as well, floor or boundary microphones along the front of the stage do that job and hire separately. If your show has more principals than twelve, send us the cast list when you enquire and we will go through the options with you.

Does the package include a PA?

Not the front-of-house PA, no. It does include two speakers to use as stage monitors, which is a different job — those point back at the cast so they can hear themselves, and most school halls have nothing that does. For the house system, halls vary enormously and a sports hall with a hard floor needs a very different PA to a 200-seat studio theatre, so we would rather match speakers to your room than bundle a set that may not suit it. Tell us the venue and we will quote the right system alongside.

Can someone come and run it for us?

Yes. Take the package as a dry hire and operate it yourselves, or ask us to supply a technician to rig it, run the sound check and mix your performances. If you do not have an in-house technical team, having a technician on the desk is usually the more straightforward option.

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School musical sound hire — the whole show in one booking

Miking a whole cast is the part of a school musical that keeps people awake at night. This package covers it in one booking: twelve headworn radio mics, a digital console, a stage box with a single cable run to front of house, and a pair of stage monitors so the cast can hear themselves. One price, one delivery. Hire it as a dry hire, or ask us to send a technician who will rig it, sound check it and mix your show.

Everything a school musical needs to sound right, in one hire.

At the centre is a twelve-way Trantec S5.3 headworn radio microphone system on Channel 38, enough to mic a full principal cast. It runs into a Behringer X32 digital console with 32 Midas preamps, so every performer gets their own channel, their own EQ and their own place in the mix. A Behringer S32 stage box sits in the wings and carries all 32 inputs back to front of house down a single 50m Cat5e reel, which saves dragging a multicore through a school hall. Two Alto TS210 active speakers come with it as stage monitors. Most school halls that have a PA at all have it pointed at the audience and nothing pointed back at the stage, so the cast sing into a room they cannot hear themselves in. A pair of wedges along the front edge fixes that, fed from the stage box on their own mix rather than sharing what the audience gets.

The reason schools book this as a package rather than piece by piece is scene recall. Set your levels in the technical rehearsal, save the scene, and the console comes back the same way every night. If a mic goes down between shows, you swap the beltpack rather than rebuild the mix.

Channel 38 is a licensed band in the UK, so a shared-use licence from Ofcom is needed to run the radio mics. Ask us when you enquire and we will talk you through what applies.

Hire it dry and run it yourselves, or add one of our technicians to rig, sound check and mix the show. Either way it arrives ready to work. Price is per day.

Suits school musicals, youth theatre, dance school productions, amateur dramatic societies and any hall show where a large cast has to be heard over a band.

What you get

Trantec S5.3 headworn radio microphone system, 12 channels on Channel 38 (606-614 MHz), supplied with receivers, beltpack transmitters, headworn microphones, aerials and batteries

Behringer X32 digital mixing console, 32 Midas mic preamps and 25 motorised faders

Behringer S32 digital stage box, 32 inputs and 16 outputs in a 3U case

50m Tourcat Cat5e reel, carrying the whole stage box back to front of house over AES50 on one cable

Two Alto TS210 active speakers to work as stage monitors — the cabinets are angled to lie down as wedges

XLR runs from the stage box out to the monitors are not counted in — say the word when you book and they travel in the same case

Front-of-house PA still sits outside this package — halls vary too much to bundle one. Tell us about your room and we will match a system to it

The Ofcom Channel 38 licence is arranged separately. Ask us and we will point you at what you need

Good for

School musicals with a principal cast of up to twelve mic'd performers

Youth theatre and stage school end-of-term productions

Dance school shows where solo numbers and comperes need radio mics

Halls with a house PA but nothing pointing back at the stage, which is most of them

Amateur dramatic society musicals in village halls and community centres

Shows with a live band or pit orchestra, where per-channel EQ and a proper foldback mix earn their keep

Productions running two or three performance nights from one technical rehearsal

What you need to know

What is in it: Twelve headworn radio microphones, a digital console, a stage box on a single cable run to front of house, and two speakers to use as stage monitors.
How many can wear a microphone: Twelve at once, which covers a full principal cast. For the chorus, ask about adding floor or boundary microphones along the front of the stage — they hire separately.
Monitors: Two of them, because most school halls with a PA have it aimed at the audience and nothing aimed back at the stage. They run on their own mix from the desk, so the cast hear what they need rather than what the front row gets.
Cable to front of house: One 50 metre drum from the stage box to the desk, so the sound position can be in the audience where it belongs.
Licence: The radio mics run on Channel 38, which needs Ofcom's shared wireless microphone licence. Ask us and we will tell you whether your school already holds one.
Who runs it: Most schools take an engineer with this one. Twelve radio mics is the part of a musical that goes wrong, and we would rather it did not.

Rates are per day and exclude VAT. A longer hire costs less per day — tell us your dates and we will price the period exactly. Ask us about delivery and hiring with a technician.

Alternatives

Trantec S5.3 radio microphone systems — the radio mic racks on their own, if you already have a desk and PA that can carry the show.

Behringer X32 desks — the console from this package on its own, if your radio mics and PA are already covered.

Floor and boundary microphones — for reinforcing the chorus along the front of the stage — hired alongside the package rather than inside it.

Full technical specification (23)

Weight	46.2 kg derived subtotal (X32 20.6 kg + S32 5.6 kg + 2 x TS210 at 10 kg). Radio mic receiver rack, beltpacks, headsets, aerials and the 50m cable drum are not published by their makers - weigh these in the warehouse before entering a package total
Power draw	Approx. 220 W derived total for the mic and mixing side (X32 120 W + S32 55 W + 12 Trantec receivers at approx. 3.6 W each). The two monitors draw their own mains on top; Alto publish no consumption figure for the TS210. No published package figure exists
Dimensions	No single package dimension - it ships as multiple cases. Console 900 x 528 x 200 mm; stage box 483 x 242 x 138 mm (3U); each monitor 527 x 323 x 305 mm
Radio mic channels	12 simultaneous channels
Radio mic band	UK Channel 38, 606-614 MHz. Trantec S5.3 G2 band covers 606-622 MHz
Radio mic receiver	Trantec S5.3 - dual diversity, PLL dual conversion. 9 banks x 12 channels. RF grid spacing 25 kHz, RF switching bandwidth 36 MHz typical, sensitivity <1 uV/12 dB SINAD
Radio mic audio performance	60 Hz - 20 kHz, dynamic range >110 dBA, distortion <0.8% at nominal deviation 22 kHz
Radio mic receiver aerial inputs	BNC 50 ohm, with 9 V at 60 mA short-circuit protected phantom on each RF port
Radio mic receiver power draw	300 mA at 12 V DC nominal per receiver (approx. 3.6 W)
Beltpack transmitter	Single AA alkaline cell, typically 8-10 hours minimum. 55 x 80 x 20 mm, 110 g. Gain range +2 dBm to -20 dBm in 10 steps
Mixing console	Behringer X32 - 40 input channels (32 input + 8 aux), 32 programmable Midas mic preamps, 16 aux buses, 6 matrices, main LRC, 25 motorised faders, 8 stereo FX engines, 100 scene memories
Console audio	24-bit at 44.1/48 kHz, 114 dB dynamic range, 40-bit floating point processing, 0.8 ms I/O latency
Console dimensions	900 x 528 x 200 mm (35.4 x 20.8 x 7.9 in)
Console weight	20.6 kg (45.4 lb)
Console power	120 W, 100-240 V 50/60 Hz switch-mode
Stage box	Behringer S32 - 32 XLR mic inputs with remote-controlled Midas preamps, 16 XLR outputs, 2 x AES50 etherCON, 1 x Ultranet etherCON, 2 x ADAT Toslink, 2 x AES/EBU XLR. 3U all-steel rack chassis
Stage box dimensions	483 x 242 x 138 mm (19 x 9.5 x 5.4 in)
Stage box weight	5.6 kg (12.4 lb)
Stage box power	55 W, 100-240 V 50/60 Hz switch-mode autorange
Stage to front of house link	50m Tourcat Cat5e F/UTP reel on a drum with Neutrik etherCON, carrying 32 in / 16 out over AES50 SuperMAC on a single cable
Stage monitors	2 x Alto TS210 - 10-inch 2-way active loudspeaker, 1100 W peak (700 W LF + 400 W HF), 550 W continuous RMS, 125 dB peak SPL at 1 m, 54 Hz - 20 kHz (+/-3 dB), 90 x 60 degree coverage
Stage monitor cabinet	Injection-moulded polypropylene with a steel grille, rear angled for wedge-monitor use; 2 x XLR/jack combo inputs, 1 x XLR link out, 220-240 V AC
Stage monitor size and weight	527 x 323 x 305 mm (H x W x D), 10 kg each

Common questions

Yes. Channel 38 (606-614 MHz) is a licensed band in the UK, so running radio mics on it needs a shared-use licence from Ofcom. Licences run annually and are held by the user, so a school can hold its own. Tell us about your dates when you enquire and we will talk you through what applies.
Twelve covers most principal casts. The usual approach is to mic principals and named parts and let the room carry the chorus numbers. If you want the chorus reinforced as well, floor or boundary microphones along the front of the stage do that job and hire separately. If your show has more principals than twelve, send us the cast list when you enquire and we will go through the options with you.
Not the front-of-house PA, no. It does include two speakers to use as stage monitors, which is a different job — those point back at the cast so they can hear themselves, and most school halls have nothing that does. For the house system, halls vary enormously and a sports hall with a hard floor needs a very different PA to a 200-seat studio theatre, so we would rather match speakers to your room than bundle a set that may not suit it. Tell us the venue and we will quote the right system alongside.
Yes. Take the package as a dry hire and operate it yourselves, or ask us to supply a technician to rig it, run the sound check and mix your performances. If you do not have an in-house technical team, having a technician on the desk is usually the more straightforward option.