wireless microphone, as the name implies, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated. Various individuals and organizations claim to be the inventors of the Wireless Microphone. Reg Moores developed a radio microphone that was first used in "Alladin on Ice" in 1949. John F. Stephens developed an FM wireless microphone for a Navy musical show in 1951 on the Memphis Naval base. Each of the principal players/singers had their own microphone/transmitter. Subsequently, the Secret Service had Stephens modify his invention to be used in government "bugging" operations. In the '60s, Stephens marketed his more famous capstanless multitrack recorder/reproducers. Shure Incorporated claims that its "Vagabond" system from 1953 was the first. In 1957 German audio equipment manufacturer Sennheiser, at that time called Lab W, working with the German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) exhibited a wireless microphone system. From 1958 the system was marketed through Telefunken under the name of Mikroport. Raymond A. Litke, an American electrical engineer with Educational Media Resources and San Jose State College, invented the wireless lavalier microphone in 1957 to meet the multimedia needs for classroom instruction. He patented the first practical wireless microphone in May 1961, using the lavalier cable as an antenna. Litke coined the term “lavalier microphone”, including the word in his patent application. The main transmitter module was a cigar-sized device which weighed seven ounces. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Litke 12 frequencies at his approval hearing. Also called the Vega-Mike after Vega Electronics Corporation which first manufactured it in 1960, the midget device was used by the broadcast media at the 1960 Democratic and Republican conventions. It allowed reporters to roam the floor of the convention to interview participants where Presidential candidates Kennedy and Nixon were the first celebrities to use the wireless microphone. The American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) completed testing in 1959 and 1960, prior to the convention. Television anchor John Daly was exuberant with his praises for Litke's invention. The wireless microphone was also tested at the Olympic trials held at Stanford University in 1959. Litke attributes the inspiration of his invention to the winged communication of the bee. Another German equipment manufacturer, Beyerdynamic, claim that first wireless microphone, was invented by Hung C. Lin. Called the "transistophone", it went into production in 1962. It is claimed that the first time a wireless microphone was used to record sound during filming of a motion picture was on Rex Harrison in the 1964 film My Fair Lady. However, Litke's microphone was the first used for public broadcasting by ABC at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1960 where Presidential candidates Kennedy and Nixon were the first celebrities to use the wireless microphone. Furthermore, Vega Electronics Corporation was manufacturing Litke's hand-held wireless in 1960. That was the beginning of a workable and dependable wireless microphone. Modern wireless microphone technology, which for the first time offered performance with audio and dynamic range equivalent to a cord, originated with the introduction of the first compander wireless microphone offered by Nady Systems, Inc in 1976 according to company claims. Nady systems, Inc was honored with an Emmy award for this breakthrough technical achievement in 1996. More commonly known as a Radio Microphone, there are many different standards, frequencies and transmission technologies used to replace the microphone's cable connection and make it into a wireless microphone. They can transmit, for example, in radio waves using UHF or VHF frequencies, FM, AM, or various digital modulation schemes. Some low cost models use infrared light. Infrared microphones require a direct line of sight between the microphone and the receiver, while costlier radio frequency models do not. Some models operate on a single fixed frequency, but the more advanced models operate on a user selectable frequency to avoid interference, and allow the use of several microphones at the same time.
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