Friday is an OTA broadcast of the Prep Bowl, which is what they call the high school football championships here in Minnesota. First game is 8am (last game ends at midnight, YAY OVERTIME) so today was the setup day. We were having major issues with audio, buzzing on all mics and PLs. Well, while we were setting up a local R/C club was flying airplanes around in the Metrodome. At 3pm they started packing up to go home, and that's when the buzzing stopped. We had checked for that possibility earlier by asking them to ground their planes and stop transmitting for a minute, but I think somone might have left one lying around turned on somewhere because that didn't stop the problem at the time. Since we've never had this kind of problem in the past with the same cable drops and equipment (plus Fox Sports and MNF have been through here with no problems) I have to believe that the planes were the most likely cause of the problem.

This brings up an interesting problem. If a couple of R/C plane controllers can wreak so much havok on our audio, what if some people intent on sabotaging a broadcast for whatever reason brought some transmitters into an arena to screw it up on purpose? Pretend you're an R/C flying club and leave behind some transmitters in a place that won't get found by the cleaners. Or do it during something like the "roller skating around the concourse" events they have with similarly low security. On game day, you pass the pat-down screening, pick up your stash and start having fun. It's not exactly terrorism, but I can definitely see where there would be people who'd enjoy that kind of prank.

Thoughts?