What Would You Do?

I would like to hear what others think about this situation. Please write in your comments about how you would respond to this.

The other day at work my co worker and I were having a discussion about what to do when a wireless microphone goes down during an event. We both have seen the following happen:

The presenter is giving a talk and suddenly their wireless microphone stops working for some reason. The presenter steps up to a wired mic on a stand used by a singer. What do you do as the Sound Tech?

This is what happened in the event I was at; the, presenter stepped up to three different microphones and the tech did nothing. It took about 10 mins to get a replacement mic to the presenter. That means there was about 10 minutes of nothing happening. The presenter, a comic, did engage the front couple of rows and made light of it. He even mimed in front of the other mics so the tech should have taken the cue. There were about 6000 people in attendance so the majority of attendees just sat there listening to nothing.

When the same issue happened to me this is how I responded and how I would have responded at the above event.

First, turn on the microphone the presenter walked up to, adjusting the level only to prevent possible feedback. Then get someone to replace the wireless mic. Yes, I know the wired mic wasn’t eq’ed for the presenter but for a temporary fix, this is in my opinion, the best solution. It allows the presenter to keep on going and keep on schedule with a minimum of interruption. And it means the audience isn’t bored while waiting for a new mic.

What would you do and why?