Walpole, MA, USA, August 28, 2025 — When you’re chasing clean audio in remote, rugged terrain with cameras rolling across a half-kilometer set, gear failure is not an option. That’s why veteran location sound mixer Ben McDonald relies on the RF Venue Diversity Fin antenna, a product he calls “nothing short of miraculous,” to tackle some of the most demanding production environments on television today, including the hit FOX series Murder in a Small Town.
Operating under the banner of his company Soundscape 3, McDonald has spent nearly 20 years mixing sound for feature films and streaming series, much of it in the breathtaking but logistically challenging wilderness of British Columbia. He credits RF Venue’s Diversity Fin with making it all possible. “The Diversity Fin lets me pull off situations I don’t think would be possible with any other system, sometimes on a weekly basis, sometimes daily,” says McDonald. “From capturing audio within vehicle interiors to wide outdoor walk-and-talks to full-on action scenes over 500 meters of terrain, this antenna just works. Every time.”
Specifically, Murder in a Small Town frequently demands capturing dialogue across long, continuous takes involving vehicle interiors, wide establishing shots, and Steadicam operators in dense woods. “On a typical day, I might be running eight wireless channels across three cameras: one in a vehicle, one as a wide establishing shot, and a Steadicam deep in the woods, covering 500 meters or more,” says McDonald. “And I have to position my antenna so that it’s hidden from the shot yet perfectly placed between all three camera locations to avoid dropouts, and I’m able to pull it off consistently. My mics are a typically a combination of DPA, Schoeps and of course, the Sanken CS-3 short shotgun. The Diversity Fin gives me the confidence to know I’ll get everything without dropouts, even in the most unforgiving RF environments.”
McDonald typically runs 50–100 feet of BNC cable to mount the Diversity Fin in a position hidden from camera but equidistant from action. Indoors, he’ll plant the antenna on banisters or around corners. Outdoors, it goes on 20-foot stands or inconspicuous mounts, always pushing the limits of range, and always delivering.
McDonald’s Diversity Fin has survived eight years of punishing fieldwork — including three plunges into the Pacific Ocean, being blown across a helipad by a helicopter rotor, smashed on the ground four times, and even blasted by a windstorm that snapped off one of its ears. “A production assistant once came up to me and said, ‘Hey Ben, I never told you this, but a year ago when we were working together, I knocked your antenna into the ocean.’ We were on a show with multiple barges, each of us on our own little platform, and he explained that after it fell in, he fished it out, reset it, and never mentioned it until that moment.” It has even been blasted by a windstorm, snapping off one of its ears, which was repaired locally in just an afternoon. Despite this extreme punishment, the antenna continues to perform flawlessly, prompting McDonald to joke that his original Fin might never break. “My Diversity Fin lives in a laptop case, and I keep it tucked safely in the sound cart between shoots. I do have a backup, but honestly, I’ve never had to use it. Still, every day I’m amazed it continues to function perfectly.”
“‘Man against the elements’ is a phrase that comes to mind with my use of the Diversity Fin,” stated McDonald. With location shoots often subject to freezing temperatures, rain, and unpredictable terrain, McDonald builds his kits for resilience. “I love RF Venue products because they’re built for people like me, sound mixers who work far from the controlled comfort of a studio,” he says. “Out here in Canada, we’re in the rain, the mud, and temperatures ranging from just below freezing to minus 40 degrees. My gear has to endure hours of harsh weather, day after day. When I’m in the wilderness for weeks at a time, like right now in the center of Vancouver Island, anything that extends my range and keeps the audio rock-solid is invaluable.”
The Diversity Fin’s unique cross-polarized design combines a log periodic antenna for vertical signal capture with a ninety-degree offset dipole for horizontal reception — ensuring true diversity reception from a single, compact unit. The result: exceptional range, drop-out resistance, and placement flexibility in any environment. McDonald’s simply stated final thoughts: “For mixers like me, who live outside and fight for every foot of range, this is the only antenna that makes sense.”