William Sarokin needs no introduction to New York sound crew.

As every sound team knows, working a weekly TV episodic gives new meaning to the word "pace". Add in cost-conscious producers, outdoor location work in New York City shooting an action-adventure production heavy on gunshots, rooftop chase scenes, and street noise, plus a shooting schedule of 10 pages a day, and you've got a recipe for burnout.

"We couldn't have done it without Audio Limited", says Billy Sarokin, who went out and ordered the expensive ($17,000) and scarce-as-hen's-teeth UHF diversity radio mic system the day he and, again George Leong and Rick Murphy signed on for episodes five through 27.

Crystal-controlled, the system's radios have fewer channels per radio than, say a frequency-synthesised PLL design, but they are much more selective and less prone to interference. Deemed "the biggest first-aid kit for sound-men ever", the set-up delivered flawless dialogue takes even in dull zones and performance the crew said rivaled hard wire.

Other ways to skin a cat at speed included dropping cable over rooftops and out windows to Sarokin's sound cart on the street rather than waste precious minutes schlepping gear up seven flights of stairs, and taping body mics under actors' woolly hats, to cut down on actors going for their guns and ripping out transmitters as they drew.

Favorite location moments: tots crowded around Sarokin's mixing board sidewalk-side, entranced with the custom hot-pink black and white mini video monitor, and teasing to push all the faders. Cast and crew mixed with real undercover cops in an obscure Greek diner steps away from the recently beefed-up HQ of the DEA, whose "antenna farm" required changing production radio frequencies and monitoring video channels on the fly. (Tip: The real cops have jackets that really bulge).

Also, yesterday we were filming a scene for NY UNDERCOVER. There was a dialogue bit followed by a police chase.  During the chase one of the characters pulled for his gun white running top speed. The gun caught his transmitter and the RMS2000 went flying about 15' in the air, hit the ground and slid another 30-40'. The Tram mic was destroyed but the transmitter itself seems fine. If it stays fine I'll continue using it until I receive my new units and than send it in to have it checked ( I would imagine the crystal couldn't have been improved by the jolt). I was amazed though that it still worked.