Hello All,

Since we'll have to upgrade the system in our church at some point: What
would be a good wireless microphone system?

Probably 5-6 mikes and receivers, lapel and handheld mix. Later more
mikes and receivers. Currently we employ several Sennheiser as UHF
secondary users. RF-wise it's ok and a very robust system. But the mikes
run on 9V batteries and barely make it through two services, even with
the seven-cell Ansmann 9V/250mAh NiMH. Also, muting them creates a pop
noise, switching them off creates an even louder pop. I guess they don't
have a sub-carrier squelch. I am sure the system would probably cost a
few thousand but it should not cost as much as a car :-)

I wonder if there is any digital setup that works like a WLAN system.
Something with a battery life 5-6 hours.

Regards, Joerg
Cameron Park, California

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Joerg wrote:

Since we'll have to upgrade the system in our church at some point: What
would be a good wireless microphone system?

What's your budget?



Currently we employ several Sennheiser as UHF
secondary users. RF-wise it's ok and a very robust system. But the mikes
run on 9V batteries and barely make it through two services, even with
the seven-cell Ansmann 9V/250mAh NiMH. Also, muting them creates a pop
noise, switching them off creates an even louder pop. I guess they don't
have a sub-carrier squelch.

Which Sennheiser system(s) do you have now?




I wonder if there is any digital setup that works like a WLAN system.

No, but Zaxcom does have digital wireless. Amazing stuff, but not cheap.



Something with a battery life 5-6 hours.

Disposable lithiums should give you that or more in most systems.

Hello Kurt,

What's your budget?

That hasn't been set yet. We'll have to see what is out there, whether
it is a real improvement and then see how to fit that into the overall
budget.

Which Sennheiser system(s) do you have now?

EW100 receivers and then the corresponding lapels and handhelds, SK100
etc. Four receivers mounted in a rack, plus the diversity splitter.

We also have a really old Sure setup which would probably have to be
replaced. It isn't quite as good in that it easily reacts to noise but
it offers longer battery life. The battery life is why our pastor
typically uses that system.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

On Fri, 06 May 2005 20:25:16 GMT, Joerg
wrote:

Hello All,

Since we'll have to upgrade the system in our church at some point: What
would be a good wireless microphone system?

Probably 5-6 mikes and receivers, lapel and handheld mix. Later more
mikes and receivers. Currently we employ several Sennheiser as UHF
secondary users. RF-wise it's ok and a very robust system. But the mikes
run on 9V batteries and barely make it through two services, even with
the seven-cell Ansmann 9V/250mAh NiMH.

There's two AKG remotes (handheld that looks like a SM58 on
steroids, and a tiny lapel mic with a cigarette-pack sized
transmitter) at the church where I did sound, we always use the
handheld in a stand (so there's no cable for people to trip over), it
runs on two regular AA batteries, and running it about an hour a week
(sometimes two hours for a special event), batteries last about six
months (really!). It works well, but perhaps contributing factors are
it's in a steel building (shields interfering signals), and in the
suburbs (far away from most interfering signals).
I don't know what this costs, no doubt several hundred per channel,
but it could probably pay for itself just in battery savings over what
you're using now.

Also, muting them creates a pop
noise, switching them off creates an even louder pop.

The AKG does really well with this. The switch is three-position
with on, mute, and off. It switches quietly between any position and
any other.

One thing I learned doing sound for services and other events at
the church is don't give anyone a mic with a switch if you can help it
(a previous soundguy brought his own mics that had little clips in the
switch so you couldn't switch them off). The majority of the time that
I wasn't getting a signal in a channel was because someone turned off
the mic. What's worse with this remote mic is someone who has
previously turned it off may switch it from off to the mute position,
then wonder why it's not working.

Here's links to some of what I described:
http://www.akg.com/products//powersl...uage,E N.html
http://www.akg.com/products//powersl...uage,E N.html

AKG has a new system that does lots of neat stuff, scanning for
free frequencies and such:
http://www.akg.com/products//powersl...uage,E N.html

I get from the AKG site that if you're going to have 'more'
channels rather than 'fewer', you should go with the WMS 400 system
(which will surely cost more per channel). The batteries don't last as
long as the WMS 40 system (8 hours, still plenty for your services)
but at least they're rechargable. I wonder if you can mix-and-match
(buy a few cheaper channels with the 40 system, then later get extra
channels with the more versatile 400 system).

I guess they don't
have a sub-carrier squelch. I am sure the system would probably cost a
few thousand but it should not cost as much as a car :-)

It depends on the car. I bought my previous car for $3500, and it
only lasted 87,000 miles. I think Scott has everyone beat for getting
mileage out of a car.

I wonder if there is any digital setup that works like a WLAN system.

Hmm, I might be worried about latency. You know how those digital
things are...

Something with a battery life 5-6 hours.

Regards, Joerg
Cameron Park, California

http://www.analogconsultants.com

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

On Fri, 06 May 2005 20:25:16 GMT, Joerg
wrote:

Also, muting them creates a pop
noise, switching them off creates an even louder pop. I guess they don't
have a sub-carrier squelch. I am sure the system would probably cost a
few thousand but it should not cost as much as a car :-)


The sound operator should mute mics, not the user.

"Joerg" wrote ...
Since we'll have to upgrade the system in our church at some
point: What would be a good wireless microphone system?

Since this newsgroup is chartered for recording, wireless mics
approach the fringe of common topics. There are two other news-
groups were wireless mics are prime topics and frequently
discussed...
news:alt.audio.pro.live-sound (live sound reinforcement)
news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound (film & video sound)

Suggest also searching the groups.google.com archives in
the abovementioned newsgroups for recent discussions about
wireless mics. Several hours of good reading.

"Richard Crowley" wrote:

Since this newsgroup is chartered for recording, wireless mics
approach the fringe of common topics. There are two other news-
groups were wireless mics are prime topics and frequently
discussed...
news:alt.audio.pro.live-sound (live sound reinforcement)
news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound (film & video sound)

Suggest also searching the groups.google.com archives in
the abovementioned newsgroups for recent discussions about
wireless mics. Several hours of good reading.


At the risk of arguing an almost irrelevant point, rec.audio.pro is not
chartered for recording, it's about audio production, period.

From the FAQ: "This newsgroup exists for the discussion of issues and
topics related to professional audio engineering."

That has nothing to do with your suggestions, though. Your advice was
good.

--
"It CAN'T be too loud... some of the red lights aren't even on yet!"
- Lorin David Schultz
in the control room
making even bad news sound good

(Remove spamblock to reply)

You should seriously look at the Lectrosonics "Venue" system.
www.lectrosonics.com.


Eric

Hello Laurence,

The sound operator should mute mics, not the user.

Yes, and ultimately we'll be there. But right now there is no sound
operator.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Hello Eric,

You should seriously look at the Lectrosonics "Venue" system.
www.lectrosonics.com.

Thanks, I'll check them out again. So far I believe they are also UHF
secondary user but you have to pre-select a "band" before purchase. That
could be a problem with the reorganization of UHF in the wake of digital
TV (if terrestrial DTV ever really takes off, that is...).

The price tag of around $600 for the receiver modules looks ok.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Hello Richard,

Since this newsgroup is chartered for recording, wireless mics
approach the fringe of common topics. There are two other news-
groups were wireless mics are prime topics and frequently
discussed...
news:alt.audio.pro.live-sound (live sound reinforcement)
news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound (film & video sound)

Suggest also searching the groups.google.com archives in
the abovementioned newsgroups for recent discussions about
wireless mics. Several hours of good reading.

Thanks, will check them out.

Actually, this setup is not only for local audio but also recording. So
far only tape but we are trying digital recording. Not at studio
quality, of course.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Hello Eric,

You should seriously look at the Lectrosonics "Venue" system.
www.lectrosonics.com.

Something that puzzles me with systems like this is that while they are
encoding digitally they still transmit the data in FM. Also, the battery
life of, say, their UM400 is not longer than with our current system. It
still uses those 9V batteries.

There just has to be something that transmits in WLAN fashion and uses a
couple AA batteries instead which pack a whole lot more energy per charge.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

Joerg wrote:

There just has to be something that transmits in WLAN fashion

No, not likely when dealing with isochronous data.


uses a couple AA batteries instead which pack a whole lot more energy per charge.

Zaxcom http://zaxcom.com/audio/wireless.shtml

The newest Lectro TX uses a single AA, but it's a digital hybrid
http://lectrosonics.com/hybrid/sm/sm.htm

Hello Kurt,

There just has to be something that transmits in WLAN fashion

No, not likely when dealing with isochronous data.

Yes, that's an issue. But you can do it at 2.4GHz. It doesn't have to be
the WLAN protocol, just spread spectrum. It's already done a lot, just
not in the wireless mike world, it seems.

uses a couple AA batteries instead which pack a whole lot more energy
per charge.

Zaxcom http://zaxcom.com/audio/wireless.shtml

The newest Lectro TX uses a single AA, but it's a digital hybrid
http://lectrosonics.com/hybrid/sm/sm.htm

Thanks. But Zaxcom quote 4hr batt life. Not enough for a church.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

In article writes:

Thanks. But Zaxcom quote 4hr batt life. Not enough for a church.

I wouldn't belong to that church. g


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