Radio Mics

[James]

I've just finished a short amdram run of a musical. I had 12ch of mixed rf (4 of which was hired) and could have done with a few more, At the moment I have a mix of Trantec S2000, Shure UT and some nice old sennheisers. (pre evolution)

 

I've been looking at UHF transmitters

 

I also have a tour coming up that requires more hand held transmitters (preferably with SM58s)

 

I've been considering a number of products in the short term in addition to my current stock and in the long term to start to replace and standardize.

 

Audio Technica 1400 Series

Because they are very reasonably priced and have nice metering on the front panel.

 

Trantec S4000

Because they are compatible with most of my spare headsets, and its what my local hire company stocks.

 

Shure UT Series

Because its the most economical way of getting a wireless SM58 which most people seem to want from a hand held.

 

Shure SLX Series

The most reasonable agile shure system.

 

AKG SR4000 series

Which has some fantastic monitoring software that I really like the look of.

 

One question I'm asking myself is is it worth going for frequency agile systems. If I had 12ch of AT1400 then with a shared licence there are no frequencies left to retune to therefore why would I want that feature? I could buy 4 complete AT1400 systems for the cost of a single Shure SLX system.

 

If I'm spending that much on a shure SLX system I might be tempted to spend a little bit more and look at the AKG SR4000 system because of the monitoring software

 

I can see the arguments for having what your local hire companies have, and both PSLX and 10outof10 use Trantec. I see them as unable to have sm58 capsule, and without funky monitoring software (I can't afford S6000!) but might be worth looking at as I already have a pile of spare capsules, adapter leads, headsets etc...

 

At the moment I'm tempted by just buying more of the UT system for the clients that want a SM58 without a wire. and ultimately investing in something else for lavaliers.

 

One temptation is to go for a full rack of UT (6ch) and a full rack of AT1400 (12ch) (I can't see a single case where I would want to use both at the same time) I could probably afford to buy a backstage video camera to point at the rack so I can monitor from FOH......

 

Then start investing in an agile system when I need to look beyond my ch69 licence.

 

Just wondered what anyone elses thoughts are on this as I notice from the other thread that you all seem to have varied experiences of different flavours of RF.

 

Cheers

 

 

James

[johnhuson]

Seems like your probably already aware but the SLX system only has a few (believe it's 3 without checking) frequencies which fall within Channel 69.

[Bobbsy]

I assume you've considered and discarded the Sennheiser Evolutions, but I really would look at them again. Personally I consider them the best value for money of the presently available systems.

 

As for your question about frequency agility, I notice you mention an upcoming tour. If you're going on the road, you NEED agility. The issue is much less finding your own compatible frequencies, but rather what ELSE is out there to compete with you for bandwidth. There's a glut of theatre and TV studio stuff on Channel 69, and if you're on a different range don't forget that the rest of the UHF radio mic frequencies are shared with broadcast TV. Now that the digital conversion is well under way, the TV bands are pretty cluttered...and what works where you are may not work in the next town.

 

Bob

[James]

Bobbsy

 

I have looked at the Evolutions and have used them a number of times. The problems I saw with them were entirely feature related. It's a sad fact but a lot of the riders I recieve will only look at SM58s and for my own theatre work I would want to look at remote monitoring for the money.

 

The reason for discarding them was that they didn't seem to have any more features than the Trantec S4000 range costing less and didn't have as many as the AKG 4000 costing slightly more (assuming 300G2)

 

John

 

Thanks for that, I knew that the UT range only have 4 frequencies in 69 and 3 deregulated. I will check the SLX range, but assuming what you say is true it only makes Shure agile wireless more expensive.

 

James

[Big Dave]

James, don't get too worried about the joys of monitoring software - in my experience (Trantec S6000), its never actually giving 100% reliable information and I've had units so very strange things when the software crashes (would you trust your radio system to Win XP?)

 

IMHO, go for something with a 58 head on it as at least you know it will take what ever it gets and that doesn't have a flimsy antenna (sorry trantec) that will disintegrate at the slightest touch.

 

I've heard a few good things about the AKG stuff and the Shure ULX but have never personally used either.

[Ed_N]

Is it true you can now only get radio SM58's from Shure themselves? At one point other manufacturers used to sell their radiomics with SM58 heads, although I don't think this is the case any more.

[Freddie]

Is it definite the evolutions can't do remote monitoring? Looking at my school's ew100 G2 recievers yesterday, I noticed there's a USB socket on the back, or is this just for dealer reprogramming onto licenced frequencies?

[paulears]

Trantec at one point actually made the Shure systems - SM58 head with Trantec RF. They used SM58 heads on their own systems until Shure started\manufacturing their own, and then moved accross to AT.

 

If you like the Trantec 4000's it may be worth noting that Trantec receivers work very well with Sennheiser tx's. I often run a rack of 4000's with hand-held sennheisers.

 

I suspect that the next rack I buy will not be Trantecs any longer, but evo's. Real reason being the G2 series using AA's instead of 9V's.

paul

[James]

At the moment I'm probably going to go for SLX systems.

 

But I will continue to look at the AKG systems in the future.

 

But with a rack of 8 shures being about £4k and the AKGs being £8k I can buy a video camera and flat screen if I realy need to for those occations when I'm not running a monitor desk.

 

James