Radio Mic

[alyeti]

Hi

 

Need some help, doing this for a community centre usual stuff doesnt have allot of money , bu is prepared to sort out there radio mic without getting carried away on price

 

 

At the moment they are using an IMG Stageline TXS30 they have three problems with this mic

 

 

1) When lapel mic goes faulty you have to buy the whole tx with the mic to get a replacement.

 

2) Range is limited ina closed building

 

3) Diversity is rubbish, when the diversity kicks in you can see it is switching between attenae and it cuts the sound our momentarily.

 

 

 

I would like to explain number 2, this building is of two floors, witha about 8 rooms, with brick solid walls , generally the mic works ok at one end of the building there is no way of placing the reciever in a centre postion , so it has to be one side or the other, and the unit gives range of 30m in open space and reduces to about about 10 through walls.

 

 

 

What can they replace this with , is there a way to have a remote aerial in place , Can the remote aerial be 10metres away from the reciever , if so what can we buy, is there anything in the £300 range? or am I being silly?

 

Regards

Yeti

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

sorry meant the existing model is the TXS-130

[soundiesam]

are you looking for a hand helf mic or a lapel mic

[paulears]

through walls???

 

You're asking too much. 30m is pretty good for a reliable range - hence why everyone advises getting the receivers close to the transmitters if you can.

 

As for the other problems - if the pack has a wired in mic, then the simplest solution when you break one is to cut the cable near the pack, solder on an XLR and then buy a cheap replacement - CPC do some that are pretty certain to be electrically compatible. Ugly lumpy connectors, but once done, not too bad. Other than that why not open the pack and replace the mic properly?

 

EDIT - I just found the thing on google and the mic appears to have a plug?? You can't buy a replacement from Stageline, but again CPC have some with 3.5mm plugs on,if that's what it is.

 

As for diversity switching - does it switch silently when the transmitter and receiver are close? If it only does it at a distance, then I suspect that it's just switching between what was weak, to the other one that has just gone weaker - maybe below the squelch threshold - and at that moment, it's muted.

 

radio mic systems are designed for free space - they don't like obstructions. Yes - they will go through walls, but are much weaker when they do.

 

Tell us a bit more.

[alyeti]

Ok yes lapel mic is what I want

 

and want to know if there is a unit that you can keep in one location and take the second atenae on a cable further away?????? someone told me about JTS but dont know much about them

 

 

Problem with lapel mics is you cant cut and solder on , as its normaly right at the end where they break in side the cable, so yes I have done that option of getting another cable and soldering on the lapel so that it works.

 

Tell me more about the squelch, as yes it mutes when trying to switch or going out of range, how do I set up the squelch, and I will also try and move the transmitter a bit closer.

 

Also I cant help the walls as they wont let me take them out just sort out there mic problem, but I am told some units have a 100m range which ones are they? as I assume they will be a bit better than the 15m I am getting out of the 30m range that stageline do, actually in some cases its even less than 15 cos of the walls and stageline are limited in output power.

 

Yeti

[soundiesam]

if your looking for cheap but will work the sennheiser Freeport series work well

[Chris Adam]

a solution that MIGHT just work would be to mount the 2nd anntena in the corridor between the rooms and keep the doors open. (you'd have to run this on RF cable and possibly add a booster.) This may work but I have to agree with the other members that you are asking the unit to do a lot.

Wireless technology is pretty good even at cheap prices, but it's still got limitations.

As for brands any of the sennheiser, trantec, samson, behringer blah, blah blah will be fine, but definately go with one that you can get cheap CPC replacements if used by amatuers.

[Chris Beesley]

Just a quite note... the replacement mic's are available for the TXS-130 units. :) I may also know of a place that will stock them very soon :)

[paulears]

I can't help on the squelch - if it is adjustable, then the manual will show you if its a programmable feature, although many have a pot on the back.

 

If you have external aerial sockets then yes, it's quite possible to run a long feeder to a very distant antenna - you lose the diversity benefit, because the system will switch from close to distant, and probably stay there when the transmitter is close. This is quite a common thing, especially in TV where a presenter may have to start near the camera and move away. I did it on a OB in a very big church where there were two distinct areas people congregated, and we didn't really need diversity, just two aerials near where the action was. It works fine, but you do need decent feeder cable, or the losses are a bit extreme. Nowadays, it's just cheaper to buy two systems and bung them on the same channel, combining in the audio mixer.

 

You've been fed bum info on the range, I'm afraid. The transmitter output power is the main problem - the most you're allowed is 50mW and that's that! It's all to do with signal strength - so working at the extremes is unreliable with any kit. If they claim a 30m working range, I reckon they're honest. 100m? maybe with the wind in the right direction, with radio waves going downhill.

 

I've been testing some on camera receivers - not diversity. Trantecs and Sennheisers. The Senheiser ( a G2 500) has 30mW output and the Trantec just 10mW.

 

The Sennheiser test was simple hold the pack in the hand and walk away across an open piece of grass. Nothing in the way - no obstructions of any kind between the pack in the hand and the receiver on the back of the camera. I got just over 40m before any signs of noise. Putting the pack in the inside pocket of a fleece gave no output. It was restored to something usable at 28m. Swapping the pack to the lower power Trantec gave an almost identical distance held in the hand but the inside pocket distance dropped to 25m - very close. I didn't tweak the squelch settings of them at all, but the Trantec let me have audio, even when very noisy till it muted. The Sennheiser was set quite a bit higher and muted before the signal got very noisy.

 

At the extreme limits, any movement from the subject made it chop in and out. I didn't have time to try the Trantec, but reliable, good quality audio from the subject, no matter where he put his hands, or turned around on the spot was just over 20m - anything more than that was not solid - just small movements could put you into a null - maybe a diversity receiver would have helped - but only with widely spaced aerials.

 

So I still reckon you are just asking too much - and expecting receivers to work well through solid walls is um - optimistic in the extreme unless it's a paper walled Japanese house!