Jump to content

Radio (wireless) link for remote speaker stacks


Keith_

Recommended Posts

But +1 to Jon’s suggestion of a drum of cat5....

Totally, I never use radio if there is a sensible way with cable, I've lost count of the number of 200m drums of 4pr telephone cable and more recently 1000ft boxes of cat 5 I've got through. The job I referred to earlier started out at difficult to run cable between the 5 zones but as the site became more developed with buildings the routes appeared [and the clients restrictions waned].

 

 

ideally with a transformer to balance and isolate, will work absolutely fine at line level.

Deffo plus one for the transformers for isolation, I regularly put them in as a matter of course, even when not really needed. And reasonable transformers are so cheap now.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 31
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

If you ever rehearse a digital network system, you still will not have catered for the attenuation and digital corruption of 2000 punters with their phones looking to find wi-fi, the effect of which only becomes apparent 20 minutes before show time.

 

Find a sensible route to run cable!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True, Jivemaster

that is why I went off 2.4GHz.

Cable is out because in this particular case, those punters cannot be stropped from trampling all over the cable and 200m of cable-cover would surely be extortionate and not the best. Pylons could carry the cable, but then I would need a whole load more poles and it gets tedious and expensive. I'm surprised there is no ready-made wireless solution for this, but there we are.

 

K.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I kind of like that, Tom!

 

Reminds me of this story - the Apollo space programme was immensely expensive, but a lot of inventions grew out of it. For example a team of engineers worked for years on a pen that could write in zero-G. Eventually they developed the pentel pumped biro - a great commercial success. Meanwhile the Russians took pencils.

 

K.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile the Russians took pencils.

There's a bit more to that story than normally gets told. Pencils shed tiny fragments of graphite, which in zero gravity float around and can find their way in to electronics. Graphite is of course a conductor...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are many alternatives to cable, just that the wireless ones cost big money and need licencing and may still have some latency.

Search for PMSE [program making special event]. Radio links are available in full broadcast quality in analogue FM with virtually invisible insersion. Unlike all of the other suggestions so far PMSE links are licensed and protected with a sterile geographical space. Yes professional kit to run stereo to a couple of stacks will be fairly costly [although cheaper versions such as spectrum communications are available] and the license for an event is likely to be knocking on £25 in band 1 [big aerials] or £50 in UHF for compact aerialsl.

However any radio system is susceptible/vulnerable and I'll reiterate I'll always look for a more reliable cable.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the past I've hired a couple of 1W link sets from Handheld Audio (on two separate frequencies for redundancy).

 

It's just souped up Shure UHF-R radio mic kit with a more powerful transmitter, but it will absolutely meet your needs in terms of range and performance. The fact that it's based around radio mic kit means it's well suited to 'one-to-many' type links where you might need to send audio from one location to several speaker stacks, as you just tune another radio mic receiver into the correct frequency. Choose omni/paddle antennas as needed to suit your own system layout.

https://www.handheldaudio.co.uk/hire-desk/hire-rate-card/

 

The Neturik Xirium system is great - the best-sounding wireless link system I've used, but when I did some tests with it in 2015 when it was first released, I couldn't get it to go 200m as a point-to-point link. Maybe it's better nowadays?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd probably go down the line of iem TX and rack mount radio mic Rx with suitable paddles, personally. We're fortunate enough to have the kit around to do it though, along with some decent antenna options!

 

Made for the job stuff is xirium, and expensive. I don't know what range sennheiser quote for their radio mic receiver based wireless PA....

 

Next time I'm at the office and bored I might have a play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes Mike, that's kind of where I started. Xirium is absolutely made for it and terrific stuff, but if, like me, you cannot afford that, then I am told great care is needed to match TX and RX which typically use different compression etc..

I never understood why those paddles (shark fins) cost so much when all they are really is a log-periodic printed on a circuit board (with maybe a balun or something like) to get <6dB. Not as good as a long (e.g. 14dB) Yagi, but I believe that would not be allowed by Ofcom. Since log-periodics are very wide band, one might as well use a digital TV antenna having UHF radio mic frequencies well within its scope (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1993557.pdf). Is that not a viable option?

At the moment, my radio mic tx (iem) and rx are from different manufacturers (maybe they could be traced back to the same Chinese factory, though), but I am interested to experiment with them (not had time yet).

K.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never understood why those paddles (shark fins) cost so much when all they are really is a log-periodic printed on a circuit board (with maybe a balun or something like) to get <6dB. Not as good as a long (e.g. 14dB) Yagi, but I believe that would not be allowed by Ofcom.

 

I can understand that connecting a very directional antenna to a transmitter may fall foul of the regs, as you are increasing the ERP in that direction, but I can’t see any reason why you couldn’t make the receiver antenna as directional as you want...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never understood why those paddles (shark fins) cost so much when all they are really is a log-periodic printed on a circuit board (with maybe a balun or something like) to get <6dB. Not as good as a long (e.g. 14dB) Yagi, but I believe that would not be allowed by Ofcom.

 

I can understand that connecting a very directional antenna to a transmitter may fall foul of the regs, as you are increasing the ERP in that direction, but I can't see any reason why you couldn't make the receiver antenna as directional as you want...

If you can find an appropriate frequency range TV aerial they are a much cheaper option, I have some which I've cut down to 4 or 5 elements which are effective at around +5dB, I also have some wide band log periodic TV aerials [by the way no balun in a log periodic] albeit I've removed some of the longer redundant elements: https://www.alltrade.co.uk/shop/fracarro-lp45f-mini-log-periodic-wb
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.