The $500 Wireless Question, or, "What cheap system should I get?"

[Gweilo66]

Feel free to move this or delete if addressed elsewhere.

But me thinks a sticky that lists frequency finder resources and keeps track of changing FCC regs would be good to have.

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/findFrequency/?00002
http://www.posthorn.com/Lectro_5.html

My apologies if already posted here.

[Alex H.]

But me thinks a sticky that lists frequency finder resources and keeps track of changing FCC regs would be good to have.

Thanks. See Audio 101.

[Gweilo66]

Groovy. And on it goes:
http://tvtechnology.com/article/116514

[Alex H.]

Groovy. And on it goes:
http://tvtechnology.com/article/116514

Yes, and it will continue to go on. The information in your link does not add any frequencies to the band that's already reallocated, and this is getting away from the purpose of the original post in this thread.

[Gohanto]

C2V, you might want to toss in a general recommendation for the Sanken COS-11D as a starting point for a solid, all around lav.

[Alex H.]

C2V, you might want to toss in a general recommendation for the Sanken COS-11D as a starting point for a solid, all around lav.

That's a good place to start, and there are several others. It was mentioned that the buyer should plan to upgrade from the stock lav, and that there are already several reviews and recommendations around here. See Audio 101 for that.

[John Willett]

two points I'd like to add:

1 There is no second antenna on the G3s, instead the cable serves as second antenna. They look the same as the G2 units, just one visible antenna.

Yes, the output cable is the second antenna - as it's at a different angle to the other antenna it actually should work better in diversity than two antennas on the top.

2 Funnily, I have had the best reach/reception with non-diversity VHF units (Lectrosonics) compared to diversity UHF units (Audio Limited).

This is to be expected - VHF does travel much better out of doors than UHF; it's a longer wavelength and longer waves travel further than shorter ones.

The interesting thing was - in the UK recently the Institute of Broadcast Sound did range checks of various radiomics under the same conditions - including Lectrosonics, Zaxcom, Audio Ltd., Sennheyser 5000 series as well as the G3 - it surprised us all that the G3 actually came out the best in thsi test.

[Karlw]

Yes, the output cable is the second antenna - as it's at a different angle to the other antenna it actually should work better in diversity than two antennas on the top.





This is to be expected - VHF does travel much better out of doors than UHF; it's a longer wavelength and longer waves travel further than shorter ones.

The interesting thing was - in the UK recently the Institute of Broadcast Sound did range checks of various radiomics under the same conditions - including Lectrosonics, Zaxcom, Audio Ltd., Sennheyser 5000 series as well as the G3 - it surprised us all that the G3 actually came out the best in thsi test.

John, can you give us some additional details about this test? Specifically, which Lectrosonics system was included? When we hear of reduced range with our systems, it is often due to the fact that the transmitter audio modulation (gain) is set too low. RF power to RF power, generally Digital Hybrid outperforms companded audio. It's even more unusual to hear of a 30 mW system outperforming a 50 mW system for range (admittedly - it may be difficult to observe a real difference in range just based on a 5/3 difference in RF power) unless there are mitigating circumstances. Of course - I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just interested in the details.

[John Willett]

John, can you give us some additional details about this test? Specifically, which Lectrosonics system was included? When we hear of reduced range with our systems, it is often due to the fact that the transmitter audio modulation (gain) is set too low. RF power to RF power, generally Digital Hybrid outperforms companded audio. It's even more unusual to hear of a 30 mW system outperforming a 50 mW system for range (admittedly - it may be difficult to observe a real difference in range just based on a 5/3 difference in RF power) unless there are mitigating circumstances. Of course - I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just interested in the details.

The test was done at Pinewood Studios by a couple of top notch sound recordists.

The receivers were on a sound trolley all set to UK Channel 38 and with a 3-element Yagi used for everything.

One person then got on his bike with a stopwatch and cycled away from the sound trolley - he was talking all the time. He got off his bike and walked through a security office - in one door out the next. He then went into a metal-clad building where sets were stored - there was lots of metal around.

All this was videoed as well. Most systems performed well, one or two dropping out in the security office. All dropped out at some time as he went into the set store. As Audio Ltd. tune for range I was surprised they didn't win. When they did drop out there were nasty noises. The Lectro performed well (I can't remember if they were better or worse than the Audio in this respect) buy they dropped out in a nicer way that was not so annoying. The G3 was better than them all (but not by much).

All systems used the same receive antenna and the recordist was careful to have the transmitters on the body in the same way.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what model Lectro was used. It was certainly not a failure in the Lectro as the range was pretty good on them all - and it was testing the ability to receive in nasty situations where there was physical blocking, rather than a straight line-of-sight walking away until it dies.

When it comes to real pro systems, I still think it comes down to just three - Sennheiser, Lectro and Audio Ltd. But we were all surprised that the G3 came out so well on this test as I would normally think of the 3000 (or maybe 2000) series more of a competitor to teh Audio and Lectro, rather than the G3 (but the G3 is basically the same general spec. as the 2000 series).

(No idea why this is appearing as one large block of text - I laid it out in paragraphs which were deleted when I posted them - sorry, it's the forum software doing this, not me).

GREAT! - I re-edited today and the text blocking has been fixed - thanks!

[Gweilo66]

Does the G3 have a decent sounding limiter in its preamp? I used a UHF lectro for some time and felt the limiter was pretty high quality..almost impossible to overload and didn't mangle the sound too bad. At the time I didn't use a mixer for interviews and would use the wireless even for sit down interviews just to have the limiter protection.