600mHz band going away

Noiz2

Noiz2

Sound Ninja
How much is still a question but somewhere between a bit to more than all is going to be auctioned off by the FCC and will be off limits in four years.

The good news is that they won't make it illegal instantly so you can still use your mics in the four year transition, but that is a sliver of a silver lining for folks with a lot of wireless. Especially those of you who just replaced transmitters in the 700mHz band that they sold off three years ago.

It's still unclear how much will actually go to auction, they want it all and more but there is more push back this time so?
 
I lost my ass the last time this happened (700mhz)
Lovely that most of my wireless falls in the 600mhz range this time around.

I think I might just start using 2 paper cups and a string.
 
My Camera hop's are in in the 600 MHz band(block 26). Two beltpacks and two SR's to be able to feed two cams, so I could get out of them and change blocks without too much pain. But I've heard the auction may dip into part of the 500 MHz band. If that happens, I could be in a world of hurt. Eight channels in block 22, with a belt pack and plug-on for each channel. Two single channel receivers, three dual channel and a belt pack and plug-on for each channel. That would be worse than buying a new camera.
 
Last edited:
That's why folks should give up on chasing the spectrum and losing money every time. Instead, maybe it's time to looking into improving the tech behind the 2.4Ghz like AT System 10 and the new Rode. That stuff has its flaws, but if the tech improves, this could be a viable option - but regardless, it may become the only option at some point. Let's face it, the FCC regards the needs of wireless microphone systems as the lowest priority, so I can't ever see anyone being able to say "now this is what they for sure won't auction!".
 
"Can Sennheiser band B units be converted to band A ? ( can Sennheiser do this ?"
- Probably, but the cost may not make it feasible and be cheaper to buy new.
 
OldCorpse said:
That's why folks should give up on chasing the spectrum and losing money every time. Instead, maybe it's time to looking into improving the tech behind the 2.4Ghz like AT System 10 and the new Rode. That stuff has its flaws, but if the tech improves, this could be a viable option - but regardless, it may become the only option at some point. Let's face it, the FCC regards the needs of wireless microphone systems as the lowest priority, so I can't ever see anyone being able to say "now this is what they for sure won't auction!".
Click to expand...


Very easy answer. It's because we use this gear in the present and we need it to be ultra reliable (which 2.4ghz isn't).
We the consumers don't have a choice but to make our gear choices on what's available and the best choice now.

I just read a fascinating topic on wexlers site about how house of cards lets the boom come in the wide camera and they remove it later (either by plates or painting).
Being a huge boom mic fan, maybe in the near future no one will care about boom breaking the frame and we can throw away wireless all together (j/k).
 
^^ I read this today as well. It's one of those, why didn't I think of that a long time ago, kind of arguments.

The essential idea is you shoot the frame without talent before each scene and then in post you use mattes to mask out the boom operator in the actual take. So simple, so obvious. It's on JWSound for those who dont know what Wexler's site is.
 
To the actual intent of this thread. It APPEARS that 500 mhz band is safe (for now) but it is anyone's guess. If you think you have it bad loosing money on your Sennheiser wireless, think of all the location sound people with bags full of Lectrosonics in block 26 which people are ditching in droves (in the US). At $3.5 to $4K a channel it's a much more expensive hit than a couple of G3s.

I am interested to hear the RODE wireless that was recently announced as it is a 24 bit internal signal path.
 
Last edited:
TheDingo said:
Can Sennheiser band B units be converted to band A ? ( can Sennheiser do this ? )
Click to expand...

The answer is "yes - they can" - but the other question is "will they offer the service"?

To convert a G2 or G3 from one band to another the RF board in the transmitter and receiver needs to be replaced and the units re-programmed and aligned.

This is not cheap and could be 50% of the cost of buying a new system.
 
"I am curious about the RODE wireless as it is digital and the sample rate is at 48 not 44.1. Some pro wireless claim 48 but the entire signal path is not."
48 or 44.1kHz is neither here nor there since the final output on the receiver is analog audio.
 
Rick I checked the article I read some weeks ago. I was mistaken the sample rate is 44.1 but it is 24 bit not 16. That does matter.
 
John Willett said:
The answer is "yes - they can" - but the other question is "will they offer the service"?
To convert a G2 or G3 from one band to another the RF board in the transmitter and receiver needs to be replaced and the units re-programmed and aligned.
This is not cheap and could be 50% of the cost of buying a new system.
Click to expand...
Whole generations of new users have no context for the complexity of modern gadgets.
None of them would be remotely affordable to the general consumer without the economies of mass-production.
But the unavoidable side-effect is that they are prohibitively expensive to repair or modify.
That requires experienced (read: expensive) manual labor which could easily exceed the cost of simply replacing the entire unit.
 
John Willett said:
The answer is "yes - they can" - but the other question is "will they offer the service"?

To convert a G2 or G3 from one band to another the RF board in the transmitter and receiver needs to be replaced and the units re-programmed and aligned.

This is not cheap and could be 50% of the cost of buying a new system.
Click to expand...

Don't forget the antenna, that will also need to get changed. And I believe the G3's use the mic cable as one of the antennas so I'm guessing you would need to alter that length also which would be a problem since it would need to be longer.
 
"And I believe the G3's use the mic cable as one of the antennas"
> The G3 EK100 portable diversity receiver uses the output cable as a secondary antenna.
Other than that, yes, the antennas would have to be changed as well for the specific frequency block (different length).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top