A stupid question about wireless audio....

[Randall_Oelerich]

So I bought the Sennheiser G3, dual set to mic two actors. Started playing with it, reading manual, checking out the hardware. A stupid question-- would it ever be possible to send a signal from two transmitters to one receiver? Can two transmitter belt units wired to actors share the same receiver? As to why I might want to even think that, I was thinking if I had three of the dual G3 systems so that I could wire up six actors, if they could share receivers then I would not need as expensive a mixer; for example whereas normally I might buy something like a $1400 DV Mixer Pro 6, I might only need a DV Mixer Pro 3 with 3 channels of input (for three G3 receivers, if each receiver could receive two transmitters). All a futile hypothetical situation of course if each G3 transmitter needs its own dedicated reciever (band, channel, etc). Just asking.

 

[gpforet]

It's a great idea but it won't work. At best, the receiver will lock onto the carrier of the stronger transmitter, at worse, the two transmitter operating on the same frequency will interfere with each other and render an unusable signal.

Unless you have specifically bought a dual reciever, a single channel of reciever will not work with multiple transmitter simultaneously.

 

[Steve House]

,,,
Unless you have specifically bought a dual reciever, a single channel of reciever will not work with multiple transmitter simultaneously.

AND, a dual channel receiver would have two audio outputs, not just one, so each receiver would take two mixer input channels. So in the op's example, 6 actors each with their own transmitter, going to three dual-channel receivers, would stuill need a 6 input mixer.

 

[John Willett]

-- would it ever be possible to send a signal from two transmitters to one receiver? Can two transmitter belt units wired to actors share the same receiver?

No - they just fight with each other and you get horrible noises.


They can never be *exactly* on the same frequency and the very tiny differences mean horrible nasties.

You must have a separate receiver for each transmitter (but you *can* have loads of receivers listening in on each transmitter).

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

So I have the dual G3 system (two transmitters, two receivers). Are they going to be smart enough (since I am not!) to automagically connect on two different frequencies/channels if both powered up, so as not to compete for the same signal, or will i have to manually change one of the transmitter/receivers to a different band?

 

[John Willett]

So I have the dual G3 system (two transmitters, two receivers). Are they going to be smart enough (since I am not!) to automatically connect on two different frequencies/channels if both powered up, so as not to compete for the same signal, or will i have to manually change one of the transmitter/receivers to a different band?

You set one transmitter to Ch.1 and the other to Ch.2 on the same frequency bank and do the same for the receivers.

That's it.

They will connect up correctly whenever you switch them on.

 

[gpforet]

My G3 has the infrared link. Set the recivers up with bank, channel, and name, place the transmitter and reciever next to each other with their infrared ports pointing towards each other, and the transmiiter will send all the info to the reciever, bank, channel, and name are transmitted. Really cool feature of the G3 line.

 

[dre83]

One small advice...don't know if you're going to be in that situation. But if there are other people in a place with wireless stuff, ask them which frequencie they are.