Sennheiser G2, soon to be obsolete?!

Take a deep breath.

The 700MHz bandwidth has been out-of-bounds for a couple years now. In the whole DTV transition madness, that band of the spectrum was reassigned for other 2-way communication (government and emergency, etc.). Knowing that was coming, manufacturers haven't made or sold 700MHz wireless mic systems for a while now, and many of them are now offering trade-in credit to swap older, 700MHz systems for new systems below that. You won't find a retailer selling new, 700MHz systems. Period.

G2 systems nowadays are in the 500MHz and 600MHz bands (A and B, in Sennheiser terms). There have been plenty of posts about the uncertainty of our wireless future... take a look around as these posts aren't hard to find. But for the time being, don't fret so much about it.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=152210
 
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Thanks! Awesome. I know the G3 is out soon. Thats why I'd love to get a G2 because price should drop. So your saying that the G2's should be fine for awhile?

Thanks.
 
Eatsnax said:
Thanks! Awesome. I know the G3 is out soon. Thats why I'd love to get a G2 because price should drop. So your saying that the G2's should be fine for awhile?

Thanks.
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As fine as any other wireless system* at this time.

*Relatively speaking. Any system bearing the names "Azden," "Samson," or "Gemini" will generally not be considered fine by any stretch of the imagination, frequency reallocation or not.
 
Eatsnax said:
Thanks! Awesome. I know the G3 is out soon. Thats why I'd love to get a G2 because price should drop. So your saying that the G2's should be fine for awhile?

Thanks.
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Provided it operates below 700 MHz... So, one should be careful picking up a 'deal' on ebay or the like...
 
The G2s sold in North America for the last couple (several?) years have all been in the A or B blocks, so they're perfectly fine to use for the foreseeable future. It's only gear in the 700MHz spectrum that has any issue from the recent changes. Just search for 700MHz here and there's a ton of info.
 
Eatsnax said:
Thanks! Awesome. I know the G3 is out soon. Thats why I'd love to get a G2 because price should drop. So your saying that the G2's should be fine for awhile?

Thanks.
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G3's will sell for about $60.00 more than the current G2's...according to Full Compass.
 
C2V said:
Take a deep breath.

The 700MHz bandwidth has been out-of-bounds for a couple years now. In the whole DTV transition madness, that band of the spectrum was reassigned for other 2-way communication (government and emergency, etc.). Knowing that was coming, manufacturers haven't made or sold 700MHz wireless mic systems for a while now, and many of them are now offering trade-in credit to swap older, 700MHz systems for new systems below that. You won't find a retailer selling new, 700MHz systems. Period.



http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=152210
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I bought Block 'C' 740-776 MHz from a pretty big retailer in Canada called Vistek...this was maybe 7 months ago. I was reluctant to buy them at first because they only had block C but then I spoke to the manager and I got a signed note that if I have any problems with the frequency bands, that he would replace them for free. I don't get it...everyone on this forum seems to think that they won't work but so far, the guy at the store was right...I haven't had any problems at all.
 
rhetorik said:
I bought Block 'C' 740-776 MHz from a pretty big retailer in Canada called Vistek...this was maybe 7 months ago. I was reluctant to buy them at first because they only had block C but then I spoke to the manager and I got a signed note that if I have any problems with the frequency bands, that he would replace them for free. I don't get it...everyone on this forum seems to think that they won't work but so far, the guy at the store was right...I haven't had any problems at all.
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Any radio device will work world wide... since the laws of physics don't change...

But various governments are changing their Spectrum allocations. Here in the US, frequencies above 700 MHz, formerly allocated to TV channels 52-83, have been reallocated and auctioned off for other uses.

Since you are in Canada, while the US, Mexico, and Canada have various treaties about spectrum, Canada may not be moving to reallocated those frequences as significantly as the US... yet... (and that may limit what is done with the above 700 MHz spectrum if the transmitter is within 50 or whatever miles of the respective borders, here in the US...)

In the US this portion of the spectrum has been grossly underutalized, since most regions can only support none, one, or a few TV broadcast stations, a couple of hunder MHz worth of spectrum has pretty much been 'empty' relatively speaking.
Sure, New York may have supported 10 or 20 stations... but really Bugtussle has to rely on repeaters to get one TV station... for the truely unconnected TV-wise regions, it perhaps cable for some locations, but more likely satalite, which is way out of the UHF band anyway...

(As a note... Channel 37, 608-614 MHz is 'locked' out, since that is reserved for Radio Astronomy, in Canada and the US, although I think the only observatory that would really be affected would be the Grean Bank, West Virgina NRAO site)
 
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Canada's switchover is something like July 2011, so we've got a little more time up here to safely use the 700MHz spectrum.
 
Just bought a 700Mhz unit - am I screwed?

Just bought a 700Mhz unit - am I screwed?

A buddy and I just went halves on a new Sennheiser G2 setup off ebay. I remembered hearing about the frequency / DTV issues but totally forgot. So he comes over to show me and it jogs my memory and sure enough we have the offending units on 700Mhz.

So what are our options? I think we'll try to sell it (with full disclosure) and wait for the G3 unit perhaps?

What do you think?
 
thabo said:
A buddy and I just went halves on a new Sennheiser G2 setup off ebay. I remembered hearing about the frequency / DTV issues but totally forgot. So he comes over to show me and it jogs my memory and sure enough we have the offending units on 700Mhz.

So what are our options? I think we'll try to sell it (with full disclosure) and wait for the G3 unit perhaps?

What do you think?
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Maybe there a market for 'backstreet upgrades'... sort of like unlocking or jailbreaking your iPhone...

But otherwise, perhaps an overseas sales, or even north to Kanuckistan...
 
I've said this before in these discussions, but it's not like the 700MHz band became instantly verboten the instant that the DTV transition finally happened last month. The problems are all down the road with no real schedule attached. Well, except for the fact that at least one manufacturer (Audio-Technica) is no longer doing any repair work on 700Mhz band systems, although they'll quite cheerfully fix the exact same system if it's on a different frequency. (Although these systems are 8 or so years old anyway, so their time was limited to start with.)

The real problems are going to come down the road. Eventually, the FCC will get around to making the 700MHz band illegal for wireless users; judging from previous responses here, this will scare exactly no one into stopping. :) About that same time, the new users of the band will take over. One is public safety, which is why the band will be made illegal, I'm sure. The other is whoever bought the rest of the spectrum at auction, I think it was cell phone companies, so they will totally drown us all out and make the systems impossible to use. That's when people will stop using these systems, when they have no choice.
 
Captain Pierce said:
The other is whoever bought the rest of the spectrum at auction, I think it was cell phone companies, so they will totally drown us all out and make the systems impossible to use. That's when people will stop using these systems, when they have no choice.
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I think this is what many churches or other instutions are going to do, where these devices are used... perhaps they should claim some form of government interference with religion, or the spread thereof... as a note, churches have been rather notorious for not going through proper channels to get devices tuned in keeping with their area's spectrum...
 
In the USA, G2 versions A and B should be fine. There is a new "G" band (between A and B) in G3 (I'm not sure if was also available in G2, Sennheiser USA should be able to tell you.
 
Recently took some G2 700mhz units out on a shoot. They were utterly useless. Luckily I had a shoot gun mic in the trunk of my car. I've heard there is a rebate program from Sennheiser in the works.
 
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