Sennheiser Wireless Freqs

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frostgfx

Active member
A gentle reminder to those about to purchase Sennheiser or other brad of wireless microphones/Tx/Rx.

The FCC auctioned off the frequencies above 698Mhz and you can no longer use Block C or D of the Sennheiser G2 Wireless systems. MAKE SURE YOU ORDER BLOCK A OR B ONLY!!! This also applies to Lectrosonics and other brands of wireless Tx/Rx. Every brand uses different 'blocking' of frequencies.

Buyer Beware.
 
Hmm, well as usual "I may accept any interference recieved" but they can KMA if they think I'm going to worry about "causing harmful interference"

This reminds me of the idiot politician who thought it was so freaking important to change the daylight savings time by a few weeks and in the process broke my "daylight savings time aware" clock. Now not only do I have to change it when daylight savings time occurs, I also have to reset it when daylight savings time USED to occur.

Just out of curiosity I wonder who bought those frequencies.
 
No reputable wireless manufacturer is currently selling new gear at 698 or above. Sennheiser, just because you pointed them out, discontinued Block C a couple years ago.

That said, there are a lot of these sets out there used; I posted a while back about getting a sticky in the Marketplace about this issue, but was soundly ignored. :)

As for the concepts of "accepting" or "causing" interference... let's be honest, almost anything that winds up in the 700MHz band is going to outpower the crap out of anything we have. :D So "accepting" is pretty much what you're going to be left with...

Theoretically, who bought the frequencies that were auctioned (and just for the record, not all supposedly were, some were supposedly reserved for public safety) should be a matter of public record...but good luck slogging through the FCC website to find out who...
 
isnt this mainly about corporates and the govt?

can someone explain why is this so important to us?
 
It's important for anyone currently using a wireless mic in these frequency ranges, or anyone who's looking to buy one used and actually be able. Corporate, government, or whatever, we're all using the same airwaves... :)
 
so does it mean anything for the millions of ppl whom already own the product that generate these freq?
 
alright.. first off this is old news.. FCC auctioned that chunk of the spectrum off a while ago now.. manufacturers have stopped selling units in that operating range for a long time.

Mostly the cell phone companies (verizon, att, etc) bought up that space. What this means is they own the usage rights to that range of airwaves. This doesn't mean you will get arrested for using your puny 50mA wireless mics on their bandwith.. it doesn't even mean they won't work.. it's going to take awhile for those companies to build out transmissions on those freqs.. Basically they're looking ahead and realizing they need all the spectrum they can get so they bought some big chunks.. that way if someone throws something siginifigant up thats interfereing with their product they can ring the FCC up and they will throw whoever is up on that freq off. They Own It. Your mics will still work for awhile. How long is a good question, but you'll find holes for a good long time is my guess.

If you're in the market to buy new gear, do your homework and buy a good block that will work for you and your area... if buying used (i'm in this boat..) if you find a killer deal on a block that is now in cell phone territory.. well you're gambling basically.. but if it was a good block before the auction it's probably still a good block now, and if you can use the item to make some $$ then it may be worth it.. but for how long who knows.. only you can decide if it's worth it..

And if you already own units that operate in those ranges I would hang on to them and use them untill they are no longer reliable..

As far as legitamacy goes, technically all wireless mic users are essentially illegitimate.. the fcc just gives us a pass because were all such small fries..

Seriously there is tons of litterature out on the web about all this so if you're really concerned you should be able to find all kinds of info other than this rant of mine.. if this is too much bs to concern yourself with then do us all a favor and hire a professional to worry about this crap for you, god knows we could use the work!
 
frostgfx said:
A gentle reminder to those about to purchase Sennheiser or other brad of wireless microphones/Tx/Rx.

The FCC auctioned off the frequencies above 698Mhz and you can no longer use Block C or D of the Sennheiser G2 Wireless systems. MAKE SURE YOU ORDER BLOCK A OR B ONLY!!! This also applies to Lectrosonics and other brands of wireless Tx/Rx. Every brand uses different 'blocking' of frequencies.

Buyer Beware.
Click to expand...

Only in the USA.

But I think Sennheiser now do a block G specially for the USA which fills a gap.
 
Captain Pierce said:
Theoretically, who bought the frequencies that were auctioned (and just for the record, not all supposedly were, some were supposedly reserved for public safety) should be a matter of public record...but good luck slogging through the FCC website to find out who...
Click to expand...

Even worse... While the original bidder, and price bid, may be 'available', what happens is large companies will buy out small successful bidders, to increase their spectrum over whatever their original spectrum bids may have been...

Anyway, it is my belief that most of the bidders where from the 'cell phone' type of company, where the current 'cell phone' spectrum can't support the desire to offer 'broadband' features... Think of it as an end run around cable companies whose major assess are buried in the ground and consist of fibre and wire connectivity...

With that in mind, any major cell phone infrastructure provider, is a most likely candidate for buying directly through the auction, or indirectly, picking up auction winners, the spectrum. It's been a while, but I think Google wanted a big chunk of the spectrum as well, or was that 800 Mhz... can't rightly recall...
 
John Willett said:
Only in the USA.

But I think Sennheiser now do a block G specially for the USA which fills a gap.
Click to expand...

What the auctioning off of RF spectrum for development of services provided by private enterprise. In some sense, there wouldn't be any discussion if Sennheiser, Shure, et al. had gotten together as a consortium and bid on a small chunk of the spectrum, say 12 MHz (as in 2 TV channels worth of spectrum), and the provided their customers with protection.

Or are things like the insane limitation of access, reduced power limits, in say the 2.4 GHz band, and heck, paying for a license to receive TV signals... (or did they do a way with that in the UK in these modern times...), that are found in Europe and elsewhere in the world... so superior...

While the FCC does have a large number of restrictions, regulations, and conflicts of interest, there are worse places on the planet for getting spectrum... and they are all in some 3rd world despot lead backwater nation...
 
Some of the 700Mhz bandwidth is going towards DHS and your local Pd/FD EMS use down the road... basically, the wireless units within this bandwidth are risking getting squashed by more powerful transmissions. I for one wouldn't want to get all set up on a shoot and find out the hard way that my wireless system I paid boucoup $$$ for is useless.

Canada and EU countries obviously have their own rules and it seems that 700Mhz is unrestricted in those countries, so they are still for sale outside the US.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
In some sense, there wouldn't be any discussion if Sennheiser, Shure, et al. had gotten together as a consortium and bid on a small chunk of the spectrum, say 12 MHz (as in 2 TV channels worth of spectrum), and the provided their customers with protection.
Click to expand...

You must be joking!

If Sennheiser, Shure, Lectro, Trantec, Zaxcom, etc., etc., had all got together - including all the broadcast organisations - they could not have come up with even a very small fraction of the amount of money that the mobile companies can.

Even if they could - would *you* pay $1,000 a day to use a radiomic? As that is what it would have been likely to cost (and maybe more) to pay the bidding fee.

This is the crux of the problem - this industry does not have the money to compete in a free market like this - but the consequence of there being no frequencies for radiomics could close Broadway and London's West End (and a major loss to tourism), mean that TV programmes could not be made and that feature films are not made in the country. :crybaby:
 
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