Will my sennheiser G2 EW100 work in the uk after digital switchover?
- Thread starter Drcoffee
- Start date
Steve House
Veteran
If the frequencies your mic operates on are being given over to other services, about all you can do about it is buy new wireless kits that operate in the legally allowed ranges.
paulears
Veteran
The current channel 69 allocation will eventually be removed. License holders have an extension at the moment until the band is needed - which has had the end date shifted a few times. However - at some point your equipment will only legally be able to operate in the ch 70 license exempt portion of it's coverage - where 4 channels are generally considered to be the maximum. The big problem is that if the channel 69 portion is suddenly filled with high power, nasty digital users, then the only place the equipment is going to work (and to be honest, there are some who suspect that the interference could be a problem in the ch 70 band too) is in this small area. Everyone will be trying to use these 4 channels, so interference is a certainty in areas with lots of users. As you don't know the info - it suggests you didn't actually have a channel 69 license - all licences have had continual information and a buy back scheme which for many of us generated income to buy equipment on the new band. When access to ch 69 was extended, we were also able to buy back equipment, surrendered by others at a good price - subject to removing it from service when the band is eventually out of bounds.
Loads of people didn't even know they should have had a license for band 69 - so were excluded from the buy back scheme.
So you are on a time limit, but with an unknown actual end date - but one day, you can switch it on and discover it no longer works, and that will be that - apart from those 4 in ch 70 which will be unreliable and a bit of a free for all. People who have had reliable systems suddenly finding people stomping all over them. Imagine the churches, pubs and clubs with permanent installs that suddenly all try to use the same channels. Worse still - the people with unlicensed multi channel systems with more than four frequencies - it's going to be fun.
The current license is for ch 38 - but also includes access to ch 69 until it is removed.
Loads of people didn't even know they should have had a license for band 69 - so were excluded from the buy back scheme.
So you are on a time limit, but with an unknown actual end date - but one day, you can switch it on and discover it no longer works, and that will be that - apart from those 4 in ch 70 which will be unreliable and a bit of a free for all. People who have had reliable systems suddenly finding people stomping all over them. Imagine the churches, pubs and clubs with permanent installs that suddenly all try to use the same channels. Worse still - the people with unlicensed multi channel systems with more than four frequencies - it's going to be fun.
The current license is for ch 38 - but also includes access to ch 69 until it is removed.
Thanks Paul,
This all sounds pretty crazy. So tons of equipment will be basically redundant! I only have one mic, but I can imagine people who have heavily invested will be super annoyed.
Are you saying I should have some kind of license for my little clip on radio mic?! Also is there anyway there might be a hardware upgrade to allow me to use the mic in the future?
Thanks
Jon
This all sounds pretty crazy. So tons of equipment will be basically redundant! I only have one mic, but I can imagine people who have heavily invested will be super annoyed.
Are you saying I should have some kind of license for my little clip on radio mic?! Also is there anyway there might be a hardware upgrade to allow me to use the mic in the future?
Thanks
Jon