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Author Topic: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please  (Read 7501 times)

Steve Payne

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Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« on: December 01, 2016, 02:01:08 PM »

I am getting ready to drop $10K+ on Shure ULXD systems.  I am now in my third round of replacing perfectly good wireless due to disappearing frequency bandwidth.  If you were going to purchase today, would you buy 470/530 UHF or the newly offered VHF stuff.  Thanks for your thoughts.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 10:22:23 PM by Steve Payne »
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Don Boomer

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2016, 08:17:11 PM »

I am getting ready to drop $10K+ on Shure ULKD systems.  I am now in my third round of replacing perfectly good wireless due to disappearing frequency bandwidth.  If you were going to purchase today, would you buy 470/530 UHF or the newly offered VHF stuff.  Thanks for your thoughts.

So if your are looking for a guarantee that band will be available for a long time the answer is... who knows. The likely answer is that looks about as good as it's gonna get (although frequencies below 500 have some reservations for emergency services in most metro areas).

Another consideration is how will the repacking of TV stations that give up their 600MHz spots affect what's left?  At this point I don't think anyone really knows. On top of a mountain in Idaho your probably safe but in the middle of a big metro area maybe not so much.

Will it be manageable?  Well it's gonna take more planning and careful setup than it did in years past. In addition to great wireless TX/Rx,  antennas and distro systems are gonna be your friends. You may need to invest in scanning equipment and you'll probably benefit from some of the software systems designed to optimize channel assignments.

Are you planning to use the new systems in a fixed location?  There are probably things you can do to the venue to improve your chances especially if you are indoors. Also picking systems with the widest possible tuning range would probably be in your best interest.

« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 10:12:16 PM by Don Boomer »
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Keith Broughton

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2016, 07:49:53 AM »

I am getting ready to drop $10K+ on Shure ULXD systems.  I am now in my third round of replacing perfectly good wireless due to disappearing frequency bandwidth.  If you were going to purchase today, would you buy 470/530 UHF or the newly offered VHF stuff.  Thanks for your thoughts.
I have considered this very question and would have some channels of UHF (high 400-low 500 band)and some VHF.
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2016, 04:16:45 PM »

What's your location, and your market application? 

If I was working for a rental company in a big city (actually I am) I'd be very interested in the VHF band. If I was a church, or just using gear for my own shows... well, it depends on how many TV stations are already in your area. If it's pretty sparse then not much should change in the remaining spectrum. Here in Chicago I'm expecting most all of my current empty channels will be filled.

EDIT: Took a quick look in WWB... you really only have seven TV stations?
« Last Edit: December 02, 2016, 04:20:10 PM by Scott Helmke »
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Jerome Malsack

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2016, 06:29:51 PM »

The big question here will be antenna and visibility.  My vhf Omni are the Audio Technica ATW-10 ground plane.  They are large and to get a directional antenna I have to use something around 5 ft x 4ft  TV vhf.  That will give me about 9db.  The size and eye sore of the antenna is one of the big reason for moving to UHF.   Helical antenna also removes the problem of vertical or horizontal. 

The directional and Helical in the UHF world is small and easy to manage and hide.  The older vhf is analog and works well in the vocals.  The new digital will expand the Frequency response from 100 hz to 15 KHz in analog to 40 hz upto 18 KHz in digital.  Will use a smaller space in the spectrum and give you 4 channels of digital in my one channel of analog.   

The trouble with 2.4 MHz is computers wireless networks in conference, DMX lighting and such.  To much in one area.   
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Mac Kerr

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2016, 07:56:04 PM »

The big question here will be antenna and visibility.  My vhf Omni are the Audio Technica ATW-10 ground plane.  They are large and to get a directional antenna I have to use something around 5 ft x 4ft  TV vhf.  That will give me about 9db.  The size and eye sore of the antenna is one of the big reason for moving to UHF.

The Radio Active Designs VF-1 is not that big, and it's a 6dB gain LPDA. The Shure UA60V is a little longer whip on a ground plane and is fairly compact. Both seem to work fine.

Mac
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Jerome Malsack

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2016, 04:31:17 PM »

Looked at the new antenna  Radio Active designs and the price is out of my budget. 
Radio Active VF-1 would be $1180.00 plus shipping

I guess I will wait a year or two and see if the prices drop as we see more of the vhf wireless updates. 

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Dan Currie

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2016, 08:42:08 PM »

The Shure 'barn door' antennas aren't as expensive. But yes, you will need 2 for diversity.

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/accessories/wireless-systems/wireless-systems-antennas/ua874v-active-directional-antenna

I used these along with a their VHF ULXD at Lollapalooza with no hiccups. 

My crystal ball says the UHF band will be packed with TV/TVBD and VHF will help alleviate some of the spectrum crunch.  It's nice to have options in that part of the spectrum.




Looked at the new antenna  Radio Active designs and the price is out of my budget. 
Radio Active VF-1 would be $1180.00 plus shipping

I guess I will wait a year or two and see if the prices drop as we see more of the vhf wireless updates.
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Mac Kerr

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2016, 09:01:27 PM »

My crystal ball says the UHF band will be packed with TV/TVBD and VHF will help alleviate some of the spectrum crunch.  It's nice to have options in that part of the spectrum.
Read THIS. So far the auction has been a bust. We are about to start round four, where the cleared spectrum is set at 84MHz, this is significantly down from the original expectations. If fewer bands get sold, fewer stations will have to be repacked into the sub 600MHz band.

It is likely there will be some sale and some repacking, but it is hard to know at this point what the final outcome will be.

Mac
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Lyle Williams

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Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2016, 05:37:59 AM »

To have a long term low risk future, it needs to be digital and spead the signal very wide.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Wireless Gurus take a look into your crystal ball please
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2016, 05:37:59 AM »


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