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[duane massey]

For those of you who have deal with musicals, etc where large quantities of wireless mics are used: do you use one antennae combiner system or is there a better or cheaper method? Thanks.

[William Schnake]

For those of you who have deal with musicals, etc where large quantities of wireless mics are used: do you use one antennae combiner system or is there a better or cheaper method? Thanks.

Duane, we use anywhere from 16 to 28 wireless Shure ULX/p units for musicals.  I have mine setup with 4 ULX/P units in a rack with 1 UA844SWB per rack.  I have never had any problems with this setup.

Bill

[Scott Helmke]

For those of you who have deal with musicals, etc where large quantities of wireless mics are used: do you use one antennae combiner system or is there a better or cheaper method? Thanks.

It depends on the exact situation, but we'll put 40+ channels on the same antennas using cascaded antenna splitters (usually Shure 845) as needed. That's with dual or quad receiver units that do their own internal distribution.

Using good quality antenna splitters is the better method.  Also it's usually cheaper than losing the gig because of wireless failures.

[Pete Erskine]

For those of you who have deal with musicals, etc where large quantities of wireless mics are used: do you use one antennae combiner system or is there a better or cheaper method? Thanks.

I would advise you to not cascade more than once.  I did a show for the Chinese national orchestra.  2 antennas, Shure UA874, (1 on each side of the stage) feeding a Sennheiser AC3200 which is an 8 output combiner first and then a combination of more AC3200 and Shure UA845 5 output DAs.  We had a total of 70 channels as UHF-R half as ULX-1 with headsets and the other half ULX3 buttplugs with condenser mics.  It was flawless.

Control was all with Wireless workbench but coordination was with IAS.

[brian maddox]

I would advise you to not cascade more than once.  I did a show for the Chinese national orchestra.  2 antennas, Shure UA874, (1 on each side of the stage) feeding a Sennheiser AC3200 which is an 8 output combiner first and then a combination of more AC3200 and Shure UA845 5 output DAs.  We had a total of 70 channels as UHF-R half as ULX-1 with headsets and the other half ULX3 buttplugs with condenser mics.  It was flawless.

Control was all with Wireless workbench but coordination was with IAS.

Pete i'm a little confused.  I thought the AC3200 was a transmitter combiner typically used with IEM transmitters.  Was it an ASA3000?  IIRC, That's the comparable Sennheiser antenna splitter.

And assuming it was, does that unit provide the necessary antenna power for those antennas?  If so that's a good thing to know...

[Neil White]

I would advise you to not cascade more than once.  I did a show for the Chinese national orchestra.  2 antennas, Shure UA874, (1 on each side of the stage) feeding a Sennheiser AC3200 which is an 8 output combiner first and then a combination of more AC3200 and Shure UA845 5 output DAs. 

Hope you don't mind the correction Pete, but the 8 Way Senn. antenna distro is the ASA3000, the AC3200 is the 8 way TX combiner for IEMS.

A master distro feeding distro's in each rack is definitely the way to go for high channel counts, although does create a potential single point of failiure. If the show warrants high redundancy, I have previously used separate master antenna distro for each half of the diveristy antenna system.

A useful tip I have picked up for cascading units such as UR4D+ is to link through each side of the antenna system from opposite ends of the chain. I.E. start the A side at the top of the rack linking down and the B side from the bottom linking up. That way the loss of a unit in the chain only loses half the diversity for all the remaining units rather than a total loss of RF.

[brian maddox]

Hope you don't mind the correction Pete, but the 8 Way Senn. antenna distro is the ASA3000, the AC3200 is the 8 way TX combiner for IEMS.

A master distro feeding distro's in each rack is definitely the way to go for high channel counts, although does create a potential single point of failiure. If the show warrants high redundancy, I have previously used separate master antenna distro for each half of the diveristy antenna system.

A useful tip I have picked up for cascading units such as UR4D+ is to link through each side of the antenna system from opposite ends of the chain. I.E. start the A side at the top of the rack linking down and the B side from the bottom linking up. That way the loss of a unit in the chain only loses half the diversity for all the remaining units rather than a total loss of RF.

Okay, now it looks like we're piling on....   

Good tips in here.  Especially the cascade in both directions thing.  Clever.

[Pete Erskine]

Pete i'm a little confused.  I thought the AC3200 was a transmitter combiner typically used with IEM transmitters.  Was it an ASA3000?  IIRC, That's the comparable Sennheiser antenna splitter.

And assuming it was, does that unit provide the necessary antenna power for those antennas?  If so that's a good thing to know...

Yes I gave the wrong number and the 3000 does supply antenna power suitable for Shure antennas.

[duane massey]

Thanks, guys, your responses pretty much confirmed what I thought, but it's not an area I have a lot of recent experience in. I appreciate it very much.

[Neil White]

The 3000 does supply antenna power suitable for Shure antennas.

One thing to watch out for on the ASA3000 is that the DC bias can be turned off. The switches are hidden behind the input BNC modules which pull out from the rear of the unit and there is a small PCB mounted switch inside for each side. Definitely better to check this before building it into a rack and cabling everything.

[ProSoundWeb Community]