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[Helge A Bentsen]

Quick update. Tested creating a link budget, adjusted a bit on my antenna placement and ended up with very good RF performance & 50% lower battery consumption over a two day conference. Very happy with that, thanks for all your help

[Ike Zimbel]

Quick update. Tested creating a link budget, adjusted a bit on my antenna placement and ended up with very good RF performance & 50% lower battery consumption over a two day conference. Very happy with that, thanks for all your help

At the 1mw power setting?

[Helge A Bentsen]

At the 1mw power setting?

That's right.

[Jordan Wolf]

In what kind of applications would you choose 10mW/1mW?

Coming from a corpy workflow, I stick with 10mW for all uses outside of small breakout rooms (say 30ftx50ft). I have no scientific numbers or readings, just experience thus far.

I have had dropouts - or at least lower RF readings on the meters than desired - with the beltpacks when used on presenters who are seated; the 1mW setting just doesn't seem to have enough "oomph" to reliably push through the combo of body mass attenuation and whatever the seats are made of.

Handhelds in stands have been fine at the 1mW setting, but if someone wraps their hand around the bottom of the handle, I've had dropouts.

This is with LPDAs off to the side and not something like an RFVenue RF Spotlight that would even further minimize the air gap between Tx and Rx.

[Luke Geis]

There is some math involved ( I won't get into it ), but the basic rule of thumb is as little power as you can get away with. For the receiver, it has to do with what it can pick up, whereas the transmitter is more about how much it will saturate what reads it. So if you use active antennas, having excessive transmitter gain can be an issue, because the antennas are already dragging the noise floor up with it and become very sensitive to RF. With high transmitter power levels, you can easily oversaturate an active antenna. With RF mics, it is very much a matter of less is more.

[Helge A Bentsen]

Coming from a corpy workflow, I stick with 10mW for all uses outside of small breakout rooms (say 30ftx50ft). I have no scientific numbers or readings, just experience thus far.

I have had dropouts - or at least lower RF readings on the meters than desired - with the beltpacks when used on presenters who are seated; the 1mW setting just doesn't seem to have enough "oomph" to reliably push through the combo of body mass attenuation and whatever the seats are made of.

Handhelds in stands have been fine at the 1mW setting, but if someone wraps their hand around the bottom of the handle, I've had dropouts.

This is with LPDAs off to the side and not something like an RFVenue RF Spotlight that would even further minimize the air gap between Tx and Rx.

Used to do this as well, but it dawned on me that I'm burning through a lot of batteries and I haven't actually checked if it's necessary to use all those batteries all the time. I wanted to see if there was a potential for $$$ to be saved and possibly less environmental impact.

[Don Boomer]

So if you use active antennas, having excessive transmitter gain can be an issue, because the antennas are already dragging the noise floor up with it and become very sensitive to RF. With high transmitter power levels, you can easily oversaturate an active antenna. With RF mics, it is very much a matter of less is more.

Remember that adequate carrier to noise ratio is the number one goal to successfully staying on the air.  So you can raise the carrier level or you can lower the noise floor to achieve it.  Raising the carrier level is easy, just increase the power.  But raising the power raises the IM so it interferes with other wireless mics and risks front end saturation. Lowering the noise floor by employing best practices is a better way to go ... better antennas, better coax, band pass filtering and using a frequency coordination program to assign your channels.

 Using Jason’s Link Budget Calculator as I referenced above is an easy way to plug in possibilities and predict the outcome.  It will show you where you are and where you could be by plugging in a few changes.  It’s getting too hard in today’s climate to just guess.

[Russell Ault]

Used to do this as well, but it dawned on me that I'm burning through a lot of batteries and I haven't actually checked if it's necessary to use all those batteries all the time. I wanted to see if there was a potential for $$$ to be saved and possibly less environmental impact.

If you're still "burning through" a lot of batteries then it's probably time to switch to rechargeables.

-Russ

[Helge A Bentsen]

If you're still "burning through" a lot of batteries then it's probably time to switch to rechargeables.

-Russ

If they were my wireless systems they would all be set up with rechargeable batteries.
IMO any pro level wireless system without a dedicated charging system will be obsolete in the coming years. I'd rather have a reliable, fast charging wireless without field replaceable batteries than what we currently use and bring a couple of spare beltpacks. I don't get why I have to replace dozens of AA batteries weekly when I don't have to do the same with my phone. Get a decent battery pack in there and deliver a charging solution.

[Dave Garoutte]

If you're still "burning through" a lot of batteries then it's probably time to switch to rechargeables.

-Russ

+1

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