Poll-ish: recently deployed wireless mics

If your facility has bought and deployed relatively new wireless mics in the last... let's say 2 or 3 years -- since the 600MHz emigration started -- what and how many did you get, and what do you think of them? Manufacturer, model; transmitter type (pack, plugon, handheld)...

My house is scheduled to replace 18 channels of ULX-S4, for which we have 18 lavs and 8 handhelds, in this budget year. I'm not sure if it's too late to catch any of the tradein deals, but regardless, I want to make sure we get the most functional and decent sounding replacements we can...

A High School I work at:
8x Shure ULXD channels
-2x ULXD-4Q reciveres
-8x ULXD1
-8x ULXD2(4x SM58 capsule, 4x Beta58 capsule)
-16x SB900A

We replaced 8x Audio Technica AT3000 systems(8x bodypacks, 4x handhelds)

We chose Shure because we previously bought 8x UHF-R channels and have liked them alot.
We went with the ULXD systems because we had the start of Dante infrastructure already in place which saves us 8 analog input channels at the board(LS9-32).

This has been difference between night and day for us.
The old AT's were going on 13+ years old and treated by high school students/staff and outside renters.
We have had them for just about a year now and they have stood up extremely well. The only 'damage' has been the dropped handheld that now has a dented capsule cover. This is partially because we are taking better care of all the gear in general(cleaning after each use, deepish cleaning after each production, etc)
Having the rechargeable batteries has also saved the school and outside renters tons of money in batteries.
Part or all of this system gets used 2-3 times a week ~35 weeks in the last year.

Jay,

Most of the trade in deals are scheduled to end March 31. Unless of course they decide to extend them again, Sennheiser and Shure have extended their rebate programs multiple times already.

In my space we replaced our small wireless system with 3 Sennheiser EW100 G3 Handhelds, we are about to purchase a 4th EW100 G4 Combo (handheld and body pack) and will purchase 3 body packs for our existing receivers. This give us the ability to use any combo of handheld and body packs.

I usually recommend the Sennheiser EW100 or EW300 models to smaller spaces. For the price point these units are the most robust and sound great.
I would recommend the Shure QLX-D for medium spaces and ULX-D for larger spaces or spaces that need or want Dante integration. When putting together a larger system the Shure systems have the advantage by having a physically robust transmitter, rechargeable batteries and the ability to use Wireless Workbench for frequency identification and set up.

I bought 4 EW100 G4s over the summer with grant money, to expand the 3 G3s that I already run in the theatre. We have 3 handhelds and 6 packs total. Across campus we run an addition 4 G3s spread across gyms, the football stadium, the elementary stage, etc. I've really liked the build quality and robustness on them.

Replaced with Sennheiser ew100 G4 - 3 different rooms.

They are great for us.

16 channels Shure ULXD-Q with rechargeable batteries and chargers. 16 bodypacks and 8 handhelds. We have a remaining inventory of 14 UHF-R. We love them every time we use them. Sound great, high RF density, and easy to deploy. The Dante integration with our Yamaha CL5 is great and adds a piece of mind for engineers. Replaced our inventory of UHF-R ~600mhz.

How's the latency on the Dante stuff?

I'd thought about that, but we're using all our Dante to get directs to our ProTools rack... I gather I can use the inputs separately from the outputs?

No problems. 2.73ms plus whatever your network latency is. For us it's 1ms of network.

I don't know what system you are using but generally Dante is 64x64

16x Shure ULXD channels
-4x ULXD-4Q reciveres
16 Bodypacks, 6 handhelds
Also have them going into my M7 via Dante and networked for easy use with WWB

I was a Sennheiser theatre guy for years and have been using the ULXD's for a couple years now and I definitely prefer them now. Bulletproof, solid construction. I'm just not a fan of the 93's for lavs with the bodypacks.

2 years ago we bought 12 of the Audio Technica 3000 series microphones, in the 500 band. All body packs, and they came with 12 galaxy audio earset microphones that came with 4 replaceable field cables each. Then we went out and bought 6 Broadway lavalier microphones each from bodymics.com. No complaints at all about the quality, and definitely not the price either. When I heard they were changing the 3000 series, I bought extra transmitters in case.

Now we are getting (tomorrow actually) 8 wireless mics with body pacs again from bodymics. The brand is their house brand called Creative Audio. 8 receivers in a 1U space! Getting it in the 480-530 range. Again, purchased their earset mics along with it.

We recently replaced twelve channels of ULX with channels of ULX-D. I've been pretty pleased with them so far, though I'm missing the analog gain adjustment on the body packs. It's still a big improvement, though, considering the build quality feels so much better, batteries are so much cheaper and last so much longer.

blueeyesdesigns said:

though I'm missing the analog gain adjustment on the body packs.

Click to expand...

The auto gain threw me at first too and I was wary, but so far it has made all the right choices so I can't complain.

Over the last three years our high school has gone from 10 to 24 channels of Sennheiser Evolution Wireless with a mix of EW100, EW300, and EW500 receivers (mostly G3, with a few EW100 G2s still in rotation) racked with RFVenue Distro4 units and 1 Sennheiser ASA1 with two sets of paddle antennas. We have bodypacks for all 24 channels, 2 plug-on transmitters, and 12 handhelds. We use Countryman B3 and E6 mics, with a couple Sennheiser MKE2s for talking head presentations when needed. We have replaced a few 600MHz units along the way, but mostly we've been steadily picking up a few more channels each year to cut down on our rental needs. We have 4 channels each in the A1 and G bands, and the remaining 16 channels are in the A band. For the future, I'm going to replace our 6 remaining G2 receivers with EW300 G4 AW+ units with handhelds and lavs, and if we start to see serious spectrum congestion in our area then ULXD would be our next step.

The Sennheisers have been great and are holding up well thus far to moderate use, and purchasing most of them refurbished/B stock has been very budget-friendly.

Another off-topic post because I don't think it warrants a new thread, but what is everyone's thoughts on windscreens on wireless mics?

Absolutely necessary or only depending on where the mic is?

KBToys82 said:

Another off-topic post because I don't think it warrants a new thread, but what is everyone's thoughts on windscreens on wireless mics?

Absolutely necessary or only depending on where the mic is?

Click to expand...

Only when necessary. And only when it solves a problem that cannot be solved in other ways. I have been doing this for over 20 years, I have never had occasion to use one in doors, not even in hindsight. It is one less item to capture and retain moisture (and germs), and they create a larger profile, which is usually not desired.

~Dave

KBToys82 said:

Absolutely necessary or only depending on where the mic is?

Click to expand...

Scenario dependent, but almost never for the same reasons as Davey, I've never needed one indoors except for a small kid running around stage. When I'm getting breathing noise, it just needs moved further off the mouth.

Also capsule dependent on handhelds, some have internal windscreens under the grill so the external option isn't needed. That being said I had a presenter a week ago ask for one because she "usually deepthroats it and its uncomfortable when she hits her teeth with it"

KBToys82 said:

Another off-topic post because I don't think it warrants a new thread, but what is everyone's thoughts on windscreens on wireless mics?

Absolutely necessary or only depending on where the mic is?

Click to expand...

For an omni, a windscreen isn't needed indoors. I do use a windscreen outdoors. For a cardioid, or other directional pattern, a windscreen is always necessary. That's one reason why I don't like directional mics for lavs or head worn mics.

University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film, and Television-

20 channels of Shure Axient with the AD1 packs- TA4 connector version. Love them. We're using them in a Dante network. Great performance and the hardware/ software ecosystem is extremely powerful.

I find that I left this thread unclosed. My theater ended up buying 16 channels of qlxd with 100% pack coverage and some lesser percent of handheld coverage - I think we might have got eight. We built them into 2/8 position road cases with snakes, and switches and ethernet cabling so that we could run wireless workbench, and I am insanely happy with the whole rig.