Wireless NEW DIGITAL WIRELESS!! Now what....

[Fountain Of Euph]

Just purchased our first wireless system (I didn't believe my boss when he told me... he had to show me the invoices.) Gear listed below.

4x Shure ULX-D Quad Receivers
16x Shure ULX-D wireless receivers with Beta 58A capsules.
Shure wireless antenna distribution
Shure Axehead antennas (2)
Power conditioner
Rolling rack

I am on a X32 compact. House system is made by oldandcrappy...


I that I have now returned to earth, and now have questions...

1. I am a reasonably experience tech (on the job 5 years), and have used wireless as a user and a tech, but only analog and have not set them up/maintained them. I need to both do this and teach others how to do so. Any suggestions on resources/videos/teachers.

2. Got into a argument with my girlfriend/A2 (bound to happen) about rack configuration. She has a install A/V background. She thinks that the power conditioned should be on the bottom so that all cables run down. I think it should be on the top so as to take advantage of the rack lights. Is she right?

3. How does Wireless Workbench 6 work with these? Do you plug into the Dante RJ 45 jacks? Can they be cascaded? Can you use regular ethernet networks switches. Can I have two computers on running Workbench at the same time? Can I do it though WI FI? The rack will have to live backstage, we have a over seats front of house, with a A2 by them.

4. We have a campuswide wireless coordination, with 24 (soon to be 40) ch of wireless over 4 buildings. Should I lock in frequencys, designate them as mine, or should I scan and set every show?

5. Anyone have any good ideas for a case for the Axeheads? We will be touring with them and I want something hardshell and stackable.

 

[themuzicman]

1. I am a reasonably experience tech (on the job 5 years), and have used wireless as a user and a tech, but only analog and have not set them up/maintained them. I need to both do this and teach others how to do so. Any suggestions on resources/videos/teachers.

Honestly, you are best reading up yourself. For starting out, RF Venue maintains a pretty great blog of basics (and some not-so-basics). Also grab their PDF titled '3 Essential Concepts in Wireless Audio'. Really well-written blog entries, they have saved me so much time in explaining dense subjects to folks.

2. Got into a argument with my girlfriend/A2 (bound to happen) about rack configuration. She has a install A/V background. She thinks that the power conditioned should be on the bottom so that all cables run down. I think it should be on the top so as to take advantage of the rack lights. Is she right?

There's no right or wrong here. I build my fair share of wireless and other racks, but I generally always want my littlelites on the top of a rack so the light goes downwards. I usually just use a rack-mount power strip (power conditioners are generally not doing too much), generally in the rear at the bottom and get separate rack-mount littlelites and throw one at the top of both sides of the rack. But, work with what you got and throw the lights at the top so you can see.

3. How does Wireless Workbench 6 work with these? Do you plug into the Dante RJ 45 jacks? Can they be cascaded? Can you use regular ethernet networks switches. Can I have two computers on running Workbench at the same time? Can I do it though WI FI? The rack will have to live backstage, we have a over seats front of house, with a A2 by them.

You can run your network in two different configurations with the ULX-D. Either Daisy-Chain (where Secondary on One connects to Primary on the next, and so-on) or Redundant, where you have two network switches, one for Dante Primary and one for Dante Redundant. You can throw control on your Dante Primary network and use WWB from there. You can throw a Wireless Router onto the network and get control and monitoring wirelessly if you want - I would always have a hard-line backstage at the rack, and use the router for non-critical needs. They also have an iOS monitoring app you can get.

4. We have a campuswide wireless coordination, with 24 (soon to be 40) ch of wireless over 4 buildings. Should I lock in frequencys, designate them as mine, or should I scan and set every show?

If your campus is big enough, you probably don't need to do a campus-wide coordination, unless you are routinely moving systems around. It can't hurt, 40 channels of wireless in 4 buildings isn't a lot, unless your rooms are literally right next to each other. I would do a building by building coordination, unless you are moving systems around. I wouldn't bother doing a scan-per-show unless you power up and see you're getting hit (then the thing to do is to find out why you're getting hit, and work from there to play nice with the offender).

5. Anyone have any good ideas for a case for the Axeheads? We will be touring with them and I want something hardshell and stackable.

Get a few rack-mount drawers for your RF Rack. Keep the antennas in the drawer while it's in transit. Put your transmitters+accessories in another drawer.

You should probably also pick up 8-port network switches for your Dante Networks.

 

[Aaron Becker]

2. Got into a argument with my girlfriend/A2 (bound to happen) about rack configuration. She has a install A/V background. She thinks that the power conditioned should be on the bottom so that all cables run down. I think it should be on the top so as to take advantage of the rack lights. Is she right?

Can't tell you the last time I've seen a power conditioner at the bottom of a rack. At least not a portable one of one of this size... If it doesn't have lights, I guess it doesn't really matter, but generally I don't put lights on wireless racks because the receivers are lit up as they are, and I use power distribution from the antenna DAs, which I place at the top to keep the antennas high.

3. How does Wireless Workbench 6 work with these? Do you plug into the Dante RJ 45 jacks? Can they be cascaded? Can you use regular ethernet networks switches. Can I have two computers on running Workbench at the same time? Can I do it though WI FI? The rack will have to live backstage, we have a over seats front of house, with a A2 by them.

I stopped using WWB years ago, but I know that even then you could use WiFI, so I can't image this is an issue. You can use regular layer 2 network switches. Yes to connecting them via the RJ45s (looks like they have a daisy chain capability, but you'd have to check the manual).

4. We have a campuswide wireless coordination, with 24 (soon to be 40) ch of wireless over 4 buildings. Should I lock in frequencys, designate them as mine, or should I scan and set every show?

I agree with TH above, unless you're moving stuff around, lock the frequencies. If you're running a big enough gig, with a lot of potential interference, you'll probably want to invest in some type of monitoring/scanning (external, not Shure) system to keep an eye on things. I think all this finagled digital gear can switch frequencies on the fly too, but I'm not 100% sure, because I haven't jumped on the digital bandwagon yet.

 

[Chris15]

I think all this finagled digital gear can switch frequencies on the fly too, but I'm not 100% sure, because I haven't jumped on the digital bandwagon yet.

Not for the most part - it's still a change and IR sync.
The only on the fly switching system I can think of is Shure Axient - and it's analog...
Sennheiser 9000 might, but I don't know

 

[cdiamondz]

4. We have a campuswide wireless coordination, with 24 (soon to be 40) ch of wireless over 4 buildings. Should I lock in frequencys, designate them as mine, or should I scan and set every show?

Generally lock them. Not too long ago I saw some portable racks tagged with with different frequency ranges so if a particular frequency is acting up then users could change the frequency but we're also supposed to stay within the tagged range.