Rebanding of Wireless Mics/headsets

[mcraig]

Hello,

I'm sure that you are aware of the June 12th deadline coming up on the 700MHz band. I work at a California two-year community college that has 20 receivers, 20 wireless mic belt packs, 4 handheld wireless microphones, 8 Clearcom headset units that will all be affected by this change. I was curious what some of you other folks might be doing in regards to this that work for a government ran entity with minimal budget?

Thank you,
Mark

 

[DaveySimps]

Welcome Mark. I moved this thread to the sound forum so it is posted in the proper place. Enjoy CB!

~Dave

 

[jkowtko]

Buy cheap equipment. Hold bake sales.

Seriously, sorry, I don't think there's an easy solution other than buy new equipment, and look for deals.

The community theater I support is in the same boat ... 12 channels of older AKG units, and 6 Samson units with clip-on transmitters purchased only a couple years ago ... all have to go.

I'm finding Sennheiser G2/100 units Bands A and B for sale pretty consistently in the $400 range, so if you don't have a large budget I would suggest starting to buy two at a time and build your inventory gradually. Fill in with floor and prop mics until you can get your wireless count back up. And, seriously, start a fundraising campaign -- this is an undeserved expense that was thrust on the community theater world ... I'm sure there are a lot of patrons that would drop some money in a box in the lobby if they were well aware of this story.

-- John

 

[mixmaster]

Hello,

I'm sure that you are aware of the June 12th deadline coming up on the 700MHz band. I work at a California two-year community college that has 20 receivers, 20 wireless mic belt packs, 4 handheld wireless microphones, 8 Clearcom headset units that will all be affected by this change. I was curious what some of you other folks might be doing in regards to this that work for a government ran entity with minimal budget?

Thank you,
Mark

Are Shure and Senhieser still doing their rebate programs?? There used to be a credit given by those companies (and maybe a couple others) if you traded up to get rid of the 700mhz stuff. The offer may have expired by now though.

 

[Cameron]

The rebates are significantly smaller than they used to be, but they do still exist.

 

[museav]

And, seriously, start a fundraising campaign -- this is an undeserved expense that was thrust on the community theater world ... I'm sure there are a lot of patrons that would drop some money in a box in the lobby if they were well aware of this story.

The story that you were illegally operating unlicensed RF transmitters?

It is an unfortunate expense, but it is not restricted to the community theatre world and also has to be looked at from the perspective of what the costs might have been, and might be, if the wireless mic systems in question were required to be licensed. I have to wonder if there would be nearly as many wireless microphone systems in use if any form of licensing and periodic renewal fees had been enforced. Given the looming continuing battles for UHF spectrum, it is probably a good time for people to reassess just how reliant they should be on wireless mic and IEM systems and to consider how they could accommodate any future changes in legislation and/or technology.

 

[Spiceboy]

This might help regarding the Clearcom stuff

http://www.clearcom.com/download/informational-documents/clear-com_wbs_re-banding_service.pdf

Not sure of the cost but I think it is about a 6 week turnaround for that

Failing that you might want to talk to them about the 2.4GHz Tempest system and see if they might do you a deal for a trade...

 

[jkowtko]

The story that you were illegally operating unlicensed RF transmitters?

Well, that would be the story if I didn't want any donations

Manufacturers continued to sell new 700mHz equipment well after the initial filings were done years ago, and quotes from reps saying "don't worry, we'll take care of you" are turning out to be the stereotype sales promises. $30 rebate on a $500 system you bought two years ago isn't "taking care of you".

Professional theater, I wouldn't expect to have much sympathy for since they know their stuff. Community theater, different story. It's like selling a car to a corporate-sponsored race car driver vs the housewife who lives down the street ... the salesrep knows which one is more knowledgable and has more resources to work with ...

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Just to play devil's advocate, anyone who has recently (last five years) purchased a system about to become illegal, in the FULL KNOWLEDGE that the ban was down the road, in my opinion, made a rather poor decision.

On the other hand, one can't help but feel that some manufacturers might like the fact that everyone is now stuck buying new mics.

 

[jkowtko]

First, since this is not my day job, just a side hobby, like many school and community theater people I am not always up to date on the latest industry info. I learn through the grapevine from forums like this or periodicals like FOH and SD. I became aware of the FCC ban maybe two years ago.

Second, I've been asking reps for two years now about this, and the overwhelming response was "not to worry", "it will take years and years for someone to actually use that space", etc, etc. I know these are all just people, and some people place personal job benefit over honesty, but as a human being I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Third, I was fairly cautious when I did buy a 700MhZ system two years ago with the FCC ban knowledge, and at that time was given a verbal by the rep that the company would handle the situation if the ban actually went through. The only reason I bought this system was because of the type of transmitter (Samson AL/1 micro clip-on transmitter with built-in condensor ... nothing else like it on the market, and Samson subsequently dropped the model from their lineup when they changed frequencies) Those wireless are still under the 3 year warranty, by the way. I'm trying to get them to take an exchange for something else that I can use, but their rebate program restricts exchanges to units purchased within the last several months ... so evidently their Marketing dept doesn't think they're legally exposed, or there was an FCC milestone date after which the "true" hard ban on the sale of such units applied. The way a lot of companies work is, set the rules overwhelmingly to their own advantage, and give in to whoever squeals. So who knows -- maybe a rash letter to the head of cust support will get me an exchange on these units.

Somehow I think the hard restriction on actually selling 700Mhz units was recent, within the last year or so. I don't know which ruling or review made it "official", but it seems as though one of those milestones was the one which the mfgs adhered to. but it certainly was a lot more recent than two years ago.

 

[SweetBennyFenton]

Just to play devil's advocate, anyone who has recently (last five years) purchased a system about to become illegal, in the FULL KNOWLEDGE that the ban was down the road, in my opinion, made a rather poor decision.

On the other hand, one can't help but feel that some manufacturers might like the fact that everyone is now stuck buying new mics.

Unfortunately, some of us were not the ones making the purchasing choices. I now have to re-band the Clear Com system bought the year before I got my job.

I do wish I had been more on top of this issue though. An ounce of prevention and all that.