First things first, the type of wireless systems you should be looking at are high-density units, where many transmitters can operate within a small slice of frequency spectrum. You also want your systems to have mile-wide frequency bands that they can operate within. When the FCC does its large auction next year, you want to know that as things transition in wireless spectrum over the next several years that your microphones can adapt by being assigned to different frequencies, of which you want as many to choose from as possible. If you buy systems that only
cover a small frequency band, you'll likely end up in a position where you're replacing your systems within a few years as you're forced out of those frequency bands into other portions of the spectrum.
This brings me around to the
point that wireless systems are incredibly difficult to get any amount of return-on-investment on. A rental
house can rent their gear out 75% of the time and pay off a $100,000 wireless systems
purchase within a year. A school will
never make that money back. Not even close. Never will they get that amount of value out of their systems either.
Quick little exercise to illustrate as I happen to have
Shure's price list up on my
monitor.
- MSRP on ULXDQ receivers is $6269, 4 channels ea. You'd need 7-1/2 (they don't sell half-units, but the math is easier). $47017.50
- MSRP on ULXD1 transmitters is $556. You'd need 30. $16,680.
- "Value" headworn mic's are in the $150 range. Quality mic's are more around $300, give or take. You'd need 30, but they break pretty often, so let's say 35 for starters. $5250 - $10500.
- You need a rack to put those in, a snake to get them into the console, batteries, and maybe some antenna distribution. Let's say another $5000 for extraneous gak.
All in all, you're looking at $73,947.50 - $79,197.50. Granted, that's at
MSRP and nobody pays
MSRP, and there are volume discounts on these things usually, but you'll at least be around $60k or so.
There are value offerings out there, but most will not scale to 30 transmitters, and even if you pay only $35,000 for the package, if they're not agile enough in ability to change frequencies, you could be stuck with $35,000 of wireless that need to be replaced when the RF landscape is overturned over the next few years.
This all brings me around to my main
point, which isn't really my main
point but bear with me here.
Rent.
It's not cheap, but it's cheaper than 30 wireless systems, both in up-front costs, and regular upkeep. Upkeep can be everything from broken microphones to broken transmitters or antennae. Worst kind of upkeep though is changes in the frequency spectrum landscape. Mid next year, a large upheaval will occur with an FCC spectrum auction. Investing $35k in 30 lower-density wireless systems now will set you up for needing to replace them in a few years. Investing $60k in 30 high-density wireless systems will function fine and you'll be able to adapt to the changing RF landscape, but you'll
never make that money back in the lifetime of the systems.
If you want to take this exercise a little further though, ask around at your local rental shops what a one or two week 30-system rental is, and you can do the math on how many rentals you need to do before you'd hit that $60k neighborhood and break even.
My real main
point:
Alternatively, you could spend
far less money on shotgun and hanging mic's, and get the
FOH system optimized for as little
feedback potential on
stage as possible. Area mic the heck out of the acting areas, use only wireless mic's on lead characters when needed, and you'll be rockin'.
Requires some more engineering in that you'll need to spend $3k or so to get a pro to tune your
system properly, and another few thousand in having an acoustical and sound reinforcement analysis done to minimize
feedback potential, and then another few grand on microphones and cables, plus potentially several grand on acoustical treatments. All in all, nobody can tell you what this approach would cost without looking at your space and your systems, but it's probably a lot less than the $60k on wireless systems that have a finite lifespan.
Could be as little as $15k, could be as much as replacing your entire sound
system if you've got significant
feedback potential on
stage that cannot be corrected through tuning the
system and reaiming speakers.