Hi all.
Interesting problem here. We recently got 6 brand-new Shure SLX wireless body mics and are breaking them in on our current show (Urinetown). Through a full week of tech and opening night they all worked beautifully, then came last night. Two of the six started exhibiting the exact same problem. The four good ones work perfectly with the receivers in our booth window approximately seventy feet from the performers with a totally clear line of sight. The other two, with the same line of sight, completely lose signal after twenty feet of distance.
We swapped batteries and changed channels (all you can really do on these units) all to no avail. We even moved the receivers to just behind the proscenium wall (action is on the apron) and we lose signal anytime the packs move to the opposite half of the stage.
These units have "quarter-wave antennas" on the receivers, i.e. dinky little things that looks like toys. They are tuned through the use of preprogrammed "channels" and "groups" and there're no gain settings on the units. These are the low-end, I'm sure.
Is there anything I can do, short of shipping them off for repair, to have them useful again for this week's shows? I'm handy with a soldering iron if need be. Would fabricating longer receiver antennas help?
We switched working packs to those frequencies, and they came in loud and clear, so I'm fairly sure whatever it is is in the transmitters. Possibly broken antenna wires on the packs? I unscrewed one pack and the soldering on the antenna lead (about a six-inch long antenna) was just fine. Reassembled it, same issue--twenty feet, signal's gone.
This is frustrating. We need all six up and running for our rear-placed orchestra to be able to monitor and sync up with the performers. Any thoughts?
sean
Interesting problem here. We recently got 6 brand-new Shure SLX wireless body mics and are breaking them in on our current show (Urinetown). Through a full week of tech and opening night they all worked beautifully, then came last night. Two of the six started exhibiting the exact same problem. The four good ones work perfectly with the receivers in our booth window approximately seventy feet from the performers with a totally clear line of sight. The other two, with the same line of sight, completely lose signal after twenty feet of distance.
We swapped batteries and changed channels (all you can really do on these units) all to no avail. We even moved the receivers to just behind the proscenium wall (action is on the apron) and we lose signal anytime the packs move to the opposite half of the stage.
These units have "quarter-wave antennas" on the receivers, i.e. dinky little things that looks like toys. They are tuned through the use of preprogrammed "channels" and "groups" and there're no gain settings on the units. These are the low-end, I'm sure.
Is there anything I can do, short of shipping them off for repair, to have them useful again for this week's shows? I'm handy with a soldering iron if need be. Would fabricating longer receiver antennas help?
We switched working packs to those frequencies, and they came in loud and clear, so I'm fairly sure whatever it is is in the transmitters. Possibly broken antenna wires on the packs? I unscrewed one pack and the soldering on the antenna lead (about a six-inch long antenna) was just fine. Reassembled it, same issue--twenty feet, signal's gone.
This is frustrating. We need all six up and running for our rear-placed orchestra to be able to monitor and sync up with the performers. Any thoughts?
sean