Tips to clean up wireless mic cables?

KBToys82

Active Member
Hey all, I'm about to add additional wireless mics, but the back of my rack is extremely cluttered with 12 AT-3000 receivers which are plugged into 3 antenna distributors.

Anyone have suggestions on how to clean this mess up? Maybe even pictures of theirs?

Thanks!
Kyle
 
I have 24 Sennheiser units mounted in a 16 space rack. I made an XLR patchbay that mounts in the back with the antenna distros. I used little zip ties to group cables together and make it a little less messy. I also used velcro against the side walls to keep cables more out of the way. In making XLR cables to the patchbay, I used 5 different colored cable to help see where everything is going, in case I need to remove a unit, etc.

The distros that I have also supply DC power to the wireless units. That helped clean things up tremendously. The power bricks for the 6 distros are velcro'd to the floor and plugged into a switched, rack mounted power strip. I plug in that strip, turn it on and everything comes on. The 6 distros are tied into a pair of BNC connectors mounted on a blank rack panel. I connect 2 paddle antennas and the rig is ready to go.

Some pictures for reference.
 

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Sorta and answer, and an additional question for others.

Audio Technical makes or at least used to make a full 1u Rack RF combiner that provided power and an Cascading Antenna Distro. A local school near us replaced there 600 band Audio Technica System but failed to replace there combiners with the same style they used to have (which where the 1u full width style but locked to the 600 band filtering)

The back of there Rack is now a mess for two reasons. (All the additional DC power connectors to) they are still powered by there ant. combiners by via a separate wire and not the Ant. In. and the fact the the half rack 1u combiners don't have cascade outputs so they have lost the use of there (2) paddle ant. and have 6 1/4 stick ant. buried in the rear of the rack.

Are there any Passive/Active in line RF spilttesr that wold be recommend. Is it cheaper to pick up 4 more Paddle ant. and (25') RF cable, and some side mount mic stand clips?
 
Nick -

I can't speak to the science behind it - but I know a lot of school (high school and college) theatres I've worked in years ago were opting not to drop all their "eggs in one basket" so to speak and run 16 of their wireless into 2 dedicated paddles and the other 16 into another 2. It was a sort of way to ensure that the wireless wasn't all running through two paddles in the event of failure, though it obviously doesn't count as "redundancy" since you'd still lose half your wireless. It also was probably cheaper. Passive paddles aren't that expensive and nor is the RF cable.

I'm sure most of the national supply houses could price out the differences for you.

Also, +1 for color coded cables and velcro or zip-ties for organization, and +10000x for using the DC supply via the BNC I know at least Senny used to make on their gear, I've been out of the large wireless game for a few years but that was a genius way to save on cable mess. Even DC cables from the distro with short jumpers was better than AC power supplies or worse - inline or wall wart blocks.
 

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