Wireless Using Shure Passive RF splitter with Sennheiser wireless system

[NickVon]

So below is a little ASCII diagram of my system and what I'm looking to the rig. Two Racks, one with 6 wireless and 2 Combiners, and second rack with 2 wireless that I'm looking to add additional units for utilizing the same combiners in rack one.

4u Case with 6 Wireless

Front Back
[ EW100 ] [ EW100 ] [ A Ant. in ] [ B Ant. In ]
[ EW100 ] [ EW100 ]
[ EW100 ] [ EW100 ]
[ Asa1 ] [ Asa1 ] [ A7 out B7 ] [ A8 out B8 ]

2u Case with (2) wireless
[ EW100 ] [ EW100 ] [A7 in B7] [A8 in B8] (linked from the outputs from 4u or antennas installed on the panel)
[ Unit 9 ] [ Unit 10 ]

I'm looking to add to more EW 100 units and using the Shure UA221 passive RF splitter/combiner on the back end of the RF inputs in the little 2u Rack. Essentially splitting the RF7 also to unite 9, and RF8 to unit 10. After some looking on Sweetwater at the Shure UA221 indicates that this should work just fine, with a little loss in RF to units 7-10.

And i'm just looking for maybe a little bit of reassurance

2nd question. For when the 7-10 units are used on their own, Shure (for there brand) recommend using 1/2 wave antennas for a little bit of added gain for units that use the UA221. Does Sennheiser sell 1/2 wave anntenas or a 3rd party company that work. I could situate the EW100's so each unit is in the same band for when it's deployed as a single (4) unite system as with 1/2 waves from Shure, look like they are tuned by frequency band?

Any thoughts? Am I going about this all wrong? Even though it's more expensive, Am I just better off buying a larger 2nd rack and a whole other Asa1 with paddles? (my ASA1's are like G1 with the separate little 12v DC power tails, now power through the RF connection)

 

[TimMc]

Antennae are brand-agnostic. So long as you're in the same frequency range and not feeding DC voltage to devices that are not designed to see it on the RF outputs, you should be fine.

Do you need additional RF gain at the antenna?

 

[NickVon]

1st clarification: will I be shooting myself in the foot splitting the RF antennae sends to two recievers vs one? Will 7- 10 have noticeably weaker pickup in a short run setup like this.
With the current 8 unit setup w/ paddles, I don't think need more gain (even with 10 units on 8 splitter distro?). But with using the additional 2 systems as a set of 4 and passively splitting each antenna pair to 2 receivers should I look to increase from 1/4 to 1/2 wave? I guess that is the second question?