Wireless Mic Receiver Casings

[Foxinabox10]

I have been thinking about this for a while, so I'll pose the question:

Does the casing, or even surroundings, that the wireless microphone receivers are in affect how strong of a signal they are receiving?

Our receivers are sitting in a plastic/metal road case backstage on a concrete balcony surrounded by thick metal handrails. We have pretty old mics, and so I was wondering, would all the metal around the boxes make the signal received from the mic very low, allowing more room for intereferance?

 

[Sombra2]

i appologize if i get this totally off. but with my experience if you surround the transmitter or reciver with a heavy material like concert or metal (some metals don't block signals as well as others). however I'm not sure about plastic how it affects the signal.

what I recommend to test to see if the case/location is affecting the signal would be to move the receivers out of the case and move them around and see if it better or worst(also, I know on the sennheiser our school got has a signal meter so check if yours has one). the best thing is to move it around and test it in different places and different combinations.

another thing if the case if affecting perfomance/signal there are antennas combines(not quite sure if that the name) i know shure and sennheiser has them were all your recievers(if you have more then one, guessing you do) you plug a cable into the combiner from the reciever and you can place antennas outside the box linking the antennas from the combiner.

 

[Foxinabox10]

We don't have antenna distribution systems as you talked about, but...I'm trying to convince the school to redo the sound system and that would involve new Audio Technica wireless microphones. Has anyone used their antenna distributors or long range antennas? Also, are there any other brands that work with the AT3000 series?

 

[avkid]

I think antenna combiners should work on all systems with common antenna connectors.
I know that we use Shure UA844 units for 12 ULX wireless systems.

 

[mbenonis]

I think antenna combiners should work on all systems with common antenna connectors.
I know that we use Shure UA844 units for 12 ULX wireless systems.

This only works because the Shure UA844US is a wideband antenna distributor, meaning that it works from roughly 490 MHz all the way up to 806 MHz. There are also better antenna distributors that work in a narrower range - these also tend to be more expensive because of the filtering they employ.

 

[wolf825]

I have been thinking about this for a while, so I'll pose the question:

Does the casing, or even surroundings, that the wireless microphone receivers are in affect how strong of a signal they are receiving?

Our receivers are sitting in a plastic/metal road case backstage on a concrete balcony surrounded by thick metal handrails. We have pretty old mics, and so I was wondering, would all the metal around the boxes make the signal received from the mic very low, allowing more room for intereferance?

On your first question about the casing effecting the signal--if your antenna's are inside the case and not on the outside--yes it can have some effect IMO because the RF can (and on VHF systems especially) cross and compile together to lessen the signal strength recieved. If your antenna's are on th eoutside of the case--I would not worry about it.

On your second question about location of the recievers... cheaper VHF systems, non diversity systems, and multiple systems of the latter put together can be more susceptable to drop outs, interferences and so on from stronger RF or electrical fields... You are more likely to get RF signal cancellation and stronger signals overpowering your stuff...so with cheaper low power, VHF, non diversity systems or multiple systems its always best to keep them as close to the stage or transmitter areas as possible for best possible reception...

-w

 

[Soundguybs]

Are you just woulding about this or are you having problams with your wirless mics? I am not total sure about the type of case but as long as the antennas are not touching anything i think (dont quote me on this) you will be fine and as long as an cable and etc are the right stuff for it. I have never had a problam with a case or anything around the antennas execpt when it is touching the antennas, or a wirless freq is overriding my wirless mic freq or just a died spot for the antennas so it cant pick up anything good.