buying wireless transmitters/receivers

[Stephen Hall]

Kathy, as our distinguished host Ty Ford says, “Welcome to Creative Cow.”

The A,B,G “blocks” with Sennheiser wireless gear indicate the frequency range that each supports. I would recommend buying a wireless set (transmitter, matching receiver and lav mic) from one of the reputable vendors like DVestore, B&H Photo/Video, Trew Audio or other established folks.

Which “block” to buy might depend on your location. These systems operate in parts of the spectrum used by other radio sources. There are a number of discrete frequencies within a “block” to which you can tune the set (transmitter and receiver must be tuned to the same frequency). I have Sennheiser sets in both A & B ranges and was glad I did when shooting very close to a monster TV transmitter that rendered one entire block useless. That last is very unusual. I’ve used both A & B sets simultaneously all over the Seattle metro area without trouble.

To research the frequency allocations ( to commercial and broadcast transmitters ) in your area, you might start with Lectrosonics’ great TV channel table: https://www.lectrosonics.com/images/PDFs/tvstationsfrequencyblocks.pdf ( a PDF file ). https://www.lectrosonics.com/ They’re another respected wireless manufacturer.

Good luck !

Stephen Hall
https://sound.facesproject.org/

[Ty Ford]

To put a finer point on Stephen’s good advice.

You can operate more than one wireless mic on a band, A, B or G. The country in which you operate the wireless mic may have restrictions as to which frequencies you are allowed to operate on.

Where are you and where do you intend to operate these mics.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide

[André Engelhardt]

Another source to cross-check frequencies is Sennheiser’s directory:

https://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/professional_wireless-microphone-systems_frequency-check

(Be patient as of now it’s loading a bit slow for me, took a while for the country drop-down to show up)

Good luck!

André

—
Audio Engineer, Sound Designer
Videographer
http://www.andreengelhardt.net

[André Engelhardt]

Addendum:

Direct url for USA charts: https://www.sennheiserusa.com/findFrequency/?00002

It allows you to enter a city / zip code and a radius and gives you a full list of frequencies.

—
Audio Engineer, Sound Designer
Videographer
http://www.andreengelhardt.net

[Kathy Lee]

Hi, thanks for your response. I work in NYC and the tri-state area mostly.

[Ty Ford]

Kathy,

Talk to someone at B&H to find out which of the three bands should work best in the NY area.

Sam Mallery hangs out here from time to time. I’m sure he’d know.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide