d:vote 4099: is there a universal wireless option?

[hooty2]

Greetings and thanks for looking in:)

I'm taking my DPA 4099 to my daughter in north germany. she is just starting to be invited, with her violin, to ceilidh and folk gigs on small stages and local events. At these events there has been varying levels of 'best practice' in pointing a mic at her.
I looked at the DPA website to see about a wireless option for her and i was slightly overwhelmed by the choices.
Is it the case that if she wants to rock up at various stages she would do well to have her own package of adaptor/transmitter/receiver?
Any advice well received
cheers

[Wonks]

Adaptors maybe (she should be able to find out beforehand what transmitters are being used, but for festivals, I don't think people turning up with their own transmitter/receiver packages would go down that well unless there was agreement beforehand. If there is a significant use of wireless kit, then the channels and frequencies will have been selected to avoid interfering with each other and with other radio equipment.

In Germany there are two bands used for professional music use, 470 – 608 MHz and 614 – 694 MHz. Both are currently license-free (a change made in 2020) and should remain so until at least a review in 2030.

Professional stage productions will use a common aerial/signal distribution system to the receivers with the aerials placed for good stage coverage. It may not be possible to locate a personal receiver in such a good position.

Not saying not to get a system, but any system really needs to be fairly top of the range stuff with fully adjustable frequency settings (not a choice from a few presets) and probably by Sennheiser for best compatibility.

Just my thoughts.

[zenguitar]

Wireless = More Things to go Wrong.

If there is a microphone at these events, then it has a cable (or wireless connection) already. Then it's just a matter of politely pointing out that she has a professional quality microphone fitted on her violin ready to plug in.

Andy

[Hugh Robjohns]

Is it the case that if she wants to rock up at various stages she would do well to have her own package of adaptor/transmitter/receiver?

If she's effectively freelancing with different bands then quite possibly yes... but with significant caveats!

Different radio mic systems have different connections, as you know, and so at the very least she'd need a pocket full of DPA TX adapters (which aren't cheap!).

However, depending on the scale of gig she's doing I'd imagine not every house PA system is going to have a suitable spare radio mic system available. So for reliability and convenience she you would really need her own pocket radio transmitter worn somewhere convenient with a matching wireless receiver placed somewhere nearby, with it's output feeding the house PA system via mic XLR cable.

However, you then have the thorny issue of what type of wireless system. If UHF, what frequency/channel. There are license-free channels available in most countries, and I'm sure in Germany, although I don't know what they are. You'll need to look them up and make sure the chosen radio mic system can operate in those RF bands.

Of course, there's no guarantee someone else wont already be using a pre-selected free channel in the same area, so your daughter would probably have to seek an available free channel at each gig and set up the receiver and transmitter appropriately each and every time.

Alternatively, you could use a wi-fi-band digital wireless system which would also be license-free and frequency-agile so no need to specifically find an empty channel at each gig... but the inherent latency might be an issue when playing.

The third option is to use a wired connection and, unless your daughter likes to bound around all over the stage, that would be my preference because it's simple, reliable, and guaranteed not to suffer interference and dropouts.

So, fix the DPA4099 onto the violin with the cable trailing back to the standard XLR power adapter clipped to a belt (to take the cable strain), and then use a standard XLR cable to the stage box with phantom power from the PA desk.

It's a robust system that everyone can cope with and without any frequency issues. That's what I would do...

[hooty2]

Many thanks indeed for this comprehensive reply (everyone)
Robust and standard is the way we're going.
Great stuff