Hang onto your hats. This is going to be an exciting time. And the NAB? I think they’ll survive.
Cool. Excitement. I like excitement. Anyway…
So, I need about four wireless mics, for both studio and location work. What the heck do I do? The whitespace device lab and field trials were all failures; the whitespace devices didn’t “see and avoid” other wireless users (TV transmitters, wireless mics). I already knew I had to avoid stuff in the upper TV bands (where my existing, non-retuneable wireless mics live). But now?
Maybe I should just give all the actors iPhones, and have ‘em phone in their performances?
Posted by Adam Wilt on 11/05 at 12:21 AM
So the government approved legislation before working out the bugs. Hmmm…
(Scratches bug bite.)
Posted by on 11/05 at 04:36 AM
C’mon, Adam, you live in Silicon Valley. People talk about these things as if they are going to emit 1000 watts on every UHF channel at once. You and I both know they won’t.
How would we all feel if Hollywood (and Rochester NY) had gotten the government to block development of the Red camera because it might decrease the sales of film? Is there a danger her? Yeah, maybe, but I’d be way more afraid of high-powered public safety services bleeding over into the wireless mic space.
I’m usually a skeptic (see: Digital TV) but on this one I think it can work out to the benefit of everyone. Except the NAB, who foresee a tumultuous drop in viewers for broadcast TV. I can’t really buy that; if we as Americans all nave one thing in common, it is that we have a home, and in that home is usually a couch, and across from that couch is a TV. Mobile devices are great, but only to a point. We all go home at the end of the day, don’t we?
I’m sorry, but blocking out bandwidth in 6Mhz chunks because “something might happen” is an incredible waste of a valuable resource.
PS: I own three wireless mic too, and we at WPT have at least twenty.
BAJ
Posted by on 11/05 at 07:51 AM
I wasn’t actually complaining that doom was upon us all (though the sort of transmitter detection schemes being bandied about are REALLY HARD to do, and there’s a very real chance of a “tragedy of the commons” with unregulated whitespace access). I was asking a serious question: what’s going to happen with radio mics?
None of the soundies I talk to are at all sanguine about the prospects. The only advice I get is, “don’t buy anything until this all shakes out.” OK, but what do I do between now and then, whenever “then” is? What are you with your three mics and WPT with their 20+ mics planning to do?
Posted by Adam Wilt on 11/05 at 09:01 AM
I just bought a Sennheiser wireless system that auto-searches out open freqs. Might not be prefect, but it’ll be a decent bridge, and brand-new from B&H;they are only $550:
http://tinyurl.com/yuwhrn
Got mine used, though.
And seriously, I only use wirelesses when they are the only option - in a studio, if no one is walking around all that much, I use wired lavs.
Call me a pie-eyed optimist, but I see too much potential in “WiFi on steroids” not to give it a shot.
Posted by on 11/05 at 09:26 AM
Prefect? Ford Prefect?
Might not be “perfect.” D’oh.
Posted by on 11/05 at 09:42 AM
