IEM Wireless solutions

PolarityMan

So Im totally digging the clarity we're getting using IEMs but the wires are a bit of a PITA, im essentiall tethered by 2 different wires now, one for the IEM signal and one for the guitar. So what I'm wondering is....is there any reasonably prices wireless systems that will take a monitor signal and an instrument signal?

Danny1969

You would think there would be but  if you think about it it's not so much two different things but two different things going in two different directions 

that's why I built my system which does the same thing in two  different directions but in one cable rather than two

PolarityMan

Yeah I guess both the base unit and the pack would have to be both transmitters and receivers, I guess maybe the size makes it more expensive on the pack side. Then again there are guitar systems which are jsut little "bug" style transmitters arent there?

Danny1969

 Yeah there is some of them literally just the size of jack plugs ... you could always use one of those and a normal wireless iem receiver 


 The problem you're going to have though with most wireless IEM receivers is the lack of quality .. both in the reception quality and the quality of the headphone amp.  Some of the cheaper ones on the market are pretty much un usable especially in stereo mode .  You can get all kinds of noise and interference and crosstalk between the two channels .  I have used a couple of good ones ... we have a couple of  Sennheiser EW systems in my band  which are  pretty good but they was about 500 quid each . 
 Some of the cheap LD systems receivers my friends  have brought  I have found horrendous in quality ... 

welshboyo

I've got the cheaper LD system as a backup in the PA rack, its not that bad actually, but certainly not a patch on the main Sennheiser.

PolarityMan

Im only running a mono mix anyway so stereo isnt an issue, dont think a loss in quality or 500 quid sounds palatable though

p90fool

We're using a cheap system which works well enough and has radically improved our singers' performances, but we still carry a couple of small monitors just in case. 

We have no illusions about the quality of our system, we just bought it to have a dabble really and don't expect it to last. It took me 18 months to persuade them to try it and they absolutely love it, but they can buy their bloody own when it breaks! 

welshboyo

PolarityMan said:

Im only running a mono mix anyway so stereo isnt an issue, dont think a loss in quality or 500 quid sounds palatable though

Seriously though, unless they are used to the higher quality system then they ain't going to know!! provided you have a half decent set of IEM earpieces behind it it'll be fine ( The SE215's are more than capable IMO).

PolarityMan

This is jsut for me, if anyone else wants wireless they can buy their own

bob21

It's less about a physical size problem - colocating transmitter and receiver is an RF nightmare, as the lack of aerial separation leads to the transmitter overloading the input stage on the receiver.. Same reason you shouldn't really put transmitters and receivers in the same rack without external (and separated) aerials..

As far as IEMs go - I wouldn't go for less than Sennheiser EW. You could save some cash by buying a second hand G2 system.

IEM is much more complicated (and fickle!) than radio mics, which is why the cheap ones just don't work very well.. (I can explain several  boring reasons for this if anyone cares!)

PolarityMan

bob21 said:

It's less about a physical size problem - colocating transmitter and receiver is an RF nightmare, as the lack of aerial separation leads to the transmitter overloading the input stage on the receiver.. Same reason you shouldn't really put transmitters and receivers in the same rack without external (and separated) aerials..

As far as IEMs go - I wouldn't go for less than Sennheiser EW. You could save some cash by buying a second hand G2 system.

IEM is much more complicated (and fickle!) than radio mics, which is why the cheap ones just don't work very well.. (I can explain several  boring reasons for this if anyone cares!)

This must be a solved problem, see blue tooth, mobile phones, wifi etc.

bob21

Not an expert in transceiver design (and that of course if the difference between the devices you have mentioned, that are all transceivers, and PMSE equipment which are simplex) - but I promise you with all kit available on the market to this industry, it is an issue! 

(and before someone pipes up that Telex/Riedel/RTS are PMSE sector equipment, and also transmitter/receiver, they're not a true transceiver, they operate two coupled-but-separate transmitter/receiver pairs)