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Wireless experiences for Barcelona, London, and Ireland?


Brandon Pert

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I've never shot outside of the country and am looking for any advice or experience. I am going to be shooting in Europe for three weeks next month. I have Lectros in block 20, 21, and 25 (2x mm400, 1x smv). I understand that the UK has limited the power of tx's to 50 mW. Does anyone have experience shooting in any of these places with American Lectros? Will they not let me into the UK with my mm400 since they are stuck at 100mW (doubtful)? Will I get lots of interference issues with ambulances or other critical uses of wireless?

I also have 3 G3's which I will bring as a backup since it may be easier to find a decent frequency with them. I'm thinking of getting adapters for my cos-11's so I can use them on my G3's if I'm forced to.

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In the UK and Ireland there are only 2 legal channels at the moment. Ch69 854-862 MHz is legal until the end of 2012. Ch38 606-614 is legal and is the replacement for ch69. You are correct that 50mw is the maximum power allowed. It would be unlikely that you would have your 100mw equipment confiscated when entering the UK. If you want to stay legal I would recommend hiring radio mics locally.

Not sure about Barcelona but I do know that ch69 does not work there.

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Hi Brandon

Here you a have a list of Broadcasters in the Barcelona area

http://www.tdt1.com/canales-barcelona/

As David says stay away from ch 69 :-) it's better to stay away from the 800Mhz range in Spain, you will be fine with blocks 20, 21 and 25. All Europe is legally limited to 50mW, but in practice you won't be in trouble in Spain using 100mW

Good luck

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In the UK and Ireland there are only 2 legal channels at the moment. Ch69 854-862 MHz is legal until the end of 2012. Ch38 606-614 is legal and is the replacement for ch69. You are correct that 50mw is the maximum power allowed. It would be unlikely that you would have your 100mw equipment confiscated when entering the UK. If you want to stay legal I would recommend hiring radio mics locally.

Not sure about Barcelona but I do know that ch69 does not work there.

I'd love to stay legal and hire local mics, unfortunately it's not in the budget. I understand that only these 2 blocks are legal. But in practice, will I be able to get by with lectro blocks 20, 21, and 25 in the UK and Ireland without extreme interference issues? I'm somewhat worried about interfering with frequencies used for emergency personnel (a UK mixer friend said that he used to pick up ambulance and police chatter in the UK on his wireless). If not will my A range G3's work?

Hi Brandon

Here you a have a list of Broadcasters in the Barcelona area

http://www.tdt1.com/canales-barcelona/

As David says stay away from ch 69 :-) it's better to stay away from the 800Mhz range in Spain, you will be fine with blocks 20, 21 and 25. All Europe is legally limited to 50mW, but in practice you won't be in trouble in Spain using 100mW

Good luck

Thanks for the link and advice!

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Spain is... different :P

A total chaos re. wireless, that is.

Do not use freqs higher than 790 MHz and pack lots of luck in your bag... there's lots of small local TV channels so what works in the center of Barcelona may not work in a near town...

No problem using 100mW transmitters

I use US block 22 now and before I was using 21 and 24, which may still work

I use a wireless send to video, director, etc. around 630 MHz that also works

If you use Lectro receivers with scanner feature you'll find clean freqs

Fernando

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Just because the United States does not enforce the mandatory requirement for licenses does not mean that the rest of the world is that casual.

I know that in the UK licenses are required and you need to go through their contractor.

Not sure about Ireland or Spain.

Best to check with the consulate and get all of the paperwork in order before you have your equipment confiscated.

Bill Ruck

San Francisco

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Just because the United States does not enforce the mandatory requirement for licenses does not mean that the rest of the world is that casual.

I know that in the UK licenses are required and you need to go through their contractor.

Not sure about Ireland or Spain.

Best to check with the consulate and get all of the paperwork in order before you have your equipment confiscated.

Bill Ruck

San Francisco

In Spain the freqs they assigned time ago for wireless are useless. They are around 835 MHz and that band is completelly polluted with phone companies.

They are considering wireless used in music concerts, with the antennaes very close right there in the stage. I doubt they ever thought about our applicattion of wireless...

Take "they" as the "competent" organism.

My advice for Spain is use 100mW transmitters, use receivers with an usable scanner (like Lectros) and warn the crew you may have to boom-only. Best if you can scout the day before and watch the scanner in the receivers.

If you work out of cities, in the countryside, you'll be fine though.

Avoid harbors, small or large, sport or industrial. You can almost forget to use wireless there.

And, I guess as everywhere, have luck telling the crew to turn their smartphones off or to airplane mode... :P

Here 3G is generating a lot of RF noise well down the spectrum. My assumption is that it is due to differential freqs out of the already present spurious rf happening in higher bands

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I'm currently in london now with block 20(cast) block26(camera) block25(IFB)

6-Block 20 is busy on the higher end( 90 and up to D8)

2-Block 26 is clear

1-Block 25 has been good too.

If your worried bout getting stopped by authorities get a license, https://www.jfmg.co.uk/JfmgEcom/Ecom/LoginPage.aspx

I was worried so I had production spend around $1000 for my license. No one has stopped me yet. Was walking around buckinghan palace yesterday with a full 788 rig. No problems.

All this will change once the olympics comes round.

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you'll be fine in ireland. we use ch 38 and ch 69 but there's little or no regulation.

i've no experience with spain but if you are worried buy a license for the uk. definitely around the time of the olympics. they'll be scanning the crap out of london. its really a question of how visible youre going to be....

if you're setting up for a 2 month gig, i'd sort a license. if you're doing a run and gun tv gig they'll have more trouble finding you even if they are out there looking for you.

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