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Sennheiser AVX 1.9 GHz wireless system


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http://www.newsshooter.com/2015/04/14/nab-2015-sennheiser-avx-digital-wireless-mics/

 

Sennheiser is tackling the problem of reduced frequencies available for wireless mics by introducing new digital units in the 1.9ghz frequency range.

AVX wireless mics are coming in June with the body pack lavalier and receiver setup for $899.

The AVX system uses rechargeable batteries (4 hour life on receiver; 15 hour life on body pack transmitter,) that recharge via the universal micro usb cable found on many cell phone chargers.  The mics can also run continuously if powered by the micro usb.

The receiver is a unique cable-less design that plugs directly into an xlr port on your camera.  It comes with a cable adapter if you need to use it on your dslr with a 3.5mm plug.

The expected range is around 30 meters for the mics.  They operate on the 1.9ghz frequency range, where baby monitors and the like operate.  No license is needed.  The digital system means the receiver and transmitter pair together automatically without having to worry about what frequency they’re on.  They’ll automatically jump to new frequencies if it senses interference, and they claim there will be no effect on the audio.

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Not all cameras provide phantom power, especially those without full size XLRs

Yup, but this model appears to be made to plug directly into full size XLR only. I'm not aware of many cameras or small field recording devices with full size xlr that don't have some level of phantom power available.

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Yup, but this model appears to be made to plug directly into full size XLR only. I'm not aware of many cameras or small field recording devices with full size xlr that don't have some level of phantom power available.

According to post #1 it also comes with an adapter cable so it can plug into the audio input of DSLR cameras. They wouldn't want to preclude that market with such a product, I bet
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nice, it looks for p48 and will use if available. the apogee thing looks handy too. can pair the iphone recorder with the tx through the hp circuit :-)

i wonder if, when you power down the p48 and the rx switches off, the tx switches off too? 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

I've just been talking with someone from Sennheiser about AVX.

For the phantom power, it's just for putting the avx on/off with the sound device or the camcorder. It's not using P48 as a battery... just for saving the internal battery !

 

You can use same microphone that you are using with Sennheiser G3 (for example : Tram or COS11 with minijack).

 

You can use it as a mono wireless hop (with 19ms latency), someone make a real test ? is the latency disturbing ?

 

He said too to be aware of wifi around, for 2 and 3 avx systems, it's not a problem but for 15 avx systems + wifi around, not sure it will work...

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  • 2 weeks later...

For 25 fps, that would be around 3/4 frames. It would be fairly easy to compensate for, but one more step of course.

For camera hops, I wonder if the more pressing issue is that automatic dynamic range thing it's using. No idea if you can turn that off. Not a problem for scratch audio, but for someone looking for alternatives for wirelessly hopping usable primary audio it might indeed be a different story.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think it's an interesting system. Think about it, camera men can just press two button and the units are synced. And level control is suppose to be automated. I listened to the system (with the standard table receiver) at a trade show and walked a good 100 meter away before the system started to loose sync. The sound quality is great and I just to a reply from Sennheiser that the lithium battery in the ENG-receiver can be swapped "in two seconds". I've been wondering about the ability to change that battery or not, but luckily it's possible.

I'm going to review the system as soon as it's released - mid to late June according to Sennheiser.

 

All the best

Fred

 

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19ms is quite a lot. Latency awareness can be quite personal, but with games and TV I believe most people dont begin to be aware of the issue until it hits about 30-40ms. For monitoring purposes 19ms could be quite disturbing though if you are in the same room as the source.

What bothers me is the lack of ability for the user to select frequencies - it's all automatic. That and the fact that crap like this is the way production decide they don't need a sound mixer...

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19ms is quite a lot. Latency awareness can be quite personal, but with games and TV I believe most people dont begin to be aware of the issue until it hits about 30-40ms. For monitoring purposes 19ms could be quite disturbing though if you are in the same room as the source.

What bothers me is the lack of ability for the user to select frequencies - it's all automatic. That and the fact that crap like this is the way production decide they don't need a sound mixer...

​How about the cam op... "What's wrong with the sound"..  it's my fault of course.

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That would make an affordable single-channel camera hop.. however.. (in case  I'm missing something). two receivers can not be set the same frequency. 

​The communication is bidirectional with control information for the frequency swapping, transmission strength and level control - so two receivers most likely can't share one transmitter. There's always the possibility to use two systems together, which is what I want to test.

If I fancy the performance of the system, I will still keep my Sennheiser SK/EK2000 systems as in-ear monitoring for the reporter.

 

Cheers

Fred

Edited by ninjafreddan
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  • 2 weeks later...

Any idea why the latency is so much in comparison to even the Rode link which is 4ms?

Considering these as dual camera hop in the UK - solves the problem of sharing the 606 range, would 19ms not be roughly half a frame delay @ 25fps? Seems fine if so. Also as previously posted not sure about the automatic dynamics, sounds dodgy.

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Any idea why the latency is so much in comparison to even the Rode link which is 4ms?

Considering these as dual camera hop in the UK - solves the problem of sharing the 606 range, would 19ms not be roughly half a frame delay @ 25fps? Seems fine if so. Also as previously posted not sure about the automatic dynamics, sounds dodgy.

​I recently spoke with a Sennheiser specialist at a trade show and the difference is that the AVX system isn't a 2.4GHz "WiFi" system. It's operating at 1.9GHz which is used for DECT phones and according to him the communication is based on sending packages with a larger "window" than what's used for WiFi. Also, the codec used demands a larger buffer.

The good thing is that devices are allowed to scale up the transmission to 250mW at 1.9GHz. WiFi devices are only allowed to transmitt 10mW in Europé and 100mW in the US (correct me if I'm wrong but I got these figures from the Sennheiser guy).

AVX will scale up the transmission to 250mW when needed and really should work a lot better than its WiFi competitors. I mean, it's perfectly fine for a musician to use a Line 6 or similar WiFi-system on stage, but for us professionals demanding solid performance at a distance and in RF hostile environments, AVX might be a good companion.

Some of my clients are using my Sennheiser SK2000 mono camera hop instead of syncing up my SD664 sound files, and if I can provide them with a high quality camera hop (with a slight delay), my work would sound even better on TV. :-)

 

Cheers

Fred

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