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Hi everyone, If anyone is in the north west area of the UK, we have just received delivery of the new Audio Ltd 1010 digital systems. You are more than welcome to drop by the office to have a look. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Nathan.

You guys seem to be my de facto sounding board... I am nearing completion of the first version of the FreqFinder app for iPhone and Android. It keeps track of all of your transmitter channels in use and then calculates the intermodulation products between them and tells you if any channels are being affected by intermodulation products. It is meant to be a replacement for the Lectrosonics intermod chart. It will also test all of a transmitter's options against the channels in use and provide a list of usable channels for when the need arrises to change frequencies. An add-on will provide a comparison against the fcc tv station database for users located in the US. First supported transmitters will be Lectrosonics and Comtek, but more will be added over time. The price will be $30 for the base app and $15 for the US TV add-on. Also, current front runner for the name is FreqFinder, but TXCentral is also an option.

Do the new Lectrosonics LMb Transmitters have the same power output as the previous discontinued LMa Transmitters? There has been discussion that the older LMa were rated at 50mw but have a power output closer to 70mw. Maybe Larry Fisher can chime in on this one. Do they have the same power unit? or completely different, Thanks, in advance Ted Kinney / Soundman Portland, OR

Just a quick note that we have opened the books today to accept orders for the new SSM transmitter and will begin shipping units out tomorrow. As you can imagine, there are far more orders that what we can ship from this first batch (about a 3:1 ratio, actually), so we will be allocating the "hot" orders first by working closely with the dealers. The next batch should be ready in 4-6 weeks. Cheers!

FreqFinder version 1.8 for Android has been released and iOS version 2.3 is soon to follow. And what is new to both is worthy of a little bit of explanation. Settings which will affect the intermodulation calculation have been added. iPhone users had the 3x3 and 2x7 settings previously. The transmitter spacing and intermod spacing factors will be added soon. A summary of each of the settings: - Enable 7th Order Products This setting was enabled by default. Turning it off will provide you with more compatible channels at the cost of the quality of those channels. 7th Order Products tend to be much less severe and therefore users may wish to disable their calculation. - Enable 3 TX 3rd Order Products This setting was also enabled by default. Turning it off will provide you with more compatible channels at the cost of the quality of those channels. 3 TX 3rd Order products occur mainly when you have large groups of radios in tighter spaces. One might disable this if he were reasonably sure that the transmitters will be rather spread out. - Intermodulation Spacing Factor The default for this setting has always been at its least conservative. This is the padding between a transmitter and any intermodulation product. Increasing this value will result in fewer compatible channels. ***Note that the number itself is rather arbitrary. I do ask that you play with different settings and if you come to any interesting conclusions, I would very much like to hear them*** - Transmitter Spacing Factor This factor determines the minimum spacing between transmitters according to their bandwidth. The calculation averages two transmitters' bandwidths and then multiplies by this factor to determine the spacing. The default for this setting has always been at its least conservative, however a couple of transmitters have built in alternative minimum spacings (Lectrosonics has 300khz). This setting will override that minimum if it calculates a larger spacing. Even with maximum settings, a user will still get 10 channels out of a single Lectrosonics block. These controls are meant to provide extra protection and still allow a users with larger transmitter counts the ability to squeeze more channels in. I would recommend for most cart setups dialing the settings to maximum and keeping them there. I want to note that for these settings, you can not dial down the settings midway through adding transmitters and expect the first set of transmitters to stay protected at the higher settings. When you change the settings, all of the transmitters are protected at those settings. On that note, hopefully everyone has noticed the "Protection" switch on the transmitter details page. That is meant to add transmitters which would contribute to intermodulation but for which you do not care about the performance of the transmitters. In the future I'd like to have three protection options (NONE, DEFAULT, and EXTREME) that would allow for extra protection to selected transmitters. I hope everyone is finding FreqFinder suitable to their needs, and as always I love to hear from you guys. Best, James

I'm looking to upgrade to a pair of Zax radios and a receiver for bag work. I am mainly curious about the difference in range and power efficiency between the LA2/LT2. I'm wondering: 1) Is the LT2 available at 125 mW? perhaps via special order / mod? 2) How is range with 50mW using whip antennae on the QRX235? (I'm working from a bag) 3) Does the LT2 run twice as long as LA2 assuming same power setting etc? 4) Or like 2/3 of a day instead of half a day? 5) Is there any advantage to the QRX200 over the QRX235? (I remember Rado looking to swap his 235 for a 200 but don't remember why) No Zax dealer in my country so any advice/experience is much appreciated.

Hello all, Just completed these videos last week and thought anyone interested in the L Series products might want to take a look. LT and LMb transmitters: LR receiver:

I'm doing sound on a film that will feature mountain climbers. The director want's to capture ambient sounds as we shoot safely from the bottom of the mountain. He's expecting the climbers to be about one thousand feet above us. So my question is, can anyone recommend a wireless lavalier system with a reliable operating range at that distance? We will be in the middle of nowhere, so interference from other signals shouldn't be much of an issue. I use Sennheiser G3 systems now and I'm quite certain they will not cut it. Cheers, Jeff

So producer says they want to split the cameras to two different locations tomorrow. One for an interview and the other for recreation with four talent. I'm the only sound guy. She says they have an extra wireless microphone that the interview cam can use. This is a picture of what they handed me. When I stopped laughing, I broke a lectro out of my bag, set the cam up to record audio and wished the operator good luck. Note the MIKE in and out.

I will be posting an iOS version update very soon, with a number of new features: - Substantially faster calculation (for the supporting of more transmitters and for future customization options) - Disable transmitter feature - Custom TX Types, implemented via our brand new - Import / Export feature Here's the deal with Import and Export: for right now it is implemented only using the built in Mail app, so you need to be configured to use the built in Mail app. I looked into the Gmail app; it is not possible to use the gmail app to open an attached file inside of another app. Turns out, it's not very user friendly in general to get files into and out of apps. The only other built in option is Apple's app file sharing which requires you to use iTunes on a computer. I didn't think that was very user friendly. If nothing else, I'll probably incorporate Dropbox file sharing in there in the future. Also, the import feature is moderately smart. While you can simply add all of the imported transmitters to the current or new list, I imagine people will want to be synchronizing lists frequently. For that purpose, each transmitter is assigned a UUID. Transmitters therefore can be updated with new information with each import. Granted, it is not as sophisticated as perhaps a cloud sharing service, but that's a conversation for another time... I have created a new file format called ".ffx". It is an xml document. It can be opened with a text editor (on a computer) and is human readable. And you are free to edit these files to create custom transmitters and custom transmitter types with custom channel lists. The file format should be mostly self explanatory, and I've done my best to make these files pretty idiot proof, but I fully anticipate that with enough people tinkering, somethings will go wrong. And as usual, I am (relatively) immediately accessible to work through whatever problems you have, and I want all of your input to continue to make the app better. And as usual, the Android version is behind on the programming. A lot of work went into these new features, and it will take time to implement them in the Android version. However the priority is the Import / Export, and since we don't have to wait a week or more to update, I'll post the new features incrementally. Cheers, James

After running across checked my Zaxcom antennae and found them to be a little off of the correct length for my block. So I want to ask, how important is antenna length? I have two QRX receivers and some TRX transmitters. They have all operated well-enough. During my measurements I found some to be 1/4" too long, which puts them 2 blocks away according to the Zaxcom antenna length chart. The current TRX and QRX manuals show the same chart. I used precise digital calipers for the measurement. I can't say I noticed any difference now compared to before. There are so many variables that affect reception, how do I know if the antenna length was a weak point? I'd like to hear from Glenn and Larry. Mark O.

Hi everyone Here in the UK, we use for some wireless headphones and receivers a frequency between 864-865Mhz as it is free of licence. As this frequency falls in the rage of wide-band antennas, i was wondering if i could plug my ifb transmitter to the antenna out on my venue receiver and use my 2 shark fin antennas with it at the same time as using the venue? Will it work or will it make some interference from one system to the other? Thanks

Are the lyre shockmounts in the Rycote Softie grip able to comfortably hold a mic with a plugon transmitter on the end? You can with the old 'rubber doughnut' style, but I'm wondering if the lyres might bend too far or bounce about with the weight of the transmitter. I know this setup isn't ideal, but it can be useful for ENG (to put a mic at a podium, etc), and attaching the plugon to the end of the handle doesn't work if it is being attached to a stand. Chris

Hey guys, I just got a call from the folks over at Sheathing Technologies Inc about ordering body pack covers from them for my smqv's. What it came down to was, I have to order 2 boxes of 100 pieces minimum at $39ea. They're going to charge me $5 to ship to a residential address They want $22 to ship to my house in Austin Good on them for doing what they've gotta do, but I'm really only looking for around 50, so I thought it'd see if anyone out there had a supply they wouldn't mind selling from. Interested? Thanks, Parker

Hey guys, I just received a second hand Lectrosonics mm400c today. I put a brand new battery in and tried to power it up, but had no success. Long story short, here are some steps I found useful for a possible quick fix. If the LEDs do not turn on then chances are the switch is to blame. The housing of these units is fully enclosed and power on is done with a magnetic button through the outer wall (waterproof design). Sometimes magnets might fall too far out of alignment and need to be sent in, but give this a try before the hassle. Picture 1 shows the magnet switch at off. Slide it to the middle where you will see to nubs that hold the button in tact expose (picture 2). Use tweezers, or something similar to pry the button out of the middle (picture 3). Now proceed to clean all the grooves from possible dirt or erosion, and place the button back in. I found in my case, there was just enough crud to prevent the sliding power switch to fully reach the on position. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hi guys, I'm still quite new here, so if this question is in the wrong forum, just let me know and I'll try to move it. I'm a sound artist and unfortunately not a trained technician. For a new project I need to work with 6 wireless transmitter / reciever packs, walking around in the city. I've checked with the usual firm where I rent my super high end equipment, and they gave me an offer for 5 weeks rent of 6 Sennheiser SK5212-II + EK3241. I have worked with those once before and they worked beautifully. However, our budget is limited, and we were wondering if it wouldn't be cheaper to buy the transmitter/recievers (especially in the long run, with doing at least 10 shows with this piece). Buying 6 of the Sennheiser ones is out of the question, that's way beyond our budget. So here's my question: does anyone know of some wireless packs that are good, can attach to DPA 4060's and are in the price range of 500 - 750 euro per pack. and where you can use 6 of them at the same time, and are at the same time not too prone to RF interference (we will be walking around in the city, so in the midst of telefone, wifi, electrical fields and radio signals i've heard sony made some decent ones that were in this price range, but unfortunately I don't know make and model. If you could help me out, and suggest some brands and models I could check out, I'd be very grateful. Kind regards Stijn