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New wireless TX deviation rules October '18


Philip Perkins

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16 hours ago, Constantin said:

So the new wideband transmitters are what, maybe a year old? Or less? If I understand this correctly the new deviation rules have been known to manufacturers for at least two years. And the new ones don’t have a mode already to accommodate this?

 

The new specs were not finally set by the FCC until July last year - the original specs (announced in 2015) were impossible to meet for a battery powered design.  The four manufacturers (Lectro, Sennheiser, Shure and Audio Technica) who were actively engaged with the FCC appealed various aspects of those specs (including power, deviation, spurious emissions etc)  and  in December of 2015 and did not get a final answer until July of 2017.   The wide band units started R&D well before then (in 2015).  By the time the new regs were settled, the widebands were already at the labs.

 

Remember, the wider deviation can still be used by YOU.  Your existing 500MHz gear is unaffected.  We, as manufacturers, are getting told to stop making old spec gear this year.  We could NOT include the ETSI mask in the transmitter because the the new specs were not final until last July - then we had to (re)develop the units to meet that spec.  The test labs had to learn the new spec and develop testing procedures.  Additionally, the FCC won't allow a new spec transmitter to HAVE both deviations in it.   It would have been VERY premature to make any announcements until we were confident of the new rules and had solutions lined up.

  

 

On 8/1/2018 at 4:29 PM, Sound Intuition said:

Is this for any new units made by manufactures in the US regardles of domestic or foreign sale? Are you still able to sell 75khz trx's outside of the US?

 

BIll

 

  

Depends on the country - the US was rather unique in allowing the wider deviation - most countries are at 50Khz or less.   It's messy.  And every country has its own testing/certification process (read expen$ive) . 

We would love to see a common standard so one product would be OK world wide - I would also like to have a microwave refrigerator - the chances of either wish are about equal.....  

 

Addendum - I first mentioned this in a post on May 6 of 2016 - in the same thread Rado even posted the link to the FCC regulations (pre appeal version). 

 

 

 

 

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This also means new US transmitters (with 50 KHz deviation) will work with EU receivers (vice versa they already do). Not sure about legal issues but technically it should work. Maybe as a consequence companies like Lectro won't have to make different US and EU versions anymore? (Thus saving R&D and time)

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We have had people asking us about their Zaxcom gear after reading this thread. Here is some more information.

 

All current and future Zaxcom products are compatible with each other. Any purchase of new gear will work with the current gear in the field as long as the receiver is newer than the QRX200. This includes QRX200, QRX235, RX200 and RX12 with QRX212 receivers. Zaxcom ZHD96 and ZHD48 modulations exceed the new requirements from the FCC. Zaxcom wireless audio quality is not effected by the changes in the rules due to the nature of digital wireless transmission and the ZHD system we put in place a few years ago. Zaxcom TRX3.6 and ZMT3.6 transmitters can be changed to 3.5 versions without limitation as these versions all exceed the new FCC requirements.

 

Glenn

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2 hours ago, glenn said:

We have had people asking us about their Zaxcom gear after reading this thread. Here is some more information.

 

All current and future Zaxcom products are compatible with each other. Any purchase of new gear will work with the current gear in the field as long as the receiver is newer than the QRX200. This includes QRX200, QRX235, RX200 and RX12 with QRX212 receivers. Zaxcom ZHD96 and ZHD48 modulations exceed the new requirements from the FCC. Zaxcom wireless audio quality is not effected by the changes in the rules due to the nature of digital wireless transmission and the ZHD system we put in place a few years ago. Zaxcom TRX3.6 and ZMT3.6 transmitters can be changed to 3.5 versions without limitation as these versions all exceed the new FCC requirements.

 

Glenn

 

Means this that the QRX100 and RX4900/RX900 does not comply with the new regulations? (And TRX900AA, TRX900LA, TRX2.5....)

 

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2 hours ago, ramallo said:

 

Means this that the QRX100 and RX4900/RX900 does not comply with the new regulations? (And TRX900AA, TRX900LA, TRX2.5....)

 

 

Keep in mind that the regs are for transmitters, not receivers, and also does not affect the units you already have. 

 

i.e. The sky is not falling -- it's just been lowered incrementally for manufacturers. 

 

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11 minutes ago, John Blankenship said:

 

Keep in mind that the regs are for transmitters, not receivers, and also does not affect the units you already have. 

 

i.e. The sky is not falling -- it's just been lowered incrementally for manufacturers. 

 

 

My question also had transmitters (between brackets)

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2 hours ago, ramallo said:

 

My question also had transmitters (between brackets)

 

Yes, and the models you listed are ones a person would already have (as they've been superceded), so therefore, the new ruling does not apply to them. 

 

As I understand it, this ruling pertains to what manufacturers and dealers can sell after the date of implementation. 

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1 hour ago, John Blankenship said:

 

 Yes, and the models you listed are ones a person would already have (as they've been superceded), so therefore, the new ruling does not apply to them. 

  

 As I understand it, this ruling pertains to what manufacturers and dealers can sell after the date of implementation. 

 

Just was a question to the manufacturer, even the new models are older than the new rules.

 

In other hand, old and new have to mono modulations (Apart of HD that are narrower), US and EU, IMMO almost the EU could work with the new rules. I don't know about XR

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1 hour ago, ramallo said:

 

Just was a question to the manufacturer, even the new models are older than the new rules.

 

In other hand, old and new have to mono modulations (Apart of HD that are narrower), US and EU, IMMO almost the EU could work with the new rules. I don't know about XR

 

Apparently, I'm not sure what your question is.  Will manufacturers adjust their products to meet requirements?  No doubt they will.  Will you be able to continue to use gear you already have?  Yes, you will! 

 

Beyond that, we'll need to wait and see as the dust settles.

 

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5 minutes ago, John Blankenship said:

 

Apparently, I'm not sure what your question is.  Will manufacturers adjust their products to meet requirements?  No doubt they will.  Will you be able to continue to use gear you already have?  Yes, you will! 

 

Beyond that, we'll need to wait and see as the dust settles.

 

 

I don't have (still) any problem, I'm in Europe. But I have the curiosity about my Zax tramsmitters/receivers (TRX2.5 and TRX900LT I'm poor). Curiosity about the US mono, EU Mono and XR

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/4/2018 at 4:17 PM, Derek H said:

Are you going to mark the newer 50kHz units somehow on the label?

 

I see from snooping the FCC ID database that the re-certifications of all of all current Lectrosonics transmitters have come through in the past few weeks.

 

I have made up a rule that I think works for telling the older units from the newer by the FCC ID on the label:  The newer units have an FCC ID that contains an "A" AFTER the band designation.  Some examples follow.

 

A simple example is the LMb:

FCCID "LMBA1" is LMb in A1 band with 75kHz deviation

FCCID "LMBA1A" is LMb in A1 band with ETSI mask compliance and 50kHz deviation.

 

A few are weirder, like the SMWB series where the single- and double-battery models are electrically identical and share the same FCCID.  The older models use the single battery model number as the FCCID, but the newer use the double battery model number.  However the "A after the band designation" rule still works:

FCCID "SMWBA1" is SMWB (and SMDWB) in A1 with 75kHz deviation.

FCCID "SMDWBA1A" is SMDWB (and SMWB) in A1 with ETSI mask compliance and 50kHz deviation.

 

For block-wide units, the naming system isn't the same as before either.  The older block-wide units shared a common FCCID for several blocks.  A band designator of E, L, M, or H corresponded to bands A1, B1, C1, and D1 respectively.  Now each block gets its own FCC ID:

FCCID "DBZWML" is a WM in block 21, 22, or 23 with 75kHz deviation.

FCCID "DBZWM21A" is a WM in block 21 with ETSI mask compliance and 50kHz deviation.

 

Bear in mind that this is unofficial information based on my observations - but I believe it to be accurate.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
On 10/30/2018 at 1:11 PM, Dean Slotness said:

This is still the plan...

 

It looks like this has now been accomplished, since firmware v6.0 is now on the web site.

From the release notes:

 

VRWB v6.0 - 11 December 2018

Substituted NU Hybrid (NUH) and NU Hybrid with talkback (NTB) for 100 Series and Mode 6 compatibility modes, respectively.

Removed REFUMAUS mode.

Fixed rounding error in "mhz" serial update command.

 

Thanks to all the folks at Lectrosonics for maintaining compatibility between this now-discontinued product and the current crop of transmitters.

 

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