Opinions on Sony digital wireless

[DyerEar]

Greetings Legends of Sound,

Does anyone have any real world experience of the Sony digital radio mic system? I'm interested in the portable dual rx and belt pack tx's - I hate the old Sony systems but have been told the new stuff is impressive. Any one used it in anger? ?

Range? Battery life? Remote control ? Sound quality?? Rf stability...?

[rich]

send a message to richard meredith who i saw posting on here recently. i know he had some in his hire stock and had been using them on a multi radio mic show.

[RichardMeredith]

Indeed I have - They are working incredibly well, as a big reality solution - 22 channels simultaneously just recently in a 16Mhz freq spread, and no interference between them.

Forget comparing them to the old Sony analogue - its a completely new audio and RF setup.

Range - better than Lectro SR, not as good as UCR 411, or Audio 2040 if you're in the UK.

Remote - if you pair them you can remotely control RF power / mic gain and Low cut freq.

Sound quality - extremely clean and transparent - but 3.6ms late - not a problem with lip sync, or any massive phase issues in the real world, unless you mix with non Sony digital mics, when they're all right next to each other. If you're running a 788 or Nomad you can delay your boom or anything else to match.

RF stability - rock solid when in range - they are either on or off, though - no borderline RF - you just hear the drop out compensator going a bit digital, a millisecond before they disappear.

Battery life - around 4-5 hour on 50mW with Procells - a little more with re-chargeables.

10mW 6-7 hours.

We did a studio show last week running them 1mW. Had no range issues and batts were doing 9 hours.

Reliability - no failures on any level to date, and fantastic build quality.

I will use nothing else in future for my large scale shows.

If I was doing PTC's in the jungle with one presenter I'd take a Lectro 411 as a spare.

[Tom Visser]

I think if they were priced a little bit more competitively, they would gain some serious inroads against the standard fare for this industry. I think this is a case of marketing demographic insensitivity on the part of Sony, a trait not unexpected of a manufacturing giant such as Sony. I think the remote control features are superb, matched only by Zaxcom really, which on paper gives you many more features for much less money per channel.

[Richard Thomas]

A couple more dealers in the UK have started stocking them at a more reasonable price lately, they're a bit more than a lectro system now (a bit less than £4000+VAT for 2ch).

Although the extra output/battery thing (http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/product/digiwirelessreceivers/dwa-f01d/overview) looks useful, it's expensive and adds size to an already big receiver. A breakout cable would be more useful, although I think it requires regulated 7V power

[RichardMeredith]

Yes indeed - 7volts or thereabouts - DONT GIVE THEM 12VOLTS. I use the DWA01D slots which are OK and make them virtually indestructable.

Price wise - they've just come down 30% from October so make sure you're looking at current pricing.

[Nick Jabour]

Just got our demo unit in....any tests anyone would like me to perform when we start kicking it (possibly literally) around the office?

[DyerEar]

Thanks for all your thoughts. It all seems very encouraging. At the moment I am in 'limbo' waiting to see whether the UK lectro situation irons itself out...

Richard, If the right job comes along I will definitely hire some units and see how I fair.

Nick, The 'kick test' is a favourite of mine - second only to buoyancy, and maybe magnetism...

One thing I'd like to know - Are the remote control facilities available with the portable receivers or just the rack mount??

Simon

[Nick Jabour]

Simon,

The remote control facilities are available on the portable as well as the rack mount.

Has anyone else found that when used in camera that the nonadjustable level of the outputs is really hot into the camera?

[Splendid]

Does anyone know if the transmitters can be powered externally? Thinking of using these for a camera hope on a job with a sony cam and the receiver would slot in nice and neatly!

[Ashok Vardhan]

Does anyone know if the transmitters can be powered externally? Thinking of using these for a camera hope on a job with a sony cam and the receiver would slot in nice and neatly!

Hello Splendid,

I use the SONY Digital Wireless Systems (4 DWT-B01 Transmitters & 2 DWR-S01D Receivers housed in DWA-01A Adaptors); and, unfortunately, the DWT-B01 transmitters do not have any external powering options. They are powered using two AA batteries, housed in a plastic battery case, which locks into the transmitter.

Regards,

Ashok

[Splendid]

Thank you for the info!!

[Ashok Vardhan]

My pleasure,

I had recently done a range test with the SONY DWX system. You can find a brief write up about my experience with them (with images) at:

https://www.facebook...40830155&type=3

I have also uploaded some pictures with some basic information on my experience of the systems at:

https://www.facebook...40830155&type=3

Hope this is useful. I am willing to post more information, depending on what anyone would like me to test for. I am thinking of doing a audio recording with this system:

SONY DWT-B01 Tranmitter

SONY ECM88BCX Lavaliere

SONY DWR-S01 Receiver

recording onto a TASCAM HS-P82. I will record most common sound: Transients (Claps), Voice (male), Key jingling.

Do suggest anything else you would like in this test.

Regards,

Ashok

Thank you for the info!!

[studiomprd]

Do suggest anything else you would like in this test.

voice (female) and music (acoustic)

[Mungo]

This thread is quite old, so a question to you:

Has anyone worked with Sony DWX ever since? As lav or hop? Is it the best sounding product on the market?

I tried them once and was impressed by sound quality and stabilty, but they didn't do well with my analogue wireless in the next block. As engineers say, you can either use analogue or digital, not both.

Is the codec that good or did it just cheat my ears that day?

Greets mungo

[api]

I recently purchased a used Sony DWX set including two body packs and a plug-on transmitter to complement my two Lectro SMDbs. I am confident that there will be no intermodulation issues between these two systems. Still waiting for DAD6008 adapters and I don't have DPA 4063's yet either, but I'll be able to post a full report later on. In the meantime, feel free to PM me.

Sound quality on DWX is on par with Zaxcom, probably even better. For all practical purposes it is indistinguishable from a wired connection. Build quality is great, but battery holder is a bit flimsy. I bought spares just in case. Remote control including remote gain and re-freqing and sleep/unsleep works very well, a re-pairing proxedure is required when switching between bodypack and plug-on transmitter. Receiver adapter has AES out on a bnc connector and backup power on a L-series battery, btw. Interference resistance of the codec is very robust too, no dropouts whatsoever in my tests so far.

[Constantin]

As engineers say, you can either use analogue or digital, not both.

Which engineers would say such a thing? In my experience that statement is untrue. I mix Zaxcom, Lectro and Sennheiser, as well as Audio Ltd in occasion in my bag or on my cart. Zax is block 24 everything else 30. maybe that helps, but there are no issues with this

[Mungo]

Which engineers would say such a thing? 

 

They sad that intermodulation calculation is impossible. But I guess when the systems are several blocks separated from each other, that should be no problem.

[daniel]

i used these and thought:

~ sound fantastic.

~ very nice to operate in field with remote function.

~ AES o/p.

~ dual receivers only.*

~ nice build quality.

~ no compatibility with any other brands.*

 

* if these don't matter to you and the price is good they are definitely worth considering. if you want the option of a single RX and/or some compatibility with other widely used products then wisycom is probably the 1.

[api]

OK, now I've been able to conduct more tests with the DWX system and my SD 664. There is a really weird monitoring issue when using the analog mic level outs of the receiver. The meters are showing a high level of interference, but it's not audible while monitoring the ISO track. When I increase the mix level of that channel, a digital interference is audible on the L and R master tracks. The anomaly is present even when none of the other devices are on. The bag is powered via a Battery Buddy II BSD.

 

However, the interference is not actually recorded! The recorded tracks are fine.. I've enclosed a short sample wav file. I thought that my 664 has been upgraded to fix the 80 khz unbalanced audio monitoring issue, so I I'm not sure if this is related to that or not.

 

When using AES3id->AES3 connection between the mixer and the receiver there are no issues with metering or monitoring.

 

I sent an e-mail to Sound Devices technical support e-mail address, but I haven't received a reply yet.

 

 

dwx_clean_iso.wav

[Tom Visser]

Ground loop isolation problem? Try a cable that floats the shell, if no go, try floating pin1 ground, perhaps try powering the receiver from a separate power source, all else fails, use an isolation transformer, I bet that fixes the issue.

What is your power source, is it a regulated supply? Often times the DC regulation can be a dirty source.

[api]

Thanks for the tips, Tom. It is powered via a PagLink V-mount battery and Battery Bud II which is not a regulating BDS.

 

I tried connecting the receiver to a MixPre-D (which has transformer-balanced inputs) and everything seemed to work.. no interference on meters. Then I tried powering the receiver via it's internal Sony L-battery and 664 via internal AA batteries. I disconnected the external power cable from 664 completely.

 

The interference was still there.

 

I wonder if this issue is somehow related: http://www.sounddevices.com/support/tech-notes/technical-bulletin-664-xlr-inputs-with-unbalanced-output-devices

 

I am still unsure if the XLR outputs on the receiver are balanced or unbalanced. Although it's not listed in Sony's specs, this article gave me the impression that they are balanced after all: http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/sony_unveils_new_adaper_for_digital_wireless_systems/

 

 

 

[rdjudkins]

I picked up a DWX system to try to use as a wireless boom link.  I love the way the system sounds, frequency response and dynamic range are great.  But I keep having problems with radio hits, which I'm sure are coming from the 5-watt walkie talkies on the set.  It doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally--which is maddening.  I have worked to place the receiver unit out on the set, closer to the plug-on transmitter, and I have also fed the receiver with the filtered RF from a Lectro 6-pack (in the proper RF block).  In each situation I still get the radio hits.  Feeding the receiver from the Lectro 6-pack is better, but it doesn't fix the problem.

 

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Ron

[api]

I picked up a DWX system to try to use as a wireless boom link.  I love the way the system sounds, frequency response and dynamic range are great.  But I keep having problems with radio hits, which I'm sure are coming from the 5-watt walkie talkies on the set.  It doesn't happen all the time, but occasionally--which is maddening.  I have worked to place the receiver unit out on the set, closer to the plug-on transmitter, and I have also fed the receiver with the filtered RF from a Lectro 6-pack (in the proper RF block).  In each situation I still get the radio hits.  Feeding the receiver from the Lectro 6-pack is better, but it doesn't fix the problem.

 

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Ron

What is your squelch setting? Does it happen at all transmission power settings?

[rdjudkins]

The squelch setting is off.  I tried the transmitter at both 10 and 50 milliwatts.