FCC publishes list of illegal wireless mics! « Videomaker Community Forums

composite1
Moderator

"The 7D does not have any manual audio control, let alone a headphone
jack for monitoring audio levels - it's really a guessing game. Bottom
line the camera shoots amazing images but the audio is not up to par
yet."

Derek,

I've been getting that vibe lately. Unfortunately, the only firmware manual and audio control hacks I've seen have been for the 5D. Like I mentioned in the SCARLET post, I think Canon just whipped some stuff out there and didn't really take into account what they were making. That's the problem when you have a giant corp. with different divisions working on a project that overlaps divisions. The photo and video engineers should have all been onboard with this thing from the jump. If Canon wants to bury the RED and the rest of the comp, they'd better get on the ball and hook this thing up properly.

H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

Posted 2 years ago #
composite1
Moderator

Derek,

I took a look at the rebates for Sennheiser and unless you've bought your gear in 2008 or less, they'll give you a 'partial rebate' on their gear. Anything older like say 2007, fuggedaboutit!

Posted 2 years ago #
tom evans
Member

Not to sweat, those of you who own or are considering buying "illegal" wireless kits. There's a lot of misinformantion out there. Let me clear up some of the crap.

After June 12 your mics will still work and sound just fine. The only problem is that some of the 699MHz frequencies and above may cause interference with cell phone TV reception. If you live and shoot in a large city you will need to pay close attention. If you work for a network owned and operated TV station, you will comply with the new rules. If you are a freelancer shooting wilderness docs out of Bumfork Idaho, this new law will have little if any impact on the way you shoot your sound.

If you own an "illegal" TX/RX, hang on to it. It is worth more than you'll get for it on a trade-in, that's for sure. And if you're on a really tight budget, consider buying an "illegal" kit at a deep discount and just pay close attention when shooting in crowded areas with a bunch of cell phones. My guess is that broadcasters will be dumping their old Sony wireless kits for pennies on the dollar. I'm looking for one of these bargains, maybe you should too.

Posted 2 years ago #
Jaimie
Member

Thanks for the band info Composite 1. Fortunately, my old Samson Micro 32 can select frequencies outside the illegal range. But, my Sony can't.

I think I agree with Tom Evans in that it would be a mistake to junk your gear right away - unless you have an extra Micro 32 receiver you'd like to sell me, cheap LOL! First, consider the power of the transmitters. Typically a mic is in the 5-50 milliwatt range and has a pretty poor antenna. This means that if yours is really low powered it will not transmit very far outside the church or wherever you are using it. Putting a large directional antenna on the receiver does not affect this.

Another thing you should always do is listen for noise and other users by turning on the receiver only (leave the mic off). This is good practice and will also tell you if anyone is transmitting on your channel. It does not tell you if any nearby walkie talkie user is receiving on your channel. Be aware that this monitoring does not work at all with mic systems, such as some Sony, that use a squelch tone. For those, you have to actually turn the mic on and listen for distortion caused by extraneous signals. In any case, if you hear anything at all or the RF indicator on the receiver indicates the presence of any signal (with the mic off), simply pick a different frequency - one that is totally quiet.

The bottom line is if you limit your transmitter power, check for other users and avoid using your wireless mics in densely populated areas, you can probably still use them.

Posted 2 years ago #
composite1
Moderator

Tom-Jaimie,

Oh as I mentioned, I'm not exactly tossing out the old gear yet. Funny thing is, I hardly use my old Sony rig and was planning on selling it anyway. The Sennheiser I'll keep until I just have to get rid of it. More than likely I'll get contacted by a member from outside the US and I'll probably sell it to them cheap. The gear paid for itself a while ago so I'm not 100% attached. It just burns my hackles that my perfectly good gear will soon become illegal and I didn't even get to vote against it.

Posted 2 years ago #