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Wireless microphones are a staple of the house-of-worship AV inventory and have been for decades, lending pastors and other speakers the ability to roam the stage for dramatic effect and providing irreplaceable flexibility for event productions such as Christmas and Easter pageants. They are a part of any AV package a consultant or church designer would offer a client, and here we can look at ways they can best be integrated into those designs.
However, before any of that gets put on the table today, the elephant in the wireless room needs to be addressed: recently massive spectral reallocation. Specifically, the Federal Communications commission (FCC) recently concluded a series of auctions that have radically overhauled the RF-spectrum landscape. Simply put, the 600-MHz spectrum band, which has been the home on the (frequency) range for professional wireless-microphone systems for the last decade or so, is now largely off limits to them, sold at auction to a handful of consumer-wireless vendors, most notably T-Mobile. There are a few carve-outs for those users in that frequency band, but the regulations around accessing them are too cumbersome for most HOW users. Instead, churches and other regular users of wireless systems will need to look at wireless systems that use other available parts of the spectrum.
“Consultants should definitely understand the ramifications of the spectrum change that will take place during the next two to three years, most wireless-mic users will lose access to the band between 614 and 698 MHz."
“Consultants should definitely understand the ramifications of the spectrum change that will take place during the next two to three years,” cautions Karl Winkler, VP sales and service at manufacturer Lectrosonics. “Most wireless-mic users will lose access to the band between 614 and 698 MHz. This means that their clients should start budgeting for replacement units, and/or look into any re-tuning of their existing units that manufacturers may offer. This also means that the remaining UHF spectrum [470-608 MHz] will become more crowded in the future, with a greater number of TV stations in that zone, as well as all those wireless microphones. This will mean that the systems that their clients plan to use should be of generally better quality, to avoid interference and provide high performance in what is to be a tougher RF environment.”
Wireless systems manufacturers, many of which were closely consulted (if not necessarily listened to) by the FCC during the audio process, were ready with new systems that operate in ranges such as 1.9-GHz and 2.4-GHz bands.
The good news is that many of these new digital systems offer as-good or even better performance than older systems, including the ability to put more channels on a single frequency, and more agility to move automatically between frequencies at the merest hint of RF interference. In fact, the entire spectral-reallocation mishigas, as complicated and confusing as it was, also turned out to be an opportunity for new systems with enhanced operational features to be brought to market. The consultant and designer has a lot to choose from now, and choices are relatively easy, as long as one sticks to the leading brands like Sennheiser, Shure, Lectrosonics, Audio-Technica and Sony.
(Costs for new systems have increased, but you can let your clients know that they are getting more advanced functionality in the new systems. Furthermore, all of the major manufacturers offered rebates in the wake of the RF reallocation earlier this year; check with the manufacturer directly to see if those offers are still available.)
By The Numbers
The number of wireless channels needed is the next concern, and that’s based on a church’s worship style and what productions it mounts other than regular Sunday services. For instance, a small- to mid-sized church that uses traditional liturgical music and focuses mainly on a Sunday sermon by a single pastor may do fine with a single channel of wireless. At the other end of the spectrum, contemporary-worship styles that use multiple musicians and vocalists during a service will need five to 10 channels of wireless to accommodate pastors and singers.
And while the former types of churches would be fine with one handheld condenser-type microphone that can also be mounted on a stand or lectern, the latter will also want to incorporate either lavalier or headset microphones, which are necessary for theatrical applications and for peripatetic pastors who not only roam the stage but like to use both hands while doing so to punctuate points their sermon is making.
Time To Move On
Jackie Green, the president and CTO of Alteros a spin-off company of Audio-Technica created in the wake of the RF reallocation, says first and foremost, “If your client’s church is an unlicensed user of wireless microphones1 — and most of them are — tell them to get out of the UHF band ASAP.” She says systems have been developed that work reliably in the 2.4-GHz, 1.9-GHz and even in the 6.5-GHz ranges. FCC regulations permit wireless microphones and related devices to be operated on either a licensed or unlicensed basis. Unlicensed users are permitted to operate on any unoccupied TV channel at transmitter power levels up to 50 milliwatts, which covers the majority of houses of worship. Licensed users can operate at power levels up to 250 milliwatts, and are granted expedited access to the TV Bands Devices Database.
Her other urgent recommendation is to acquire systems that offer simple operation. Look for features such as remote control and status of the battery level and the ability to change gain before feedback. Not every aspect of wireless microphone operation can be fully automated, however. As churches and their satellite locations move deeper into urban areas, frequency coordination will become more critical, and it’s not necessarily an intuitive skill. For instance, she says, lightly trained users may try to boost the antenna gain, which will actually increase the amount of RF interference the system picks up. (Instead, lower the transmitter power level and reposition the antenna.)
“Wireless microphone operation has gotten easier as we’ve moved to digital systems that can automate more of the work, but in this new RF landscape, it’s harder to deal with more RF packed into less spectrum."
“Wireless microphone operation has gotten easier as we’ve moved to digital systems that can automate more of the work,” she says. “But in this new RF landscape, it’s harder to deal with more RF packed into less spectrum. It shouldn’t be an issue for smaller and most mid-sized churches, but it gets more complicated for bigger churches and those in denser RF environments like cities.”
What consultants and designers can do to help clients around this is bring the matter up with the AV systems integrator that will do the actual installation and commissioning of systems. Their frequency-coordination experts may be able to program systems around local RF problem spots, or provide ongoing support for that.
In summary:
• Spectrum reallocation is upon us. Inform clients that even if an AV systems renovation isn’t in their immediate future, it’s time to replace their old wireless microphone systems.
• Digital is their friend. Digital systems are more automated and more agile than the systems that came before and will be easier to use. However, frequency management in this new RF landscape gets harder as the spectrum gets denser in cities. Ask the AV integrator for help.
• Determine how many channels a church needs now, then add 50 percent more. As churches grow, wireless counts will increase to cover more music and more spaces.
• They may need a mix of microphones: handheld as well as lavalier and headsets. It doesn’t matter to the channel what type of mic is being used, so think about styles of delivery for both music and sermons.
1 FCC regulations permit wireless microphones and related devices to be operated on either a licensed or unlicensed basis. Unlicensed users are permitted to operate on any unoccupied TV channel at transmitter power levels up to 50 milliwatts, which covers the majority of houses of worship. Licensed users can operate at power levels up to 250 milliwatts, and are granted expedited access to the TV Bands Devices Database.
