Acceptability of new Wireless

L

Lee Dickinson

Sophomore
Jan 11, 2011
144
0
0
42
Richmond, VA
www.avp-ric.com
I've looked with interest at the various wireless systems from Line6, Lectrosonics, and MiPro.

Is there any point in a small regional provider even looking at these systems, or should we be sticking with Shure and Senneheiser?

Rider-meeting contracts are probably less than 10% of our work and business, but they are also the ones that most often need racks of wireless beyond what we currently have.

I need to build around a 10 channel rack which will see about 50% corporate work, 25%small regional acts, 25% ridered acts.

I'm a big fan of the idea of owning that which fits our core business and cross-renting when needed, but availability and reliability have proven to be major issues for us with subrentals.
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Lectrosonics is a class above anything else on the market in my opinion.
I doubt you would ever have a problem with it being rider acceptable, unless someone wants specific capsules.
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Ditto for Phil's comments on Lectro. The only rejections will come from the clueless or endorsers of other brands.

What you spend extra, you save back if you use their Venue receiver system. Each chassis can hold 6 receivers and the RF distribution is done by the chassis. No extra box, no coax patching. You could put 12 channels in a 6 space rack... receivers, transmitters & HH, log periodic antennae. Very compact and very nice kit to have.

Let us know what you decide, Lee.

Have fun, good luck.

Tim Mc
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Lee - You somewhat answered your own question; "I'm a big fan of the idea of owning that which fits our core business and cross-renting when needed, but availability and reliability have proven to be major issues for us with subrentals." There's no question you should invest in quality equipment, the best budget and expected ROI permits. If rider acceptablility is a low priority, then cross-rental and "black box" rental acceptably arguably become the only other considerations, and that can broaden your options beyond the two S's.
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Lectrosonics is known for being very good gear and it costs very good money.
Curious why you would mention 3 lines in 3 VERY different positions of the price spectrum.
(Top, low mid, and bottom)
For that matter, wouldn't the standard Shure and Sennheiser units cost less than Lectrosonics and be rider acceptable?
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Because I wanted responses across the field. We have been doing a top to bottom look at our profit centers, and considering what investments are really worth it vs what will 'do well enough' with cross rentals when needed.

We almost certainly will go with a Shure or Senneheiser system, but I thought it was worth looking at the whole field from top to bottom.
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

I'll give you guys a little background on where we are coming from...

We had a nice rack of UCs that we had to ditch. That left our production side with just the PGX from our rental inventory. Obviously, that just doesn't cut it for the work we do, so we are renting constantly.

Lectrosonic is probably outside of our business model; I put them on the level of, say, the sennheiser 3000 or shire uhfr. We are more a 500 series or ulx level company.

What level would you guys put the line6 stuff on? I have never used them.
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Lee Dickinson said:
I'll give you guys a little background on where we are coming from...

We had a nice rack of UCs that we had to ditch. That left our production side with just the PGX from our rental inventory. Obviously, that just doesn't cut it for the work we do, so we are renting constantly.

Lectrosonic is probably outside of our business model; I put them on the level of, say, the sennheiser 3000 or shire uhfr. We are more a 500 series or ulx level company.
Click to expand...

a lot of it depends on how many units you send out together vs singles.
if you're sending out single kits then the quality of Lectrosonics may be out of reach financially, but if you're kitting 6 units together the Lectro system will do 6 receivers in 1U INCLUDING power supply for all 6 receivers AND RF splitter so they all share the same pair of antennae and at last count actually comes in cheaper than 6 UHFR's plus RF/power supply unit (which would take up 4U)

Jason
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Who sells Lectrosonics? I'm curious about the price point.
I've always assumed their stuff is at Unobtanium price levels for club level sound.

I owned the original Line 6 wireless. It sounded good, but the gain before feedback was not enough, and it had handling noise. A singer brought a new one a couple weeks back and it seems a bit better in the GBF and handling noise. I want to sing through one (or hear someone I'm more familiar with singing through one) before I'll have much opinion on the sound.

I think perception is the Line 6 is a bit up from Shure PG style wireless in sound quality, and maybe equal or a little less in toughness/durability. At least that's my current pre-conceived notion on them.

To be honest, I'd like to hear about the MiPro as well. There are a lot of people that want 3 or 4 wirelesses that would be willing to put up with less than stellar performance if they could get 4 at a budget rental price. (Grade school Talent shows for instance)
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

I have a couple ULXP with SM58 capsules. They work well for the level of work that I do. No one has ever refused them.

I also have 8 channels of MiPro ACT series. I LOVE them! I have eight body packs with HS09 headsets. I have also sold some exact same configurations to some theatre clients. I also have one of the newer handhelds that amazed me. I am going to buy 7 more of them. The really cool thing about the model of handheld that I have is that you pretty much can not get it to feedback. It works anywhere an SM58 would work but they are a little different sounding. They are a condenser mic. They fool you into thinking that they don't have much high end but they really do, it is just that they have a really smooth low end that fills out very nicely so you thing you are missing some of the highs. I wrote a review on the old PSW and I recommend reading it. I know that in reality, the MiPro probably won't be rider friendly but in my opinion they should at least be as rider friendly as the Beyer Opus wireless systems even though they probably never will be.
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

Steve Hurt said:
Who sells Lectrosonics? I'm curious about the price point.
I've always assumed their stuff is at Unobtanium price levels for club level sound.
Click to expand...

B&H and Fullcompass, among other sell Lectro. One thing to keep in mind is that Lectro seems to have dealer minimim sales prices, both B&H and Fullcompass prices on the web are exactly what you'll pay no matter where you go.

In my experience a 6 pack or Lectrosonics is about $10k depending on what transmitters you want.

Philip
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

I was under the misunderstanding that MiPro was a rock bottom price point, but it's priced above the entry level Line 6 units. From a brief look at their site, it doesn't look like bottom level junk at all.

Time for a lot more research. Anyone else used them?
 
Re: Acceptability of new Wireless

You're not alone, Steve. I asked them what their encrypted wireless cost and they quoted me $6K. I'm sure it's not that much if you're really buying, but it is not the bargain basement product I thought it to be. I guess I was confused by "pro" in the name!
 
Top Bottom