Wireless audio feed

[Ben Lawrence]

I have a install in a gymnasium. For basketball games they are looking to stream music to the installed rack. I used a wireless mic setup last year as a temporary solution but as you can imagine that was less than ideal . The settings had to be dead on with the attenuation on the transmitter and level from the computer. It worked with minimal distortion but it was an ENG setup and ate batteries.
I think they have power at the desk they announce from so thinking maybe a 2.4ghz solution might work. RCA or 1/8" input with RCA output. We have a Australian Monitor mixer in the rack.
Looking for a economical solution. The distance from the transmitter to the rack is probably 100'-150' with line of site typically.

 

[Rob Timmerman]

Is there already a microphone input at the announce desk? If so, something like a Shure SCM268 at the desk might be the easiest option.

 

[Ben Lawrence]

The mic is a wireless unit.

 

[Brent Handy]

A budget solution: http://www.mipro.com.tw/p4_en.html?gid=147

A big budget solution ($5k or so): http://www.xirium.net/en-us#intro

These don't have that great of range, but they are options nonetheless: http://soundtube.mseaudio.com/products/wll/ They aren't that expensive.

 

[Helge A. Bentsen]

Airport express and Airplay?

 

[Roger Parsons]

How about a Denon Wireless Audio Receiver? http://denonpro.com/products/view3/dn-202wr

Its simlar to the Airport solution.

 

[Brent Handy]

I have tested the Denon. It has decent range, but lots of latency.

 

[Jim King]

I've been testing out the Denon setup. I can easily get 300 feet in an open field (ie: line of sight, no obstructions, and no one with cell phones to interfere). I can get 25' every time in a crowded room where we don't completely have line of sight (probably one obstruction or more). I'm still figuring out where in between those two things are its real limits. My guess is that in a crowded room with line of sight i'll be able to rely on around 50' and occasionally get 100' if I don't care about quality. That's pretty good.

From what i've seen so far, my company guidelines are probably going to end up "deploy 35' or less with line of sight... 20' or less if you have to go through a wall." That allows lots of safety margin so we can actually promise quality of service.

i do hear sound quality degradation (and it doesn't vary by distance -- its always there... mostly at the low end). So I'd not use it for your mains on a music-focused event. I'm using it for speaking gigs and for satellites.

 

[Ben Lawrence]

Yeah I don't think audio quality is the biggest concern here. Usage will just be for background music during sporting events in a very reverberant gym. Biggest concern is lack of drop outs.