wireless through walls?

Jim King

Jim King

Freshman
Jan 13, 2011
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Los Angeles, CA
ssrrentals.com
So I'm doing an event that is in a building that is a warren of rooms. Running cables to all the speakers in all the locations is the current plan, but it's going to be ugly -- both in how much work we're going to have to do to run them all, and in that there's just no place to hide most of them, so we're going to have visible cables.

I've been shying away from wireless because the building has lots of walls in between all the things. But the total distance is prbably 350' at the most... so its not out of the question, and I'm starting to question my decision to go wired. I just don't know if there's a reliable unit I can use for this.

Is there a good wireless audio unit that can reliably run through about five or six walls to cover around 350', and successfully deal with all the interference caused by hundreds of people with cell phones? What would you do?
 
Re: wireless through walls?

Jim King said:
What would you do?
Click to expand...

Wired is typically the most reliable, but as you said, it can get messy.

Depending on the construction, 350' through walls is going to be tough to get a reliable wireless signal through.

A device that I've found actually works quite well for something like this is the Sonos Connect. It's designed as a home audio system, but the quality is quite high. The devices create a mesh network, so the more you add, the more reliable the system is. Covering your multiple rooms would then be no problem. The system does a fantastic job of keeping everything in sync. The latency is unnoticeable, especially in a large environment like you're dealing with. The cost is quite reasonable compared to other options out there.
 
Re: wireless through walls?

how important is quality?
and is it a second room 350' away, or do you have multiple stops along the way? if you have somewhere in the middle to stash some equipment you could do two hops. would be more reliable.
IP options may be useful depending on the building.. network guys don't usually play well with others, but they're often very accommodating if you just want wiring from A to B and you pop your own switch in the wiring closet.

Jason
 
Re: wireless through walls?

Brian jojade said:
A device that I've found actually works quite well for something like this is the Sonos Connect. It's designed as a home audio system, but the quality is quite high. The devices create a mesh network, so the more you add, the more reliable the system is.
Click to expand...

:roll: It's 2.4ghz so don't expect this to work through 5 Walls. 1 wall can be a problem is my experience...
 
Re: wireless through walls?

I'm pretty sure there's no network where I need it, so that doesn't help much. There are multiple hops... which makes that Sonos choice an interesting one.

I'm wondering if something like the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid systems would handle this situation.
 
Re: wireless through walls?

Jim King said:
I'm pretty sure there's no network where I need it, so that doesn't help much. There are multiple hops... which makes that Sonos choice an interesting one.

I'm wondering if something like the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid systems would handle this situation.
Click to expand...

Multiple hops means you can go wireless with just about whatever you have, until whatever distance you're comfortable with, and then rebroadcast it to the next half on another channel.. you can have as many receivers as you want on each channel.

Jason
 
Re: wireless through walls?

Jim King said:
I'm wondering if something like the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid systems would handle this situation.
Click to expand...

In my experience these are dead nuts reliable and have enough output power to get pretty great range. That said, I think you're going to have to do a site survey to determine what you can get away with. Since it sounds like sound quality may not be your #1 concern you could always use a bunch of cheaper units from Sennheiser or similar, the 2000 series has healthy output power and you can link transmitters to IEM receivers. They sound fine in my experience and I've used them to go over 3,500' across a river and through trees before.
 
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