Church Sound 201: Wireless Mics & RF Best Practices

What you will learn...

This course covers best practices for wireless microphone and in-ear monitoring systems including advanced band planning, receiver antenna placement, and gain structure. This course requires a good working knowledge of RF basics. Ideally, you have RF experience and/or have taken Church Sound 101: RF & Wireless Mics, which sets up the basics necessary to succeed.

Find out the essentials for success in this advanced course presented by wireless system veteran Karl Winkler.

Advanced Band Planning

- Avoiding overlap between different types of equipment. 

- System challenges: modern wireless equipment offers wideband tuning

- UHF wireless mic systems share spectrum with TV broadcasts

- Band plan to combine system information with local RF scan data

- Consider alternate frequency bands for specific equipment when possible

- Example band plan covering 72 MHz to 5 GHz

Receiver Antenna Placement

- Do not place receiver antennas inside the equipment rack

- Receiver antennas have polar patterns 

- Specialized antennas for specific purposes

- The Fresnel Zone

- Diversity spacing requirements

- Transmitter & Talent radiation patterns

- Example receiver antenna placement for best coverage

RF Gain Structure

- Unity gain is goal of antenna, splitter/distro system

- Coax cables exhibit RF loss

- Example of choice between directional antennas and longer coax cables

- Filtering and Attenuation are ever more important

- Not all active distros are equal

- Amplified antennas

- Top models offer boost and attenuation, plus filtering    

- Passive filters

Frequency Coordination

- Are pre-coordinated groups or lists still valid?

- Basic math behind intermodulation avoidance

- Software packages for coordination purposes

Wargame Your System

- Step-by step explanation of this final “vetting” processs


Assessment quizzes are offered after each segment -- it's the perfect time to review what’s been covered so far. Do you understand the essentials? If so, great, keep going! And if not, no worries, you can review that segment again or the entire course as needed.

Take your wireless and RF skills to the next level!

Only $69 for professional video instruction, notebook, review quizzes and certificate of completion -- plus unlimited access!
Use Promo Code SAVE-20 for an additional $20 off for a limited time!

I'm In! Let's get going!

Instructor

Lead Instructor

Karl Winkler

Karl Winkler started his career as a musician then joined the USAF band as an audio engineer in the 1990s. From there, he moved on to work for Sennheiser & Neumann. In 2004, He joined Lectrosonics and currently holds the position of VP of Sales & Marketing. He has been a long-time advocate of church audio training and education.