O.C. Sound is the pro audio company started by Bob Johns and myself in 2000. Over the past few years, we have found the need for some form of wireless transmitter/receiver system for a remote speaker system. These are either outdoor events that required a second set of speakers a couple of hundred feet away from the mains or in a hotel conference hall that would have been involved extensive cabling through congested areas.
We had tried using a wireless in-ear monitoring system but found that it was prone to dropouts and static interference, which was not an option for us as we pride ourselves in high-quality sound.
After some research, we contacted Listen Technologies. We all know what they say about first impressions and I can tell you that the people at Listen really impressed. Very easy to talk to, great communication both from salespeople and the technical support. I had some questions on the specific system we needed such as frequency choices, antenna type, etc. and the Listen staff went above and beyond in helping.
We finally decided on the
LT-800 Transmitter with the
LR-100 Receiver. There are two frequency options with this system 72 MHz and 216 MHz each have 57 channels to choose from but the differences are in audio frequency response and range.
072 – Range is 1500 feet “line of sight” from antenna to antenna. Audio Frequency range 50Hz to 15kHz
216 – Range is 3,000 feet “line of sight” from antenna to antenna. Audio Frequency range 50Hz to 10kHz
For us, the range and comfort of having a stronger signal was more important than the slight loss in the upper-frequency range. Since most of the events we would be using this for would be predominantly speech with some music. Also from talking to the technical staff, their opinion was that although the 216 MHz system was rated to 10Khz you would have a hard time hearing any difference between the two. There is no difference in price between the two.
Once we settled on a system and place the order, the units were shipped right away and arrived within a few days.
Eager to test them out we took them to our church,
Orangeville Baptist, which is made up of a 6,000 sq. ft. gymnatorium and about 30,000 sq. ft. total building area. The transmitter was set up in the main sound booth in the gym and we took the receiver to several areas in the building. The signal had to go through concrete block walls, poured concrete walls and floors with re-bar, etc. and there was no loss of signal anywhere in the building. So we jumped in the car plugged into a power inverter and went for a drive. Just over a kilometer down the road, we started to get some static and lose signal. Considering the transmitter was still inside the church we were very impressed with how far we got.
Today, September 11 was our first real test at an event. This is a yearly memorial service put on by a local funeral home,
Dods & McNair and is attended by about 1,500 people. Approximately 600 people are in the tent and others are spread out in the grassed area around the tent.
The main tent with antenna pole mounted in the corner
About 200 feet away from the tent they have an area set up to serve food. This is where we set up the remote speakers.
During setup and testing, we just used the standard helical antenna and it worked perfectly. However just to be sure of having a strong signal we did use the coaxial dipole antenna on the transmitter and hung it from a pole mounted to the side of the tent. The sound quality was excellent; there was no interference or drop-outs. We did run the signal through a time delay to align the audio. This gave us full even coverage from the tent all the way to the remote speaker location.
LT-800 Transmitter set up
View of the main tent from remote speaker location
The LT-800 has lots of features and input options that make it an extremely flexible tool. Check out the details
here.
Peter Bruce Orangeville, Ontario Canada is a Christ follower, married and has one son. A Land Development Project Manager in Orangeville Ontario, Picture taker, Audio Engineer, Guitar player, Play and watch soccer.
