Hello FRONT of HOUSE readers! I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Vince Lepore, and starting with this issue, I’ll be writing the “Sound Sanctuary” column. I live in Orlando, FL with my beautiful wife Carrie and our two pugs Louie and Miles. Carrie and I both work at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, where I’m the technical director and Carrie is the graphic designer. I also teach live production full time at Full Sail University, a position that I’ve held for almost a decade. So, let’s get started…
Microphones, musician systems, in-ear monitoring, intercom and assistive listening make up most of the wireless systems that churches use. Many churches are quite literally addicted to wireless. It seems like everywhere I go, anyone who is talking or singing into a microphone is using a wireless system. There have been a lot of changes to the RF spectrum over the past seven years, and it really does beg the questions: Do we really need every vocal microphone or in-ear monitor system to be wireless? Does every intercom pack need to be wireless, or can we used wired systems for some of our production staff? How much wireless is too much?
I’ve been teaching audio for almost a decade, and always told my students that wireless systems are a Pandora’s box. Pastors and praise team members love wireless, and once they have it, they’ll never want to give it up. Wireless also presents a lot of challenges to churches that don’t necessarily have the staff to troubleshoot a wireless system when things go awry. And go awry they do.
Suddenly, Things Get Complicated
The church I work at is in Orlando, FL, right down the street from the annual Bay Hill golf tournament. Every year, top golfers descend on Bay Hill, along with mobile production trucks and, you guessed it, a lot of wireless to interfere with our systems. I’m not much of a golf fan, so I often forget about the Bay Hill tournament as the year goes by. The reminder that Bay Hill is happening often comes on Sunday morning around 5 a.m. As I near the church, I start seeing signs for “Bay Hill Parking,” and it dawns on me: “The tournament is this weekend!” When I reach our worship venue, I see my wireless receivers lighting up like Christmas trees due to interference from the mobile production units. That’s when I know it’s going to be a busy morning of scanning for and deploying new frequencies across campus in the hopes that I can avoid interference.
We typically run 16 channels of wireless across our campus on Sundays, which isn’t a lot as compared to other big churches. Certainly, we could always run more, but over the years I’ve been inclined to keep the amount of wireless we run as low as possible for a number of reasons. First, wireless is expensive. Wireless microphones are significantly more expensive than their comparable wired counterparts. Wireless in-ear monitoring systems are a lot more expensive than the wired alternatives, and wireless intercoms? Forget about it!
Wireless intercom is way more expensive than a hardwired Clear-Com or RTS pack. Secondly, wireless requires a plan, and that planning takes time that I don’t often have as a part-time technical director. Gone are the days of just turning on a wireless system and expecting it to work. As you add more channels, those channels need to be coordinated and intermodulation free. Large multichannel systems are exponentially more complex than systems with only a few channels.
Frequency Shrinkage
Many of us were affected when the FCC auctioned off portions of the 700 MHz band and repurposed other portions for public safety several years ago. Now the FCC is poised to auction off a to-be-determined portion of the 600 MHz spectrum as well, to the detriment of us lowly wireless microphone users.
By 2019 it will likely be illegal to operate wireless microphones in much of the 600 MHz band, just as the 700 MHz band is today. For those of us who just suffered through the pain of purchasing new systems to vacate the 700 MHz band, the 600 MHz auction is not good news. There has been some talk about wireless microphone users being reimbursed by the winners of the 600 MHz auction, but at this point that seems unlikely. The good news is that many of the major wireless manufacturers are releasing great new digital wireless technology, allowing us to operate more channels in smaller portions of available spectrum.
A Little Advice
Should you decide you need a multichannel wireless system at your church, I recommend working with a trusted A/V integrator who has experience setting up such a system. They can help you with analyzing the available spectrum in your area, coordinating frequencies, and making sure that your antennas are set up properly. I also recommend purchasing a system that can be networked and connected to coordination and monitoring software. This is an invaluable tool that has become commonplace amongst the top tier manufacturers. Shure Wireless Workbench and Sennheiser Wireless Systems Manager are two excellent examples. Networked wireless systems allow your computer to handle much of your scanning, frequency coordination and deployment for you, making your life so much easier. Finally, if you plan to purchase a new system in the next few years, it would be advisable to buy something that operates below (or well above) 600 MHz to protect your investment going forward.
