Wireless Speaker to Box Office

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Art Zemon

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Apr 26, 2024, 8:22:20 PM4/26/24
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Any suggestions for a wireless way to get a speaker in the box office waiting area on a community theater budget? It's about 200 feet away from the mixer but the way the building is constructed, I can't run an XLR cable.

    -- Art Z.

Sent from my phone. Please excuse brevity and bizarre typos.

page daniel

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Apr 26, 2024, 9:34:14 PM4/26/24
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Good evening Art,

Been there done that for a lobby speaker and a concrete wall. I pulled a
Lectrosonics IFB4 and a R400 a receiver 0ff the shelf and it worked
great.

These are my Swiss army knife for getting signals a long distance with
almost no delay from one place to another. Actually a used Lectrosonics
transmitter and a receiver will work in most cases.

For difficult situations one can make Blue tooth work by running cable
where one can and using a bluetooth transmitter and a bluetooth enabled
device for the last few feet.

there are probably wifi solutions that are not in my knowledge base as
well, but when one has a solution of the shelf why mess around.

page

John Taylor

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Apr 26, 2024, 10:29:37 PM4/26/24
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Hi Art,

Page beat me to the punch. I was going to suggest a similar answer. I have used a wireless system a number of times. The other thing I have done is use an extra hearing assist receiver and pump it into a powered speaker. In a couple of locations that worked better than using a normal wireless system.

JT

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page daniel

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Apr 27, 2024, 6:36:09 AM4/27/24
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More thoughts,

If number one consideration is cost, dig back into closet for a VHF body
pack transmitter with a guitar cable. and a matching receiver. The bad
thing about this is packs run on batteries, but now some charge just
like everything else with a 5 volt supply. Lectrosonics makes a 9 volt
battery eliminator as well. A small block of wood with proper 9 volt
connectors can also be constructed connected to a 9volt power supply.
For a higher voltage power supply add a regulator circuit. The receiver
will easily send signal to a powered speaker.

So why pay a lot for the lectro gear: It works off the shelf and no
batteries if one uses the IFBt4. Also the output is 250 mW. Which gives
a line of sight range of about a quarter of a mile with directional
antennas. To tame the output a -6 dB BNC pad is easy to find. For
other uses, this set up can operate in almost no delay digital hybrid
mode full, flat audio spectrum. Also with a battery powered, beltpack
receiver one can use it for moving props or even in a pinch for ESL or
monitor speakers. Out of doors it is my go to for sends across the lawn
and for audio devices.

page

Art Zemon

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Apr 27, 2024, 8:15:15 AM4/27/24
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Thank you, Page and John. You have given me some ideas to try.

    -- Art Z.


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Jonathan Woytek

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Apr 27, 2024, 12:08:11 PM4/27/24
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It is nowhere even close to Lectro, and still a far cry from off-the-shelf IEM systems from major brands, but Alto has a system in their “stealth wireless” line designed for this sort of application, where both the transmitter and receivers are powered. The receivers have permanent antennas, but the transmitter has BNC to support external antennas. Full two-channel support, so one could send stereo or one or two mono channels. I think it supports mixing with the two mono channels, but not sure. 

I’ve used this in a really budget-conscious application (have you heard of shoestring budgets? This group only had half a string, and the ends were frayed). For lobby and green room, it worked fine. I put an old UHF omni antenna on the transmitter, and no problems over about a hundred feet and through a couple of walls. 

Caveats: It is not possible to turn off one channel, so you always need to dedicate two channels of ever more limited spectrum to the unit. It is simple and does not sound as clean as a pro IEM/IFB. Fixed antennas on the receivers means enhanced paths with directionals on both ends aren’t possible. But it’s cheap and comes with just about everything to plug it up in the box, so super budget friendly. 

Joel Lord

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Apr 27, 2024, 1:37:03 PM4/27/24
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To go the wifi route, Listen Technologies has a (small) series of
streaming ALS options, so if you've got networking (wired OR wireless)
that you can get to and pull from you can use a smart phone or the box
office computer or whatever. If using a phone you can then jump via BT
to earbuds or a BT speaker.

-Joel
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Paul Holland

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May 6, 2024, 9:26:42 PM5/6/24
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OK so we have an old Shure PSM system which we have tied into an output on the FOH Studer local rack and send to the bar for program feed. Works perfectly

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