Best Lavalier Wireless set/system?

[Mark Boyer]

"I think Letro has luck"

At the best retail outlets for location sound equipment they stock Sennheisers next to Lectrosonics units. With the option to save thousands on a Sennhesier unit why do the sound pros still purchase the higher end Lectros? I think luck has nothing to do with it. On shotguns Sennheisers are used more than other brands.

[Don Bloom]

Mark, I think you're missing the point. While every pro sound person I know uses Lectros they get to put their gear into use almost daily and get paid well for it so the gear gets paid back in a shorter time, while an event videographer like myself and probably 85% of the folks here also need other gear which can deplete the budget really quickly. So a determination has to be made on what to buy and how much to spend on it. Again, since I use 2 systems and a plugin, for me as a video camera person, to incest the $5000+ to get the Lectro gear doesn't make sense when for far less I can achieve the good quality I need for my work with something less than the Lectros. Again a budget consideration and IMO unless you're going to get the 200 or 400 series of Lectros the AT18XX and yes the Senns G3 unit produce the sound quality we need for what we do. Since I'm not a pure sound guy I can't see putting out the kind of money needed to go the lectro route. Are they better than what I use? Yeah they are but I work in the greater Chicagoland area with a population of about 9 million with all the cell phones, blackberrys, Wifi, and digital Tv stations one could want and I have never had a problem with dropouts. Would Lectro be better? Possibly, would my budget allow them? Nope, so many of us go with what we can afford to do the job we need to do.
Nuff said.

[Mark Boyer]

I understand your budget restaints, I can't afford new Lectrosonics units as well.

You can purchase a used Lectrosonics LMa System on Ebay for $500 to $700.

What is the output of your AT Units? My Lectros are at a maximum of 100mw the Sennheisers are 35mw.

[Dean Sensui]

Mark...

Honolulu is very noisy. Because of the mountainous terrain separating communities, there are cell towers everywhere (some disguised as palm trees!). There are five major digital TV channels, plus seven smaller ones, and more than 30 FM stations, some of which are transmitting at very high power levels. Then there's aviation chatter from the international airport, plus their radar. Military radar and communications from Pearl Harbor, Wheeler, Kalaeloa, Kaneohe. Plus private and business band radio.

There's also WiFi all over the place. Just from my house I can see six other nets, and in downtown Honolulu it's worse. And of course there's police, fire, ambulance, etc. So RF congestion is about on par with any city such as Seattle or San Francisco.

There's a park along the shoreline of central Honolulu that's popular among video production crews because it's conveniently located. However, it's also notorious for horrendous RF interference. Some older Lectrosonic VHF units won't work there, either. I did a shoot about fly fishing about a mile from that spot and made the mistake of not having my receiver scan for a relatively clean frequency, and got broadcast leakage into my audio.

Having a wireless system that can scan for open frequencies is very helpful. Some of the Lectrosonic units even have an LCD display that provides a spectrum scan which is awesome. I'd love to get Lectrosonic systems for that spectral display, and especially since they have waterproof transmitters.

But before I can do that I have a long list of other equipment and software that are also a high priority, plus talent and crew to pay, and travel expenses as well. So I had to find an affordable alternative... although the ATW-1800 isn't all that cheap, either.

Amidst all that, the ATW-1800 performs very reliably. It's been the next best thing to a hard-wired mic. That's not an exaggeration. Even when I helped my brother-in-law shoot his daughter's wedding: There were six other wireless units in operation. I had the ATW-1800 scan for usable frequencies, and had no trouble getting three channels of audio set up.

[Mark Boyer]

By no means was I saying Hawaii was remote but compared to Seattle I prefer would rather shoot in Hawaii.

Whan I talk of RF initerferance I am writing this no more than 1 mile from the Microsoft campus (Bellevue WA) and we are number 1 (Seattle) for the most wired metro area in the US (Silicon Valley is number 11).

Accroding to Forbes Honolulu is #25

Forbes’ Complete List Of Top Wired Cities Include —

1) Seattle
2) Atlanta
3) Washington, D. C.
4) Orlando
5) Boston
6) Miami
7) Minneapolis
8) Denver
9) New York
10) Baltimore
11) San Francisco
12) San Diego
13) Los Angeles
14) Portland, OR
15) Raleigh
16) Tampa
17) Phoenix
18) New Orleans
19) Sacramento
20) Charlotte
21) Chicago
22) Nashville
23) Milwaukee
24) Pittsburgh
25) Honolulu
26) Cleveland
27) Philadelphia
28) Cincinnati
29) Columbus
30) Austin

[Dean Sensui]

Mark...

Actually Hawaii is geographically among the most remote places in the world. Even more so than Easter Island. However, we got the tourist resorts and freeways, and they didn't. :-)

BTW, in 1997 I rode my bike from Seattle to Portland during the Seattle-Portland ride (STP). If I recall, the route (and more than 10,000 cyclists) goes right through your town.

[Mark Boyer]

Dan,

When it comes to Fly fishing nothing beats the Deschutes River in Oregon (grew up boating and fishing iit)

[John Willett]

Lectros being the "industry standard" is really only in the USA.

In Europe it is mostly Sennheiser 3000 and 5000 series; in the UK Audio Ltd. and Micron are popular as well - all these are a similar price to Lectro (5000 series more expensive).

The Sennheiser evolution series give high audio quality at an affordable price - and will have improved RF safety now the new G3 is diversity. And the new 2000 series is the half-way point between G3 and the expensive systems.

[Floris van Eck]

In The Netherlands, most if not all people I know use Sennheiser systems.

It is hard to find Audio Technica in stores here.