Will 700MHz Wireless Mics work in London?

[Dan Brockett]

Hi all:

I have booked a project that will shoot in London next week. All scenes will take place inside a high rise in Brentford. The client here in the U.S. is supplying wireless microphones, both are Audio-Technica U100 series that operate in the 728-740MHz band.

I am doing some research on this and discovered this paragraph "The current users of the UK's 700MHz spectrum are the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) providers, including national free service Freeview" here UK regulator begins 700MHz LTE consultation - Rethink Wireless

Is there a DVInfo user here who has recently shot in London using 700MHz wireless systems? Is this a case where the DTT will definitely interfere with our wireless or is this a case where we will probably be fine? Need to plan this out for a shoot next week.

Thanks for any advice,

Dan

[Luke Finn]

They may work short range but there's no guarantee that they'll be free from interference. Using them in the UK will however, BE ILLEGAL!

The UK licenced radio mic frequencies are now on channel 38. You can rent these locally and that is really what you should be doing. I wouldn't dream of coming over to the states with my UK frequency radio mics and randomly transmit on illegal frequencies there. Do a bit of research and you'll see the legal frequencies for use in the UK.

Oh, and we drive on the left side of the road here :)

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Luke Finn

They may work short range but there's no guarantee that they'll be free from interference. Using them in the UK will however, BE ILLEGAL!

The UK licenced radio mic frequencies are now on channel 38. You can rent these locally and that is really what you should be doing. I wouldn't dream of coming over to the states with my UK frequency radio mics and randomly transmit on illegal frequencies there. Do a bit of research and you'll see the legal frequencies for use in the UK.

Sorry - this post is misleading and is not strictly correct.

Ch.38 is for mobile (shared) frequencies that can be used all over the country.

There are also fixed site (co-ordinated) frequencies - these can be anywhere from Ch.19 upwards. These are also licensed, but are location specific - these are the frequencies used by theatres and conference centres. These will change with location and what is legal in one town would likely be illegal in the next town.

So - you can get a licence for a very wide range of frequencies - but only Ch.38 is right if you want to move about.

Originally Posted by Luke Finn

Oh, and we drive on the left side of the road here :)

Yes - this is because English people are right-handed and prefer to dismount a horse onto the pavement, rather than dismounting onto the horse feathers in the middle of the road.

I blame Napoleon - who was left-handed and made his troops march on the right so his sword arm was to the centre of the road.

[Dan Brockett]

Just returned from London, used my now U.S. illegal Audio Technica U100 systems after licensing the bandwidth from Ofcom. Worked perfectly, I will be keeping these wireless for future UK and Euro shoots, they still work great overseas.

Dan

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

Just returned from London, used my now U.S. illegal Audio Technica U100 systems after licensing the bandwidth from Ofcom. Worked perfectly, I will be keeping these wireless for future UK and Euro shoots, they still work great overseas.

Dan

You should have licensed the frequencies from JFMG.

Other European countries have different frequencies and different rules.

The only frequencies that are legal all over Europe is the 2MHz wide band of 863 - 865 MHz.

[Dan Brockett]

A bit confusing John. The license in my hand says JFMG, but the accompanying paperwork that came with it that list a lot of the technical specs says Ofcom and then I received my credit card statement today and was almost ready to dispute an unknown charge to Arqiva until I read the fine print at the bottom of the license and saw that JFMG is a trading name of Arqiva Ltd.

Jeez, talk about a spiders web of holding companies and different names. It all worked out well.

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

A bit confusing John. The license in my hand says JFMG, but the accompanying paperwork that came with it that list a lot of the technical specs says Ofcom and then I received my credit card statement today and was almost ready to dispute an unknown charge to Arqiva until I read the fine print at the bottom of the license and saw that JFMG is a trading name of Arqiva Ltd.

Jeez, talk about a spiders web of holding companies and different names. It all worked out well.

JFMG originally stood for "Joint Frequency Management Group" and was set up by the BBC and ITV to manage frequencies for broadcast.

It then got the contract from the Government to manage all radiomic. frequencies.

Recently the contract was re-advertised and JFMG won it again - at the same time they were bought by Arqiva, so now JFMG is a small part of Arqiva.

But it is JFMG that do the frequency management for the UK in regards to radio microphones and radio links for broadcast.