With races held around Australia’s various states and territories, and an overseas round held in New Zealand – as well as events previously held in China, Bahrain, the UAE and the US – the V8 Supercars series is a touring car category based in Australia. It’s broadcast is handled by Gearhouse Broadcast, and is required to meet current wireless regulations set by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
Prior to the 2015 season, ACMA changed the licensing requirements for wireless and IFB/IEM transmitters, causing Gearhouse to rethink the wireless set-up.
‘Complying with the new regulations brought our operating power down to 100mW,’ says Danny Riess, Audio Supervisor of V8 Supercars for Gearhouse Broadcast. ‘With Wisycom, we are able to achieve what we have previously done at a lower wattage without compromising coverage or wireless mic and IFB/IEM reception. The technology that Wisycom is able to supply helps us achieve this.’
As of January 2015, the ACMA requires a license for any transmitter that has over 100mW of power. For certain solutions operating within a 100mW range this would mean an even smaller coverage area. With Wisycom, Gearhouse can accommodate multiple IFB/IEM and wireless microphone transmit sites within ACMA regulations, which provides a huge coverage area for the wireless mic and IFB/IEM systems in use. When this equipment is used with the Wisycom MAT288 high power RF Combiner, the Gearhouse team is able to link all IFB channels over fibre, keeping them in phase, which allows for ‘isofrequency’ coverage of a wide area. The system also allows the talent to move freely around the track without loss of microphone or IFB signal.
Gearhouse is employing nearly all of Wisycom’s products for the V8 race. In use in HD9 – Gearhouse’s latest OB truck – are Wisycom MRK 960 wireless microphone receivers, MPR30-ENG receivers, MPR30-IEM UHF IEM Systems, RF distributions, programmers, fibre transports and the MAT288 Programmable RF Combiner. MTH400 handheld microphones, bodypack transmitters, and IFB transmitters are in use by talent located around the track. In addition, Gearhouse uses two portable racks that contain more fibre transport, IFB transmitters, a UPS and an Ethernet switch for monitoring the status of the fibre transport and the IFB transmitters. The racks can be deployed anywhere on site for operation. Two additional smaller racks with fibre transport will be used for two further receive sites.
‘Another thing that makes Wisycom our top choice is the extreme frequency agility of the system,’ Riess adds. ‘We travel to so many different areas of the country and the available spectrum changes a lot depending on where you are. The Wisycom system handles this with ease due to the wide frequency range that it can operate. The results have been great so far. We’ve already replaced another wireless mic system that we own with Wisycom products.’
More: www.gearhousebroadcast.com
More: www.wisycom.com
