What makes a professional wireless microphone system? from Smith Steve's blog

1. Introduction

A wireless microphone is a microphone system that uses wireless communication (i.e. radio) to enable it to function as a microphone. It is currently the most common type of wireless microphone.

A wireless microphone system includes a transmitter, a receiver and a separate audio amplifier for each channel or frequency band used for transmission and reception of the audio signals.

The transmitter can be any form of transmitter, such as an ultrasonic transducer, a piezoelectric transducer, laser, or mechanical horn; or it can be an antenna that transmits signals by inductive coupling with another antenna (antenna array). The receiver will include an amplifier circuit which reduces the power delivered by the transmitter and then amplifies this signal to produce audible sound (sound-receiving capabilities).

A karaoke microphone system is a type of wired or wireless microphones which are used in karaoke environments such as barbershop singers and voice-over performers. Karaoke microphones must be connected to a computer, typically via USB or Bluetooth. Everything else about these systems is essentially identical to those used in other types of home recording applications such as home studio equipment:

a small speaker, often built into the mic itself;

the ability to connect multiple microphones together via cables;

an on/off switch for power;

2. The History of Wireless Microphones

Wireless microphones have been around for over 40 years and there has been lots of discussion about how to improve wireless microphones. The wireless microphone has evolved from the first one that was a simple microphone mounted to a loudspeaker, to more sophisticated devices like wireless microphones with an integrated digital audio processor (DAP), as well as DSP-based systems which are still pretty rare.

Most of today’s wireless microphones have a built-in recording device or can connect via a transmitter/receiver pair, but they all share the same basic characteristic: they transmit and receive voice at the same time while recording. Most of these systems rely on a transmit/receive (TX/RX) device which transfers audio between the receiver and transmitter in real time. The TX/RX device is usually located inside the microphone, but it could also be located outside, or even within the microphone itself. Different transmitters also have different characteristics: some require power, others will be silent when not transmitting anything at all, some might require batteries and so on. There is no standard for what these transmitters look like or how they work, so manufacturers are free to do whatever they want.

The most common way of connecting two devices together is via Bluetooth technology: both devices must be Bluetooth-enabled and must support pairing with each other via bluetooth technology (remember – there is no standard for what bluetooth does). Bluetooth does not require that either device be connected to an electric wire or any other physical interface; both TX and RX can occur simultaneously without any intervening wires whatsoever; and regardless of which way you connect your transmitter/receiver pair to your TX/RX device (whether it is plugged into an external power source or directly plugged into the TX/RX device), you will hear only one sound coming out of both devices at any given time.

That’s right – receivers can handle both analog signals as well as digital ones! That’s because their functionality depends on whether their signal goes through analog or digital paths; if it goes through analog then there is no high frequency noise present in the signal so nobody would hear audible noise that comes from analog sources. If it goes through digital then there will be electronic noise present in the signal so receivers will not hear audible noise that comes from digital sources. However – this only applies if your transmitter happens to be paired with your receiver! That means that when said receiver receives a signal from another device (e.g., another

3. Types of Microphones

There is a lot of confusion around wireless microphones and microphones in general, which can be summarized as this:

• There are wireless microphones and wired microphones.

• There are wireless transmitters and wired transmitters.

• There are wireless receivers and wired receivers.

The confusion is, in part, because of the way people use the terms “wireless”, “mic”, etc. The first one is something you plug into a device like a computer or smartphone. The second one is something you put on your head or in your pocket (or you can wear it like a headset). The third one is something that moves from one place to another (say from your lips to your mouth), but which cannot be placed into either of those two categories.

If these three terms are confusing for you, you will understand why when we talk about types of microphone systems: there are no wires with microphone systems; there are receiver-transmitters with microphone systems; and there are transmitter-receivers with microphone systems.

We think that’s enough information for now, but we would love to hear more about this so please let us know if we didn’t sufficiently explain it!

4. How to Choose the Best Wireless Microphone for Me?

Wireless microphones are becoming more and more popular in today’s day and age. They seem to be a natural part of the modern digital life, especially with the advent of smartphones.

However, there are many hurdles one must overcome when choosing a wireless microphone system for themselves (or their friends):

• Choosing between many different wireless microphone systems which have different features, prices and capabilities;

• Choosing between wireless microphones that are small enough to be carried around in a pocket or purse and wireless microphones that offer high-end features;

• Choosing between wireless microphones that have pressure sensitivity so as to record higher-pitched voices more accurately than those recorded on a phone (and thus be more useful for singers);

• Choosing between products with batteries that last up to 10 hours and others that only last 1 hour.

So what makes a professional wireless microphone system? 1) Whether it is specifically designed to meet the needs of singers or not (many come with built-in mics or can be put into an external handheld mic); 2) How easy it is to use (weighing less than 0.5 kg is good but we would like it to stay good for longer than 2 years); 3) Whether it is easy on batteries (extra batteries can be purchased separately as well as recharging solutions).

We recommend you start by taking this quiz: "What product do you think will help you become an expert on Wireless Microphones?" To get answers, just put your answers into the comments section below!

5. Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips

There’s a lot of information out there about wireless microphones, and while I’m sure there is more that could be added here, we are not going to cover it all. So, let’s focus on some of the non-technical aspects:

• The microphone itself (quality and price)

• Where to buy it (the range of stores, the price per mic and so on)

• On how to use it (how to set it up and what data should you collect)

• How to keep your system running smoothly

These are all very important topics, but let’s discuss them in the context of an example: a simple karaoke setup.

6. Conclusion

There are some interesting discussions around the question of whether or not a wireless microphone is worth buying. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to make any such assumptions, but for the purposes of this post, I will examine and discount them all.

At the heart of that discussion is the concept of “wireless” and “wireless microphones.” While there are many “wireless” products on the market, few people today talk about “wireless microphones.” That is because they are all pretty much the same: they use Bluetooth to transmit audio to a receiver — which can be either built into a computer, in our case, or sold separately.

(This contrasts with earlier days when microphones like Shure SE-45 were first invented to be used in karaoke, where they were wired directly into amplifiers; later versions were wireless.)

The difference between these two concepts comes down to how you want to use your wireless microphone — either for karaoke, or for performing live events in front of an audience. If you want to use your wireless microphone for karaoke and you want it to be wired into your computer so that you can switch between listening and playing music at will (which is typical for most professional applications), then you need something that uses Bluetooth technology — we call it a Bluetooth receiver .

If you want your Speaker Repair Service (a la Apple AirPort Express) to work with an external speaker (say, a MacBook) so that you can perform live events in front of an audience while listening only via headphones (which is also common), then you need something that uses RF technology (like our wireless microphone). This is not just a matter of technical differences; there are also fundamental differences in musical preferences and expectations among listeners: those who like live shows have different standards than those who prefer podcasts; those who like hip-hop have different expectations than those who prefer classical music; etc…

This brings us to the conclusion that most consumers don’t care about these things — they just want their products to work as advertised (in general). And so there really isn’t much worth discerning from which form factor someone chooses from among all the possibilities out there. They just want their products to work as advertised without having to consider other options. For example: no one would say “I don't mind if my car radio uses FM radios but I do mind