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Audio-Technica To Offer
UWB Wireless Microphone System
July 7, 2007
Electronics manufacturer Audio-Technica U.S. said
it plans to release in the fall a wireless microphone system for the boardroom that the company claims is more secure than
traditional systems and is more reliable.
Audio-Technica's SpectraPulse is different in that it uses ultrawideband
(UWB) radio technology rather than a steady FM transmission on the unused channels of the TV spectrum, which is commonly used
with other wireless microphones.
UWB is a short-range technology that's suitable, like Bluetooth, for cable
replacement and applications such as short-range peer-to-peer connections. Rather than use a steady radio signal, UWB devices
transmit extremely short pulses of energy that are picked up by a receiver and transformed into audio.
Audio-Technica
believes UWB is well suited for a wireless microphone system targeted at businesses, because the technology offers tighter
security than traditional systems and can support more microphones. On the security side, small bursts of very low-power radio
signals are more difficult to detect and tune into than a steady signal, Steve Savanyu, marketing manager for Audio-Technica
said.
"With SpectraPulse a person would find nothing but noise, so it's inherently secure," Savanyu said.
"There's a very low probability of detection."
The transmitter and receiver in the Audio-Technica
system are synchronized so that pulses are transmitted and received at the right time, and then transformed into an audio
signal. To tap into this, a person would need a sophisticated antenna, a powerful preamplifier to boost the signal, and a
second Audio-Technica receiver. Even then, the use of the second receiver would degrade the overall signal, making the interception
detectable to the users of the system.
Given that nothing is 100% foolproof, Audio-Technica also offers an optional
encryption package that meets the 128-bit encryption standard approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Another advantage of using UWB is the ability to run as many as 14 microphones at one time, Savanyu said. Traditional
systems have difficulty supporting the same number of devices because the frequencies they use are in a narrower, crowded
bandwidth and therefore more prone to interference.
SpectraPulse, on the other hand, uses a bandwidth of 500 MHz
within a 6-GHz frequency spectrum that doesn't have congestion problems, Savanyu said. As a result, the bandwidth is wide
enough to find 14 separate channels, one for each microphone.
The UWB system, according to Audio-Technica, is
also easier to set up than traditional systems, which often require an audiovisual technician. To set up SpectraPulse, a person
only needs to turn on the system and set each microphone to a different channel. The latter is done through a switch numbered
1-14 on the bottom of each microphone. "This is about as close to plug and play as anything I have ever seen," Savanyu
said.
Audio-Technica believes SpectraPulse is well suited for use in conference rooms or boardrooms, and corporate
meetings. The company is also targeting the system at government agencies and for use in courtrooms. The system costs $3,000
per channel, so a 10-microphone system, for example, would cost $30,000.
Source: informationweek
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