I purchased (and returned) this when it just came out. It sounded great but got frequent signal drops at 15ft using auto scan selected channels. It did loads better when I used a 3rd party frequency finder and set it to a clean frequency manually so I’ve been hoping they would put out an update. The automatic scanner on release didn’t give much info either. just a four bar signal strength display. While the G3/G4 units give you a higher signal resolution, it also gives you 20 banks of 12 channels guaranteed to avoid inter-modulation so you can use multiple channels. It’s a great sounding unit so I hope it’s been fixed!
Hi Alberto - there was a firmware update that came out right after EW-DP launched that addressed the sensitivity of the scanning function… the issue you experienced would have been addressed by this FW update. As you mentioned the bank system on G4, one of the huge advantages of EW-D is its ability to have equidistant channel spacing, which theoretically allows you to have up to 90 channels that would operate without intermod among each other. Since channel count always depends on your environment, the equidistant grid can be a major advantage in major metro markets where you may only have one TV channel to operate in (10 channels of EW-D can be deployed in that example and you don’t need to worry about operating in the same bank, so that makes life easier too)
@@robb.blumenreder fantastic news! I only had one system but it did look like it was set up to scan for compatible groupings rather easily. I’ll probably pick one up to use as a camera hop with wide dynamic range and a good noise floor.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. That auto power on/off don't seem to work with all cameras. I have several ew-dp unit and cameras, never noticed that. Maybe only Sony dslr?
You should test whether the transmission breaks when there is a wall blocking the Tx and Rx (i.e. no line of sight) cos the system now works on digital signal.
I have done this afterwards by setting it up in the middle of the house, I was able to get clean signal anywhere in the house. I was able to get about a 100 steps away from the house. I was quite impressed, but keep in mind it’s not as busy as something like an apartment building.
This system is digital UHF, which is quite a bit different than 2.4 GHz. While 2.4 GHz signals are easily blocked when line of sight is lost between a transmitter and a receiver, digital UHF benefits from exceptional wave propagation characteristics that make it highly desirable and the preferred option for professional applications. Another advantage of the digital transmission scheme is the ability of these systems to utilize equidistant channel spacing, allowing a dramatically higher channel count for multichannel operation. For reference, the available ranges for EW-DP in the US are as follows: 470-526, 520-576 and 552-607.9 MHz - this 56 MHz bandwidth would theoretically allow up to 90 channels to operate simultaneously… by contrast, assuming a perfectly clean spectrum and no other devices operating (which in wifi spaces is never the case: wifi setups, video devices, microwaves, etc…) the max available in 2.4 GHz is limited to 8 channels.
Helpful video, thank you. Would you know the cost of the unit you reviewed? Also, would this gear be the best for capturing quality sound from talent for corporate and broadcast productions, or would you recommend another set of equipment altogether? Of course this is in context of being operated by a "one-man-band". Thanks again. Always informative content in easy to understand language.
I think corporate one man band gigs would be the bread and butter of this system. Like I said at the end, if you need to put it the receiver on the camera, this makes things efficient and easy to setup. My unit is ME-2 set version of the mic in the link in my description.
It looks great and the sound quality and features are obviously brilliant. You did say that you got yours for free - do you think it's worth the $700 price tag?
If you are getting paid for gigs as an video person and you are in a one man band setup to put the audio receiver on your video gear, I would trust these ewdp series units to get the job done right without the hassle of worrying about the signal.
Thanks for the review! I was in the market for a new wireless set, and the two that caught my eye were this Sennheiser set and the Deity Theos set, which has 32-bit float recording on the transmitter. That recording seemed like a cool backup feature, but the EW-DP kits are out now, and the Theos kits aren't, so... A random question and a comment: -- Would you have any idea how long receiver and transmitter last with AA batteries? Or, to put this another way, are you going to get more battery life out of Sennheiser's battery, or out of two Eneloop Pro batteries? -- I was watching another review, by Curtis Judd, and he mentioned that the antennae aren't removable. I actually don't know of a wireless set that does have removable antennae. But it seems to me this could be a handy feature, for at least two reasons: (1) if they're broken, you can replace them; (2) it may make them easier to pack.
The sennheiser rechargeable batteries last longer. I believe the hours are 7 for the receiver and 14 for the transmitter on normal batteries, but with the sennheiser battery I saw number above that, I think it was something like 7 hr and 41 mins with a full charge on the receiver for example. Antennae are not removable like you said. Another thing is that the ENG version of this series does have a micro SD slot on the transmitter for local recording. Don’t know if it is 32-bit float though.
Thanks Javier! -- Battery life -- good to know! Cheers. -- Re the recording slot, Newsshooter is reporting it as being "24-bit, 48 kHz on-board recording".
A pretty significant step forward for wireless tech here is that Evolution Wireless Digital has 134 dB of Dynamic Range (which is roughly 5x more than most other systems.) In plain terms, that means we could ditch the gain control entirely, which also means you avoid clipping/peaking or otherwise overloading the front end of the electronics. This also makes life a little easier when you have talent mic'd up since you don't have to go over to their bodypack to adjust anything... gain is adjusted on the receiver (or via the Smart Assist app) as opposed to the transmitter so you have an appropriate level coming out of the Digital to Analog converter and then on to the device output.