Sennheiser has announced a new addition to its Professional Wireless Range: The upcoming Digital 6000 Series of radio microphones will bring outstanding audio quality and rock-solid RF wireless transmission to demanding live productions.
The series uses the same long-range mode and proprietary Sennheiser Digital Audio Codec as the Digital 9000, Sennheiser’s top-of-the-range wireless series. Comprising a two-channel receiver in two different versions, a bodypack and a handheld transmitter as well as a rack-mount 19” charging unit, the Digital 6000 Series will be available from March 2017.
“With Digital 6000, we have brought the key benefits of our benchmark Digital 9000 system to a two-channel receiver and associated handheld and bodypack transmitters. The series is an ideal choice for touring and rental companies, theatre and musical productions, broadcasting, houses of worship and for high-profile corporate customers,” said Tom Vollmers, product manager at Sennheiser.
The digital two-channel receiver works across a switching bandwidth of 244 MHz (470 to 714 MHz), which is covered by three transmitter versions (470 – 558 MHz, 550 – 638 MHz, and 630 – 718 MHz). For larger systems, up to eight receiver units can simply be daisy-chained without the need for an additional antenna splitter; the multi-channel system will work with a single pair of antennas. The system latency is 3 milliseconds.
Superior reception, reliable audio
Reliability has always been a hallmark of Sennheiser wireless systems, and Digital 6000 fulfils this promise by employing true bit diversity, transmission error correction and additional intelligent error concealment.
True bit diversity ensures a far better reception quality than would be possible with other diversity techniques. While switching diversity and true diversity use the RF signal of a single antenna or the audio signal of a single reception path, respectively, true bit diversity uses both reception paths and combines their information content, thus creating the optimum signal.
The Digital 6000 receivers are fitted with a Link Quality Indicator that ensures that issues get seen before any drop-outs occur. If, as in difficult RF environments, the signal should get temporarily corrupted to such an extent that the transmission error correction can no longer repair it, the intelligent error concealment of Digital 6000 sets in. It employs intelligent learning algorithms to replace the corrupted signal, enabling Digital 6000 to still transmit flawlessly where other digital systems fail.
For data security, a feature that is particularly important for conference and corporate use, Digital 6000 features switchable AES 256 encryption.
Ease of use for the sound engineer and RF manager
A familiar user interface modelled on the EM 3732 receiver ensures simple, reliable operation for the sound engineer. Meanwhile, the Digital 6000’s automatic frequency set-up function and the Wireless Systems Manager (WSM) control and monitoring software makes the job of the monitor engineer or dedicated RF engineer much easier.
The Digital 6000 receiver is fitted with an eye-friendly white OLED display, which gives a quick overview of the RF signal, link quality, audio signal, battery status, frequency and encryption. Several home screens provide easy access to further information, without the user having to navigate through submenues. Critical operating conditions and error messages are directly indicated on the display.
Ready for use with existing infrastructures and equipment
Digital 6000 works with standard active and passive UHF antennas, as the frequency-selective antenna filters are contained in the EM 6000 receiver. Therefore, existing antenna infrastructures can continue to be used.
The Digital 6000 transmitters use the same high-performance rechargeable accupacks as the Digital 9000 units. The SKM 6000 handheld transmitter is fitted with Sennheiser’s standard capsule interface and can therefore be combined with all the classic microphone heads from the evolution wireless Series, the 2000 Series, and also the special 9000 Series heads.
The SK 6000 bodypack excels as a high-end solution for wireless instruments such as guitar and bass – or is ready for use with the Sennheiser clip-on microphones MKE 1 (omni-directional) as well as the digital-transmission versions of the MKE 2 (omni) and MKE 40 (cardioid).
Smart charting solution
The L 6000 charger is a 19”/1U device that can be fitted with up to four charging modules, each of which recharges two bodypack or two handheld batteries, respectively. Three-coloured LEDs on the front panel give a quick overview of the charging process. More detailed information as well as additional parameters such as battery runtime, charging cycles and remaining capacity can be accessed via the Wireless Systems Manager.
As the 6000 Series transmitters are compatible with the Digital 9000 transmitters, the L 6000 charging unit can also be used for Digital 9000.
Seamless workflows
Digital 6000 integrates seamlessly into digital or analogue system infrastructures. The EM 6000 receiver is fitted with a digital AES-3 output, high-quality transformer-balanced analogue XLR-3 outputs and ¼” (6.3 mm) jack outputs. The Dante version of the receiver offers an additional Amphenol RJ-45 connector for integration into a Dante network.
The Digital 6000 Series is compatible with Digital 9000 in long-range mode; also, the 6000 Series transmitters can be used with the EK 6042 camera receiver.
The Digital 6000 Series is coming in 2017.
More information: Sennheiser / Digital 6000 Series
