There is also a bulk download option – the RFW videos amount to quite a few gigs of vids!

Check it out – www.motionshare.com

Latest Update – October 2012

This article has been updated to cover more about the 2012 switch off of Channel 69 (854 MHz to 862 MHz) – some points to note are:

• You need to check if your radio mics can use the allowed frequencies.
• You need to use Channel 38 (606.5 MHz to 613.5 MHz, with a license) or Channel 70 (863 MHz to 865 MHz for free, if usable for you)
• Systems like the Sennheiser G2 don’t cover channel 38 – Boo! Meaning new systems needed, possibly the Sennheiser G3?
• You maybe able to get a rebate – money back from your old system. There are terms and conditions, one of which is that you needed to have been a licence holder prior to the switch over. -registrations for claims has now closed though – info on Shareview.co.uk

VHF or UHF?

Firstly, this page is about UHF microphones rather than VHF microphones. UHF (Ultra High Frequency) radios operate between 822 MHz and 870 MHz whilst VHF (Very High Frequencies) operate between 173 MHz and 220 MHz. Manufactures are tending to put less effort in to VHF systems, and pretty much your baseline system (eg from Shure, Sennheiser etc) will be using UHF. Cheaper systems may be using VHF, do be careful when buying cheap systems, as you really do get what you pay for – at least purchasing the entry level systems from the top brands is a good place to start – eg Sennheiser G2 series…

If you are using VHF, then all I can say is that these frequencies: 173.80 MHz, 174.10 MHz, 174.50 MHz, 174.80 MHz, 175.00 MHz will be the ones to use, as they are license exempt and can be used free of charge. (be careful with 174.80 as it tends to have intermod problems. If you want to use frequencies other than these then you will need a license (more info about Intermod and licenses below)

Radio Mics or IEM?

Another thing to note, is that in this page I tend to talk about Radio Microphones, but the concepts apply to In Ear Monitoring systems too – as these use UHF. (IEM is where, rather than a ‘wedge’ speaker for the people up front, they have ear phones that are connected to a radio receiver, and they can monitor themselves that way). So, when your thinking about how many channels you need for your radio equipment, don’t just count your microphones, but count your in ear monitors too!

Radio Microphone Frequencies:

The  Sennheiser G2 series of microphones are fairly common in Churches – they are solid, reliable microphones that are in the professional bracket, all be it at the cheap end. A Sennheiser G2 (now legacy) can operate on 1,600 tunable frequencies, from 518-866MHz  and the newer Sennheiser G3 has 1,680 frequencies from 516-865Mhz- so how do you choose with frequency to use?

Frequency Channels:

When radio frequencies are talked about, they are often referred to as their channel number, eg "channel 69". Here is a simple table describing the channels that are often used for wireless microphones:

Data correct as of October 2009

As you can see, there are lots of frequencies, but apart from channel 70 all of them require a license.

Free frequencies:

Channel 70, 863 MHz to 864.99 MHz are license exempt. This frequencies can be used without a license – remember though that lots of your neighbours may well be using these same frequencies so watch out for picking up other people’s audio!

Purchasing Frequencies

You can purchase license to use frequencies. For about £75/year (or £135/2 years) you will be licensed to use up to 14 channels… The organisation that manages frequencies in the UK is JFMG. They will assign you frequencies to use that are specific for your area – this ensures that even if your neighbour purchases a license they will be given a separate set of frequencies and you won’t clash. If you use frequencies out side of Channel 70, then you are committing an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act! More info from http://www.jfmg.co.uk

Intermodulation

When multiple frequencies when used together, eg if you have more than one radio microphone, the frequencies can sometimes form additional frequencies that are outside the original ones used and cause problems – it’s best to avoid this and therefore pick your frequencies carefully. This is called intermodualtion, ot intermod for short! It’s worth noting that you can mix UHF and VHF systems without having them interfering with each other as there is a big enough gap between the UHF and VHF frequencies.

Intermodulation checkers:

There are software programs that you can purchase, however Audio Technica have a free online checker that is simple to use from their web page. Also, Sennheiser have a intermodulation software program that you can download: Sennheiser.

Unlicensed/Free Frequencies in 2012

As already said, channel 70 (863 -864.99MHz) is unlicensed and will be remaining so after 2012. The debate Ofcom are having at the moment is regarding Channel 69, and selling those ranges off… the question is, what happens to wireless microphones that are currently licensed to use Channel 69? – the answer is that you’ll need to use Channel 38 (with a license from JFMG).

Example Sets of Usable Frequencies in Channel 70:

Here are 2 example sets of 4 usable frequencies in the free/unlicensed bands (channel 70) that have been tested for intermodulation:

If you are wanting to use more than 4 radio microphones then you have no choice apart from purchasing a license and use Channel 38.

You would only use one of these groups – choose either the blue or the green group! – or find your own set of frequencies that don’t have an intermod problem.

Having said this, Sennheiser state that their G3 systems can use the following frequencies without intermodulation problems:

Other Links:

This page is an amalgamation of other resources I have collected and compiled and tried to re-write in an easy to understand way, here are some other links to further your reading:

• A Discussion: http://www.worshipcentral.org/forum/topic/microphones?page=2
• Intermodulation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodulation
• Channel 69 sell off comment by Sennheiser: http://www.theaudiofiles.net/2009/05/uhf-frequencies-what%E2%80%99s-happening/

Closing Notes

This information was compiled from various resources and is thought to be correct at the time of writing (October 2009, updated in October 2011) – this information doesn’t come with any guarantees, but do use it for informational purposes.

Please do leave a reply below with other information, feedback etc!

However they don’t have a reset button, and I have a broken one! It’s stuck on the ‘Flip Video Press for Setup’ screen – which is the first screen you get when you turn it on.

The model I have is the Flip Ultra HD 8Gb, model: U2120B, I suspect these steps would work for other cameras in the range (that don’t have a reset button!)

Here are the steps I took, with the help of Cisco support to resolve this…

So, I tried the usual things myself to fix this:

• Changing battery
• Taking battery out for a few days
• Plugging in to the USB ports of a few computers

I couldn’t fix it myself, so I contacted Flip Support by email. Here is what they suggested to try – I add this info in the hope that it may help you too!

First set of steps to fix a broken Flip video camera:

1. Leave the batteries out of the camera for 48-72 hours
2. Insert brand new batteries
3. See if it works now!

This didn’t work for me though.

Second set of steps to fix the broken flip:

1. remove the battery pack from the camcorder
2. connect the camcorder to a powered USB port on your computer
3. when the “Connected” indicator comes on, insert the battery pack into the camcorder
4. safe eject your camcorder from your computer
5. reconnect your camcorder to your computer
6. the battery pack should now begin to charge within the camcorder. Leave the camcorder plugged into your computer for 24 hours.
7. after 24 hours, does the camcorder turn on?

This too didn’t work for me!

Then what?

Then I was asked to post the camera back to them – the the Czech Republic!

Zachs website is redferriswheel.com and these videos are 720p High definition .mov files – all available to download for free.

The videos are great for day to day use – where you want some color and a little movement happening in your backgrounds but don’t want to be distracting to the congregation.

Zach seems like a top bloke – more in his website.

Feel free to add a comment with your favourites!

These programs are all free to download and use, there are no spyware or adverts – just great software – some using the best open source video libararies available.

DVD to H264: HandBrake

DVD Ripping – convert DVD to H264 – of course, this would be for making mpeg 4 version of DVD’s that you’re legally allowed to do – such as DVDs you’ve created yourself.

http://handbrake.fr/

(Also versions for Windows and Linux, as well as Mac OSX)

Quicktime Alternative: QT Amateur

Great for batch exporting and re-encoding tasks – a free alternative to get the extra features that Quicktime Pro gives you.

http://www.mikeash.com/software/qtamateur/

Extra Codec Support for Quicktime: Perian

Allows Quicktime to play back extra video types, such as .avi, .divx, .flv, mpeg1 and mpeg2 (also makes these available to Quicktime Amateur)

http://perian.org/

Video Format Converter: ffmpegX

Another video format converter – If you’ve been using other free video converter programs, then it’s very likely that they are based on ffmpeg. ffmpegX is an apple GUI for ffmpeg, and makes converting from one video type to another a breeze!

(This is actually shareware, $15 to register, but free to try)

CD and DVD Burner: Burn

http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net

As a result, there are people making video loops for this purpose. They tend to be in HD resolutions and an wmv format. It occurred to me that these may be useful for use in Church settings… and it seems many are!

Google search for something like ‘dreamscene video’  and you’ll find websites with these videos to download. Most of the time they are free and the license is quite open, and just limited to ‘non-commercial’

I’ll be adding some of these sites to the MotionShare.com resources page.

For more info about DreamScene, visit Microsoft’s page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/About-Windows-DreamScene

View from Below (click for larger view)

View from Above (click for larger view)

I’ll post again later on with more info on how I got on with the software and hardware – but overall it was very good, having 8 channels of video to mix with is great, and the ease of use makes selecting videos quick… during one song I did have 7 layers of video in use at the same time!

Here I have a folder with a wmv file, which Explorer will display thumbnails for automatically, I also have some .mov and /mp4 files, and as you can see, thumbnails are displayed! -very useful for finding the right clip

.mov and .mp4 thumbnails in Windows Explorer

Enabling .mp4 and .flv Thumbnails

As long as you have mp4 codec on your machine, which you probably do, then this registry tweak should enable thumbnail generation when you go to Thumbnail view in Windows Explorer:

Open notepad, and paste the following registry entry in to it:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.flvShellEx{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@=”{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.movShellEx{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@=”{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}”

Save the file as ‘mp4.reg’

Double click on the file, and it will import it in to your registry.

You may need to restart windows for the change to be made.

Enabling .mp4 Thumbnails

By using a free program by Mike Barrientos Quicktime thumbnails can be enabled…

1. Download the DLL and save in to  /Windows/System32: QuickThumb (2861)
2. (As an Administrator) go to: Start, Run. And enter in: regsvr32 QuickThumb.dll
3. You should then see thumbnails!

(To uninstall, run regsvr32 /u QuickThumb.dll)

(more info on Mikes page)

Notes!

Run the above at your own risk! I add the info here as it worked well for me, your mileage may vary, so don’t blame me!)

Feel free to comment if you have any other ways or tips in thumbnail generation…

I started mixing VHS tapes (eg the original Images for Worship VHS tapes from onbd.org), with a Panasonic MX50 mixer connected to a couple VHS players. This was great with lyrics keyed in over the top…. I started doing this about 12 years or so ago…

Now I have a growing collection of video files and have been looking for the best way to locate, mix and control video mixing of these files – mpgs, movs etc…

I have recently been using 2 laptops with their SVIDEO output connected to an Edirol video mixer, and then connect the output of the edirol to a projector.

However, I’ve been looking for a better solution, and I’ve decided on this:

Software Mixer: Arkaos Grand VJ

MIDI Controller: Livid Instruments Ohm64

They are currently on order, but the idea is, that the software can mix 8 channels of videos, and apply effects etc and more, and using the MIDI controller will make make the physical mixing/settings etc quick and easy…

I’ll post back with how it goes, I have an event on March 28 at which I’ll be using this…