Page 15 - DECT Today - Issue 3 - May 2015

PERFECT SOUND FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE BOARDROOM
Perfect sound from
the classroom to the
boardroom
Changes in spectrum usage regulation can often open up new opportunities for DECT. For example, the global growth of digital TV is seeing DECT become the technology of choice for audio conferencing solutions. As the pioneer in DECT-based enterprise wireless microphone systems, Revolabs was ahead of the curve in making that switch. Now, in its third-generation solution, it is using that experience to push DECT further than ever.
Whether it’s for giving presentations in large conference rooms or teleconferencing with many people in open boardroom, enterprise- level wireless microphone systems offer much greater flexibility. You can put microphones anywhere, right in front of each speaker or attached to their clothing, enabling much more natural communication.
The right technology
Previously, such systems used the UHF band for transmitting audio from the mic to the central unit. But with many countries wanting to use this band for digital TV, it is becoming very crowded. As a result, many manufacturers are moving to DECT. Revolabs was the first to see the benefits of DECT for such applications, effectively inventing the DECT wireless microphone for enterprise applications.
“DECT’s ability to support multiple audio streams is ideal for applications where you have 30 or more microphones in one installation. Moreover, its automatic channel selection gives it great error resilience. So there is no disruption of the audio – and that’s essential when people are trying to communicate with large groups,” explains Tim Root, Revolabs’s CTO.
Root also points to DECT’s resilience to noise, support for advanced encryption and ability to manage the wireless power levels as being important factors in Revolabs technology choice.
Drawing on shared experience in DECT
Revolabs has been working in DECT for over ten years now. And throughout that period, its DECT partner has been Dialog Semiconductor. “Dialog – or SiTel as it was then – had very strong third-party support which helped us get started very quickly. Its
products are also highly integrated which helps us keep costs down, and are very good on power consumption,” Root adds.
The two companies have developed a strong relationship, and regularly share their respective product roadmaps. This helps both companies to innovate more effectively.
“Due to this sharing, Revolabs was one of the first companies to bring a product to market using the SC14493 – our new integrated communications solution for the microphone market,” says Marius Bouman, Marketing Manager at Dialog Semiconductor,
The SC14493 is a single-chip transceiver, power amplifier and baseband IC for zero blind slot (ZBS) DECT. Together with Dialog’s SC14441 single-chip DECT / CAT-iq solution, it provides the wireless communication functionality for Revolabs’s Executive EliteTM 4- and 8-Channel Next Generation Wireless Microphone Systems.
“The Executive Elite is our third-generation DECT wireless microphone system. We’ve learned a lot from the market about what feature sets people want. By leveraging the DECT ULE architecture and then optimizing it ourselves for our specific application, we’ve been able to deliver a solution that delivers on those requirements,” says Root.
An Elite performer
One of Revolabs’s key innovations is to use all the DECT slots to maximize the number of simultan- eous connections without signals crashing. As a result, the Executive Elite systems supports up to 76 microphones in a 100 metre radius – compared to around 40 for most competing solutions. No matter how many microphones are in use, the system delivers crystal clear sound every time. And its AES-256 encryption ensures nobody can listen in without authorisation.
In addition, the Executive Elite pushes microphone talk-time from 8 to 20 hours with a single set of rechargeable AA batteries. Revolabs has also been able to separate the receiver antenna from the central signal processing unit. This gives much greater installation flexibility, allowing the antenna to be located in the same room as the microphones for better reception while the base unit is hidden away out of sight.
“We are keen to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with DECT. As DECT evolves, we aim to take advantage of any future developments to create new systems that support even higher sound quality and microphone densities,” Root concludes.
www.dialog-semiconductor.com www.revolabs.com
DECT Today - The Success Story Continues · www.dect.org
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