Sennheiser Spectera

At IBC, Sennheiser will usher in a new era of digital wireless audio transmission with the world’s first bidirectional wideband solution: Spectera. Using the ground-breaking WMAS (Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems) technology, Spectera greatly reduces wireless system complexity, while at the same time considerably increasing capability, enabling time-saving workflows and offering full remote control and monitoring, including permanent spectrum sensing. Spectera features bidirectional bodypacks that manage both digital IEM/IFB and mic/line signals at the same time. The solution is remarkably resistant to RF fading and allows for flexible use of the wideband RF channel, for example for digital IEMs with a latency down to a spectacular 0.7 milliseconds.

The Spectera SEK bodypack handles both mic and IEM audio, plus control data, in the same wideband RF channel. “We are thrilled to see years of technological development and spectrum policy work turn into a digital wireless ecosystem that will solve many of the issues that users of wireless multichannel systems are faced with today,” say co-CEOs Dr Andreas Sennheiser and Daniel Sennheiser. “Our wideband solution will be ideal for large productions, whether in the touring, broadcasting, or theatre fields, or in any other area that requires multichannel audio setups. Spectera satisfies our customers’ chief desires and needs regarding ease of use, operational reliability and flexibility. It offers less hardware, drastically reduced frequency coordination, redundancy, and the flexibility of an ecosystem that grows with your needs.”

Powered by WMAS – The wideband approach
Bidirectional digital wideband transmission addresses many of the typical challenges that users, operators and owners of wireless audio systems experience today. These challenges include overly complex frequency coordination and complicated rack cabling for high channel counts, and the large footprint that a multichannel wireless system still has – in the warehouse, on tour and backstage, both for space and the amount of time required for load-in, load-out and setup.

New applications on the horizon
“Spectera will not only revolutionise multichannel wireless audio, but also open up many new opportunities,” says Andreas Sennheiser. “3D immersive audio is one such opportunity. Thanks to its synchronised word clock for all audio over RF, Spectera will be the first solution that is able to capture phase-coherent wireless audio for immersive recording and reproduction.”

“With the new workflows that this ecosystem facilitates, we will certainly see new creative uses of wireless audio technology,” concludes Daniel Sennheiser.