Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

New WMAS Standard Promises More-Flexible, Protected Wireless Operations

06/11/2024

New WMAS Standard Promises More-Flexible, Protected Wireless Operations Shure, Sennheiser establish early beachheads in what could be a game-changer By Dan Daley, Audio Editor

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 - 7:00 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

The lengthy narrative around the arrival of Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems is seemingly at its end. In October, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conferred its bureaucratic blessing on the RF technology that allows significantly denser multiplexing of audio channels onto a single wideband RF carrier. Referred to by the only slightly less unwieldy acronym WMAS, the new standard promises an easier and more flexible wireless workflow and greater protection for other services sharing the same frequency band. It is widely considered a game-changer for managing wireless signals in a narrower, denser spectral environment in the wake of multiple spectrum reductions over the past two decades.

The approval has also opened a new front in the wireless-microphone competition, one in which two of the sector's largest brands, Sennheiser and Shure, have quickly staked substantial claims.

Sennheiser's Joe Ciaudelli: With WMAS, you're using the same RF channel and the same amount of bandwidth for [multiple mics] as for one.

It is definitely the start of a new era of wireless-microphone technology, says Joe Ciaudelli, director, spectrum and innovation, Sennheiser. Noting the nearly six years the FCC spent considering the technology and the eight months, from February to October, it took to publish its finding in the Federal Register, he adds, We expect the competition to be rigorous.

Shure Senior Director, Product Management, Nick Wood puts the arrival of WMAS into broad context: Any change in the UHF TV bands is a really big deal given the changes that have happened over the past 20 years, most of which affected access to spectrum. This one is a great development because it changes what we can do with it, and Shure has been determined to push the envelope with spectrum efficiency. What can be done with the spectrum that we have and the WMAS regulations unlock a new innovation space for us. We want to use that to let the people who produce these events, including broadcast sports, to be able to do more with the spectrum they have that day and be able to say yes to one more wireless microphone.

Two Competitive Fronts Sennheiser's flagship WMAS offering is the Spectera line, introduced at IBC in September (the technology is already an ETSI standard in Europe) and demonstrated at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference in Washington, DC, last month. It features wideband, bidirectional bodypacks and a central unit that can handle up to 32 I/O. Its bidirectional wireless ecosystem supports data and audio control in a single RF carrier for all components and for such parameters as IEM volume, audio level and settings, RF health, and battery status. Sennheiser asserts that it is able to accommodate an entire production in a single wideband (6- or 8-MHz) RF carrier.

Shure's entry takes the form of a new iteration of the company's Axient wireless series: Axient Digital PSM combines its first digital wireless in-ear monitoring solution with its first WMAS-enabled product. It was announced Oct. 22 (although it had been selectively previewed privately two weeks earlier during the AES/NAB expo in New York, at which Sennheiser did not exhibit). Stereo capability enables Axient Digital PSM to operate as two discrete channels, allowing a stereo audio channel to function effectively as two mono IFB channels. Additionally, the capability to send Dante signals to the Audio Digital Transmission Exchange (ADTX) simplifies routing. The WMAS wideband implementation supports up to 28 channels per 6 MHz in the U.S. and 40 channels per 8 MHz in Europe; a narrowband mode provides access to more RF output power per channel while maintaining spectral efficiency at 17 channels per 6 MHz.

Changing the Game The new FCC rules will allow WMAS to operate in the broadcast-TV bands and in the 600 MHz duplex gap on both a licensed and an unlicensed basis and in other Part 74 LPAS (low-power auxiliary stations) frequency bands on a licensed basis. Power restrictions are 50 mW in the VHF-TV bands, 250 mW conducted power in the UHF band, 20 mW in the 600 MHz duplex gap (653-657 MHz), 250 mW conducted power in the 1435-1525 MHz band, and 1 W conducted power in all other bands, according to the FCC's website. WMAS will enable more wireless microphones to operate in the available spectrum (more microphones per megahertz of spectrum), providing additional options when more microphones are needed.

The WMAS rules do not alter existing spectrum rights or expectations regarding spectrum access and availability related to other authorized users' sharing the frequency bands with wireless-microphone operations (including, for example, broadcast licensees, Wi-Fi, and white-space-device users).

Sennheiser's Take For broadcast-sports applications, Ciaudelli - who contends that Spectera is the most innovative product the nearly 80-year-old company has ever produced - notes a broadcaster's typical complement of one transmitter for a microphone and one receiver for an IFB. That, he says, can be condensed into a single transceiver using Spectra WMAS. There's a similar benefit for large-scale events, such as the Olympics, in which various echelons of wireless mics are in either active or on standby status as a production unfolds.

With WMAS, he explains, you could give the vast majority of the spectral resources to the mics that are currently on-air. The mics that are, let's say, on deck' you give just enough resources to make sure that they remain linked to the base station in a ready mode. You're using the
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/11/06/new-wmas-standard-promises-more...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

21/07/2026

COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package

COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package Brie Clayton July 21, 2026 0 Comments HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...

21/07/2026

Cinegy directly addresses the real issues of software-def...

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...

21/07/2026

Calrec brings leading audio solutions and long term busin...

Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47 Beyond bigger For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...

21/07/2026

Pebble takes the next step towards the future of media de...

Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will discuss its future-facing developments for the new generation of medi...

21/07/2026

nxtedition Brings Production, AI and Automation Together...

nxtedition returns to IBC2026 with its consolidated production platform, showing how scripting, editing, graphics, AI-assisted tools and automation can work wit...

21/07/2026

Big Blue Marble brings C2PA Content Credentials to Cloud...

C2PA content signing helps broadcasters, public institutions, and publishers give audiences a verifiable record of where their video content came from and how i...

21/07/2026

HDHomeRun Enables Operation During Internet Outages

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

Calif. Federal Judge Pauses Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

AWARN Rebuts Weigel Claims of 3.0 EAS Problems

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for August Open Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

VIDA Introduces QC Manager for Collaborative Quality Cont...

New capability centralizes collaboration, feedback, security and status tracking within VIDA, providing a structured, auditable approach to master quality contr...

21/07/2026

Lightcraft Launches Exclusive Spark Story Beta for Filmmakers and Creators at SIGGRAPH 2026

Lightcraft Launches Exclusive Spark Story Beta for Filmmakers and Creators at SI...

21/07/2026

Indie Road Movie Where in the Hell Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Indie Road Movie Where in the Hell Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Brie Clayton July 20, 2026 0 Comments Colorist blends vintage film looks to shape...

21/07/2026

Which USS Defiant Pulse Phaser effect is better?

Which USS Defiant Pulse Phaser effect is better? Graham Quince July 20, 2026 0 Comments Aargh, ever since @DarkRavenProductions posted a comment ask...

21/07/2026

Built for Vera Rubin, NVIDIA Spectrum-6 Arrives in Gigascale AI Factories

AI has entered the gigascale era. The world's most advanced AI factories are bringing together hundreds of thousands of GPUs and CPUs to train frontier mod...

21/07/2026

NVIDIA Vera Rubin Driving Performance Per Watt, Lowest Token Cost for Partners Worldwide

NVIDIA Vera Rubin is here, and it's going gigascale. Vera Rubin NVL72 produ...

20/07/2026

SVG All-Stars: Rob Coons, Senior Director, StudentU, Big Ten Network

The former Northwestern broadcast-operations leader is helping train the next generation of live-sports-production talent across the Big Ten The sports-product...

20/07/2026

Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Stacey Lee, the Filmmaker Behind Murder 101

By Lucy Spicer One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. Whi...

20/07/2026

Telemundo Inks Another Major U.S. Spanish-Language Soccer Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/07/2026

HDHomeRun Enables Operation During An Internet Outage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/07/2026

Starfish highlights flexible, scalable transport stream p...

Starfish Technologies will use IBC2026 to showcase the flexibility of its transport stream processing software, including the latest versions of TS Splicer (Win...

20/07/2026

Bitfocus makes the connections at IBC2026

Bitfocus, the specialist in media control and monitoring, will show at IBC2026 (Elgato stand 8.D31, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) how its Buttons control la...

20/07/2026

Mediagenix Introduces Trusted Agentic AI Operating Model...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced new AI capabilities that e...

20/07/2026

Big Blue Marble Cloud DRM nominated for Streaming Media R...

Big Blue Marble's Cloud DRM has been nominated in the DRM/Content Protection category of the 2026 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards. Only four pro...

20/07/2026

At SIGGRAPH, NVIDIA Advances Graphics and Simulation With Agentic and Physical AI

At this year's SIGGRAPH conference, running through Thursday, July 23, in Lo...

20/07/2026

Bristol Myers Squibb Building Life Science Industry's Most Advanced AI Factory on NVIDIA Vera Rubin

Erin Davis calls it the SuperDuperPOD. That's two things in one name: phar...

19/07/2026

Halftime Show at FIFA World Cup Final Joins a Litany of Firsts for the Quadrennial Event

Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS make for a diverse lineup, and the venue ad...

19/07/2026

More Than Just a Game: FIFA World Cup's Lance Brass Breaks Down Stadium Production and Entertainment

The stage is set: three-time champion Argentina will defend its World Cup title ...

18/07/2026

More Than Just a Game: FIFA World Cups Lance Brass Breaks Down Stadium Production & Entertainment

Topics include pre-match ceremonies, live performances, the tournament's fir...

18/07/2026

As the Final Approaches, FIFA and HBS Take Stock of a World Cup That Rewrote the Production Playbook

When FIFA and HBS set out to produce the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the numbers alone ...

18/07/2026

Netflix Viewing Hit Record 97 Billion Hours in First Half of 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/07/2026

YouTube's Creative Ecosystem Contributed $60 Billion to U.S. GDP

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 24: Mercedes-Benz Stadiums Cole Gallagher - Supporting Shows in the ATL

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

17/07/2026

Brooklyn Bowl Williamsburg Stagehands Vote to Join IATSE Local 4

Production workers at Brooklyn Bowl's Williamsburg location voted 15-1 to join IATSE Local 4. The bargaining unit covers 24 production workers at the venue,...

17/07/2026

DAZN and ADI Predictstreet Announce Exclusive Global Prediction Market Partnership

DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced an exclusive global strategic partners...

17/07/2026

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions Announce Integration for C-Band Satellite Replacement

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a strategic integrati...

17/07/2026

Professional Fighters League Announces Multi-Year Partnership with ESPN in Brazil

Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a multi-year partnership with E...

17/07/2026

Spectrum Business Launches Spectrum TV Control Pro for Multi-Screen Venue Management

Spectrum Business has announced Spectrum TV Control Pro, a centralized app-based...

17/07/2026

Clark Wire and Cable Appoints Rick Fernandez as Latin American Representative

Clark Wire and Cable has announced that Rick Fernandez, Managing Director of Axxion Consulting, will serve as Independent Manufacturers Representative for Centr...

17/07/2026

TikTok, NBA, and WNBA Announce Multi-Year Global Content Partnership

TikTok, the NBA, and the WNBA have announced a multi-year global content partnership covering highlights distribution, creator access to marquee events, live-ga...

17/07/2026

MSG Entertainment Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Wired Over July 9 Article

Company alleges article contained false and misleading claims regarding customer data...

17/07/2026

Ratings Roundup: Argentina-England Semifinal Breaks Records for FOX; MLB All-Star Game Is Most Watched Since 2018

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

17/07/2026

American Pachuco Gives a Legend of Stage and Screen His Due

(L-R) Edward James Olmos, Luis Valdez, Lou Diamond Phillips and Lupe Valdez attend American Pachuco: The Legend Of Luis Valdez Premiere during the 2026 Sundan...

17/07/2026

Spectrum Simplifies Control Of Multiple TVs At Bars, Restaurants

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments Spline-based AI powered plugin accelerates time-consuming rotoscoping, helping...

17/07/2026

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments SBIFF jury award winner finished fro...

17/07/2026

Wheatstone to Feature Virtual Mixing Platform at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Trump Threatens Networks Over Speech Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Lightware Sustainability Report Details Product Efficienc...

Lightware has published its second voluntary Sustainability Report, showing how energy efficiency, product longevity and responsible material use are increasing...

17/07/2026

Foundry Unlocks Professional-Grade AI for VFX with Gripta...

Creative software developer Foundry today announced Griptape Enterprise, a new tier of the Griptape AI workflow orchestration platform, extended to meet the str...