Traditionally the high-end market for audio content acquisition for Broadcasters has been the domain of expensive products. The complex requirements around quality, latency and robustness have required bespoke designs for the front-end RF, meaning manufacturers are unable to prevail of the more cost-effective solutions, creating a binary choice between cost and reliability/quality.

AntennaWare’s BodyWave antennas are designed to address two of the major causes of dropouts experienced by wireless wearables worn close to, or on, the body – body blocking and detuning. By generating waves that flow efficiently around the body, BodyWave antennas support a wireless communication link where others fail, resulting in an increase in NLoS link budget of between 10 and 20dB.

For the broadcast industry, this additional link budget means that wireless wearable devices commonly used for content acquisition can achieve sub 5ms latency, delivering a robust signal for Non-Line of Sight applications based on competitive BOMs, whilst achieving the technical performance normally associated with more expensive products.

AntennaWare’s expert audio and technical team will be in attendance at IBC 2023, where the improvements in wireless audio performance and reliability achieved by devices incorporating BodyWave antenna will be demonstrated in a live environment.

UWB (for BodyWave 6.5GHz/Channel 5 and 8GHz/Channel 9) is of particular interest for the broadcast audio sector as it offers the ~5Mbit/s required for Linear PCM Hi Res audio, however to date, dropouts caused by body blocking and detuning has made it an unreliable frequency for audio applications where the device is worn close to the body. By addressing these twin issues, BodyWave technology makes UWB an attractive frequency upgrade.