I’m looking for a way to track eigth artists on stage.
I only need to know where the artists are in depth, so 1 dimension is enough…
The purpose for this installation is that I need to delay each wireless microphone on eigth different outputs.
Which make 64 parameters to change when all artists move.
Using a camera is not an option, I think, because it’s impossible to see the difference between the artists.
I found a system (www.tta-sound.com) but this is way out of our budget…
So I’m looking for a homebrewable system. ;-)
One of my idea’s is using the wireless microphone transmitter each artist has. I use diversity receivers (Sennheiser EW100G2) so I could place one antenna up stage and one downstage. This way it should be possible to calculate the difference between the antenna’s and know where the artist is.
Problem: how to get the signal strength out of the receiver in my computer. The receiver has a DATA connection but I can’t find any info how to use this port. And I don’t know if this port transmits these parameters.
Sounds like a good idea - the triangulation stuff. Actually, the tta-system works the same.
But a quick look at Sennheisers data sheet gave no option to get out the signal reception level. Only way would be to get unbalanced volume and use that in order to get some levels of signal strenghts. But sound handling is probably unpredictable than.
So, best way would be to set up an own radio recieving system for your eight channels. Frequencies are known, you can use Sennheisers antennas either (length is important), some internet search and soldering, and “Zack” you are having your own signal-strenght-tracking-reciever ;D Feeding it into V4 for calcualations using Arduino. May be a good starting point for radio-solderings is their forum.
Other options for getting invidual people on stage are difficult. Using lights (IR, Colors, blinking IR-Leds) would need always visible connection and is unsecure in terms of lighting changes.
Or you use more than one cam, from every side one for instance, and do some heavy calculations in order to sort out people overlapping errors in order to get a continous Id for every actor.
I’ve been searching some more on the sennheiser site…
There is a interface (NET1) that collects data from ten receivers. Among the data is the signal strength. The site says it does not support my receivers. But my receiver does have the same DATA port.
I wouldn’t be supprised if there is a signal on that data port.
But I have no idea if it’s rs232 / rs485 / ttl / i2c or whatever… Let alone the protocol they use…
Arduino looks very cool too…
Going to investigate that one as well…
I looked into using audio positioning a while back
it could be possible using your existing wireless mic’s
if you emit a frequency of say 20 or 21khz from the back of the stage area (dont forget to EQ this out of the monitors and FOH mix)
then use their wireless microphones with the fft node to measure the intensity of that frequency at their position, it should go down roughly using the inverse square rule as they move from the back of the stage.
i’d suggest using capsule mics and some calibration though, as conditions such as direction the mic and how they are being held could cause issues.
Ok, finaly talked to someone at sennheiser who knows sommething about this.
Unfortunately he also told me that my idea is not new, and also not possible…
Because of reflections in a theatre it’s not possible to calculate the position of the artist by measuring the signal strength of the receives.
So back to the drawingboard…
SugokyGENKI’s idea of transmitting a 20k signal is interesting.
I’ll have to make a test rig but I’m a bit affraid it won’t work.
Because there is quite a lot of noise on stage I’m not sure I can ‘hear’ the 20k tone on the microphones.
Camera still is a option, but how to see the difference between my eight artists?
