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Has anyone tried Mobile Black Box V6000 FM Transmitter


toddmoon

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Has anyone tried the Mobile Black Box V6000 FM Transmitter

I like being to have the whole FM frequency band to work with. I trying to decide what FM transmitter to use with my LOR show this year. I am still new to this. Last year I ran a patch of cables to boom box. It had a nice hum with it that I grew very tired of hearing when I had quite portions in my show.

Beside the FM transmitter is there anything else that I need to hookup the transmitter?

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Hello

I have the VM600.Works great. Get the telescoping attnena with it. Depending on you computer hook for sound will depend on what you need. The black box has a left and right hook. My laptop had on speaker in so I had to go to Radio shack to get an adapter.

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JBullard wrote:

Just keep in mind that the V6000 is a MONO transmitter, not stereo.

Please don't take this wrong, but how important is this? When I sequence (please understand that this is my first year using LOR), I'm not sequencing in stereo, and I didn't even think that stereo vs mono came into play.

Do most of you design your displays keeping the left/right sounds in mind or are you saying that the public lose the musical effect hearing only monaural in their vehicles?

On a second note, do most of you have external speakers (for the walkers in the neighborhood) in addition to the FM or do you rely on the FM transmission?

Richard
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rjnitto wrote:

or are you saying that the public lose the musical effect hearing only monaural in their vehicles?

The "public" is used to hearing stereo in their vehicles. If they only hear mono when they come to a display they may sense that something is "wrong" and not enjoy the display as much. To look at it another way, a display with stereo sounds more impressive.

On a second note, do most of you have external speakers (for the walkers in the neighborhood) in addition to the FM or do you rely on the FM transmission?

I do. The external speakers and the FM transmitter are actually controlled with separate X10 channels, because I thought that I may need to have the speakers off after a certain time, but this never turned out to be the case. You can hear the music from the other side of the street, but it's not loud enough that the neighbors can hear it in their houses. (Of course, most of my neighbors' houses are part of the display!)
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I'll add my two cents in favor of stereo. I've got an EDM model and was having problems with the cable to it (user error - it was a mono cable - duh...) and initially it was broadcasting in mono. The sound was flat and lifeless. When I figured out the cause and replaced the cable the sound came alive. Big difference. If you're going through all the work (and expense) of doing a first-class show, why cheapen the experience with crappy-sounding music?

As to the question of outdoor speakers, I use them also. Depending on the weather, on a given night we might not have anyone willing to brave the cold to leave their vehicles. But when they do, I want them to hear the music, for the show doesn't make any sense otherwise - just a bunch of flashy-blinky.

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  • 2 years later...

I am new to LOR also and I am having trouble with the whole house FM transmitter. It will only work about 10-15 feet away, I installed the extra length wire and tried almost every station on the transmitter. I know i'm doing something wrong but just don't know what.

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cvinson wrote:

I am new to LOR also and I am having trouble with the whole house FM transmitter. It will only work about 10-15 feet away, I installed the extra length wire and tried almost every station on the transmitter. I know i'm doing something wrong but just don't know what.

What you did wrong was to buy the Whole House Transmitter. Very few have had success with it. This is a very old thread so you won't find much help here though. Read here for more updated info:
http://forums.lightorama.com/forum76/30660-1.html

One tip would be to open the battery compartment and under a sticker there is a switch that supposedly boosts the power. Just makes a bad signal more powerful though.
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I have the Orion 5000 from Mobile Black Box and it is phenomenal. In fact, it's a little too strong (5W) and carries about a mile in my small town, but you can attenuate the signal easily (if you wanted to).

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I have recently got my hands on the whole house fm transmitter. And I had similar problems, I was able to broadcast around 140 feet and needed a bit more so I searched some other forums, there is a hidden power switch under a sticker where the batteries go, push it to the right and your power will be increased.cvinson wrote:

I am new to LOR also and I am having trouble with the whole house FM transmitter. It will only work about 10-15 feet away, I installed the extra length wire and tried almost every station on the transmitter. I know i'm doing something wrong but just don't know what.
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Absolutely go with an EDM. I will be retiring my Mobile Black Box Eclipse 4000 to backup duty, as I plan on buying an EDM this year myself. I'd say it's 9 to 1 for buying and getting an EDM unit on the forums here.

So I'm taking the experts advice and going with EDM as well.

And you definitely want stereo, if you're not sequencing in stereo, then are you converting your MP3 files to MONO?

I use headphones when I sequence so I can hear what is on the left and right channels, some of my lights are set as either left or right on the house, and sometimes I want the music that is playing to only light something on the same side as that particular section of music on the left or right side of the house.

With MONO you don't really have that option, nor would it feel or look right, if you broke your display into a left/right set up to flow with the music if it wasn't in stereo.

So, yes, it does make a world of difference, if in Mono, your listeners won't be getting the full effect of how the music was intended to be listened too from their stereo .

And, yes, I also use outdoor speakers to allow walkers, bicyclists or those wanting to get a closer view or to video the display to hear the music.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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