AKG WMS470 C5 Wireless Set BD7 500 to 530 MHz Complete Channel

AKG WMS470 C5 Set BD7: A Whole Professional Channel, Rack Ready

The AKG WMS470 Vocal Set C5 is a complete analog UHF wireless microphone channel in the Band 7 configuration, covering 500.1 to 530.5 MHz at 50 mW of effective radiated power. What distinguishes a set from a component is that every part needed to commission a channel is in the carton: an SR470 stationary receiver, an HT470 handheld transmitter fitted with the C5 condenser capsule, two BNC UHF antennas, the RMU4000 rack mount kit, a universal power supply with US/UK/EU adapters, a stand adapter and one AA size battery. Audio runs 35 to 20,000 Hz with a 120 dB-A signal-to-noise ratio and less than 0.3 percent total harmonic distortion at 1 kHz at the receiver. Up to 16 channels operate inside one frequency band and as many as 48 across combined bands. This page is about deploying that channel, not about the microphone at the end of it.

What Complete Actually Means Here

Enumerating the box is worth doing because wireless is unusually easy to under-buy. A receiver alone arrives without a transmitter; a transmitter alone arrives without antennas, a rack kit or a power supply; and a first-time buyer who orders one of each frequently discovers on installation day that the receiver needs a 19 in rack adapter and the transmitter needs a cell. Here the SR470 arrives with its two detachable BNC antennas and the RMU4000 rack mount kit, the HT470 arrives with its C5 capsule already fitted and a stand adapter for lectern use, and the universal power supply ships with US, UK and European mains adapters so an overseas or hired venue is a plug swap. One order produces one working channel, which is exactly what a project schedule needs.

Racking the SR470 and Feeding It Antennas

The receiver is a half-rack metal housing supplied with the RMU4000 rack mount kit, and it runs on 12 V DC at 500 mA from the included universal supply. Half-rack means two receivers occupy a single rack space side by side, which is how a two-channel system stays compact, and the rack kit is what turns a shelf-standing box into a fixed installation rather than something that walks off a shelf; the two antenna connections are BNC female sockets at 50 ohms with detachable antennas supplied, so the same receiver can later be fed from a remote antenna in the room, a directional antenna aimed at a stage, or an antenna splitter serving several receivers. Microcontroller-controlled space diversity then compares both paths continuously and rides out the nulls a moving performer walks through. A theatre rack in a machine room and a portable rack at front of house both depend on that antenna flexibility.

Infrared Synchronisation and Setting the Channel Once

Frequency setup on this platform is transferred optically: the receiver finds a channel and then programs the transmitter by infrared synchronisation, so the frequency is entered once and carried across rather than typed at both ends. Enhanced automatic setup with channel preview does the finding, surveying the band and letting an operator listen to a candidate frequency before the system is committed to it, which catches the interference a bar-graph scan reports as clear; pre-coordinated television channel presets go further, supplying frequency groups already spaced so several systems dropped into the same group will not intermodulate with one another. The single most common multichannel failure, a transmitter and receiver left on different frequencies, is eliminated by the handshake rather than by discipline. A visiting engineer in an unfamiliar venue can therefore commission a channel in minutes without a frequency calculator.

Band 7, Switching Bandwidth and WMS4000 Accessory Compatibility

Band 7 covers 500.1 to 530.5 MHz, and within that the receiver commands 30.5 MHz of switching bandwidth subject to local regulations, which is the width of spectrum a channel can be moved across without new hardware. That position matters practically, because it sits well below the 600 MHz line spectrum authorities in the United States redrew when upper UHF was reallocated to mobile broadband, so a plan built here is not brushing a restricted edge. AKG also documents this platform as compatible with WMS4000 accessories, which is the reason a modest one-channel installation is not a dead end: the same antenna boosters, antenna power splitters, remote and directional antennas and charging accessories that serve a large rack will serve this one. Growing from one channel to twelve becomes a matter of adding boxes rather than replacing a platform.

Outputs, Runtime and Who Deploys This Set

Audio leaves the receiver on a balanced XLR switchable to -30 or 0 dBm and on an unbalanced 1/4 in (6.3 mm) TS jack reaching a maximum of plus 9 dBu, so the channel can meet a console microphone input or a line input without a pad or a preamp being improvised. Transmitter runtime reaches up to 14 hours from one AA size lithium cell, with NiMH rechargeable cells supported through the optional CU400 charger, and 50 mW of effective radiated power is available with the platform adjustable down to 10 mW where regulations require less. Deployments follow the platform rather than the capsule: theatres and auditoriums commissioning a first professional channel, houses of worship with a rack in a back-of-house closet, corporate racks that will grow across combined bands, touring and rental racks needing a channel that arrives rack ready, and venues standardising one wireless platform across several rooms. Because the transmitter is supplied with the receiver, both halves are already on the same band, which removes the mismatch that catches buyers of separate components.