Wireless Designer’s new Zone feature (v2.0.30 for Windows and v2.0.25 for Mac and later versions) allows you to coordinate multiple zones, where some may need to consider intermod interaction and some may not. It is a good way to not only coordinate and monitor a large number of channels in a single facility or studio complex, but also to maximize the number of channels available for use.
You can create zones offline, by doing your band planning prior and loading the project file on the set, or while you are physically on set. Before you begin, it is helpful to know where the clear frequencies are in your area. New Endian’s FreqFinder app or IAS from Professional Wireless Systems can help.
We’ll show you how it works:
1) In this example, we tested three DSQDs to see how many channels we can fit into a narrowband (470.100 – 477.100 MHz) space, some of which is occupied by a TV channel. We set up 12 channels total. Wireless Designer will alert you when you have reached the limit of what will fit. In this example, we found that 12 was the max available. However, since not all these channels need to be used in the same studio, we can look to the Zones feature for how to divide them up:
2) Connect to Wireless Designer and start by clicking “Zone” on the left of your screen. Each of the devices has its own zone, which comes up as a Default. Like setting up channels, you can rename these if you wish.
3) A Zone Editor will come up¬¬¬¬¬, which will allow you to specify the zone of each device and their relationships to each other within your defined spectrum space. If the checkbox in the purple quadrant of the zone is checked, the frequency coordination will consider the intermodulation relationships between carriers in those zones. If the checkbox within the blue is not checked, the intermods between those carriers are ignored.
Next, run a coordination:
4) You may see a yellow triangle with an exclamation point while running your coordination. This means that your ranges are close to the recommended minimum defaults that we established for the equipment. That range may be suitable for your purposes, however.
You can coordinate frequency spacing by channel type (the equipment you have connected), by using the Frequency Coordination Options button:
The reporting feature in Wireless Designer is helpful for distributing the information between departments or as a record for later use (click to expand larger). This report also is color-coded and will graphically show intermods and caution ranges, in the corresponding (red, green, blue) colors:
How have you used Zones in your work? Share your story on our Facebook page. Stuck while trying this yourself? Email us at our
