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.

Belfast, UK – August 2023 

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.

Dr Matthew Magill and Dr Gareth ConwayDr Gareth Conway, AntennaWare Co-founder CEO comments, “We are looking forward to the opportunity to demonstrate the enhanced wireless performance and range we are achieving for our partner manufacturers across applications including wireless headsets, body-worn digital wireless mics, and in ear monitors for content acquisition, monitoring and direction. Even in noisy RF environments such as live performance and recording, which can cause challenges for other antenna technologies.

I’m also excited to confirm that we will launch the latest version of our BodyWave UWB antenna at IBC offering the same reliability as our current UWB antenna, but meeting the requirements for smaller form factors.”

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.

About AntennaWare

Formed in 2020 by Dr Gareth Conway and Dr Matthew Magill as a spin-out from Queens University, Belfast, AntennaWare combines 20 years of cutting-edge academic research with industry expertise to produce an effective and powerful product. As the only antenna specifically designed for wireless wearables, BodyWave antenna technology has the highest performance on the market, with increased radiation efficiency, increased detuning immunity, and unique BodyWave propagation.

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