Broadcasting Sound

[ChevyChase]

Hi

I`m putting together my first light show so am a complete newbie.  I was wondering what others do regarding broadcasting sound?  I am thinking of using some sort of FM transmitter.  Is there anything anyone can recommend?

Thanks.

[daniel5488]

i just play mine with my bose speakers at show times, but I only do musical shows on a Friday evening show it doesn’t bother neighbours lol

If the shows was playing all the time I always thought to myself it would get boring. So I advertised it on Facebook and over 100 people turned up ?

[Craig]

FM transmitters are becoming hard to come by as they are illegal to import, sell or use in the UK without a license. From our experience the MP3 player style ones that are legal and readily available are very low power and only transmit a few meters so are no good for light shows.

You can sometimes find sellers on eBay offering higher power FM transmitters (such as "CZE-05B") for sale in the UK, but be aware that they are actually illegal in the UK without a license, so you would also need to get a broadcasting license which are very expensive.

[magical46]

I found using one of the usb style ones (meant for use inside your car so not very powerful) did work as I only have a short distance from laptop to lights, however I didn't have a waterproof radio to use, so instead I now use an outdoor Bluetooth speaker, again over short distance which connects to the laptop, but it works for me. This year I am using the "Show Selector" so the music will ONLY play when the schedule is on and someone selects a tune, I am not expecting crowds to appear. This year in aid of Children in Need

[ChevyChase]

Thanks for that. I`ve done a bit of research and it seems that the maximum power output you can legally have is 50 nano watts for a short range transmitter in the frequency band 87.5 - 108 MHz without needing a license. Considering there are 1 Billion nano watts in a Watt that isn`t much!