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Getting Down to Brass Tacks on RF Immunity

Getting Down to Brass Tacks on RF Immunity

Since the early 2000’s Clockaudio has been a leader in RF Immunity. To sing our own praises for a moment, we were the first manufacturer to bring to market a microphone that directly addressed a growing concern in boardrooms and conference rooms around the world – output phasing.

Output phasing happens to microphones when they pick up the GSM waves emitted by cell phones, electrical appliances, and other wireless devices that are in the vicinity of the microphone.

To share a bit of history, at the dawn of the cellular era, cell phones had to have stronger transmitters in order to reach communication towers which were sometimes few and far between. Those stronger radio emissions (besides being harmful to the human body), were creating a real problem in teleconference rooms, where there was an array of microphones on a table, each acting as little antennas that would pick up the interference from the cell phones in the environment. As the use of cell phones grew, so did the need for more transmission towers and when the number of these towers increased and the distance between them decreased, cell phones did not need to have as powerful transmitters as before.

Today, we do not have to worry as much about the power of the transmitters causing issues. Instead, we are challenged with the proliferation of GSM waves that are being put out by an increased number of devices that reside in, or are brought into, our meeting spaces. For instance, cell phones or other cellular devices are often in the same room where microphones are installed and can “pollute” the radio waves causing interference noises in major systems.

We’ve all heard it at one time or another, a little chirp or white noise coming through the system just before a cell phone rings. Annoying right? Indeed, these waves are very intrusive and can penetrate a microphone housing through a small opening, get picked up by the active circuitry and be heard at the far end and in the room. For this reason, any microphone without protection will generate noise constantly. Therefore, having RF-immune microphones continues to be an absolute necessity and a standard for quality-audio design.

Lucky for us, we are known for providing RF immunity and here’s why: the efficiency of Clockaudio microphones’ RF immunity is due to the combination of our solid-brass construction and our RF-filtering circuitry. Because brass is so dense, GSM waves are blocked, attenuated or dissipated, so most of them never even reach the microphone element or its circuit. Meanwhile, our circuitry filters at the output of the microphone eliminate parasites from any residual wave that might find its way to the transducer’s circuitry and wiring.

Needless to say, Clockaudio’s experience, research and development on RF immunity has been making our microphones sound “Clearly Different” for decades!

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