How To Setup A Wireless Microphone

In this video, we show you how to set up your wireless microphone. We use a Shure ULX wireless system with a handheld wireless microphone as an example. But you can use the same steps for almost any wireless manufacturer or any microphone type, such as wireless Lapel microphone, wireless boom mic or wireless guitar system, etc. 

Equipment used in this video

  • Wireless receiver, which is essentially the radio receiver
  • Microphone and transmitter (within the microphone)
  • Two full-size antennas for the microphone
  • XLR cable to connect to the mixer
  • Power supply for the receiver

Wireless Microphone Set up

1. Connect antennas to the receiver

Slide the first antenna in the BNC connector on the back of the receiver and give it a little quarter turn until it locks. Do the same for the other antenna and keep the antennas at 45°.

2. Plug in the power

Plug the power cable in the locking connector on the back of the Shure ULX system/receiver.

3. Plug in the XLR cable

Using an XLR cable, connect the receiver to your audio mixer. It’s better to choose at this point whether you want it to be mic level or line level.

4. Programming the receiver

Since there can be many wireless microphones operating in your area, it’s important to first find out if there is any wireless interference. The Shure ULX system does this automatically. 

On the Shure ULX system, there are two sections, groups, and channels. And there are about 20 channels per group. You need to find a clean group, and all your microphones for your event or conference should be in the same group. 

Firstly, we’ll search for a clean group. To do so, hold MODE and SET on the receiver until it blinks and then hit the jog knob. Now the receiver will start scanning and find a clean group. 

5. Pair the microphone with the receiver

Turn on the microphone. If you’ve used the microphone with another system previously, it’ll load up with the group and channel from the previous system when you turn it on. So, you have to hit MODE to set the group and hit it again to lock it in. Then you can set the channel according to your current system. You can use the SET button to change the group or channel number. 

Once you’ve set the group and channel, you’ll see the RF on the receiver will go from 0 to 5 bars, which is how it should be. And when you talk, you should see a beep on the TX Audio bar on the receiver.  

Once you turn on the microphone, we recommend keeping it on for the rest of your event. Doing this will protect the frequency, which means if someone else in another room starts up their wireless receiver, they will see that you have your microphone/microphones on that channel. Another pro tip is to never leave all of your microphones off.

6. Set the gain

There is Gain on the microphone itself, but it can result in a peaking microphone which is the worst scenario. So, we recommend setting the gain from the console. 

How To Setup A Wireless Microphone Pricing

Below are the Links to wireless microphone systems that we recommend:

Shure QLXD Microphone Kit: https://currentprice.io/shure_qlxd 

Sennheiser G4: https://geni.us/63uDa 

How To Setup A Wireless Microphone Topics

  • 0:00 Introduction
  • 1:00 Required Equipment
  • 1:43 How To Setup A Wireless Microphone
  • 3:35 Programming The Receiver
  • 6:17 Programming the Microphone Transmitter
  • 8:13 Setting The Gain
  • 9:40 Final Thoughts