Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Highlight:

Many of Sony's microphone products use the 700MHz band, which was divided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to Chinese radio and television and other telecom operators more than two years ago, which also led to frequent word swallowing and silencing of related products.

Confusingly, Sony officials responded that the company had stopped producing 700MH-band products in October 2020, but there are still products on the market with a production date of July 2021.

Sony, the video blogger was screwed up this time.

Recently, a number of video workers have reported to Caiji that they are suffering from Sonny's Little Bee microphone, and frequent problems such as incorrect radio, accidental muting and noise have caused them to attract scolding from viewers and customers.

Sony, which has always been known for its excellent craftsmanship, why there are so many "defective products"?

It turns out that the Sony microphone products bought by many people in the past year use the 700MHz band, which was assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to Chinese radio and television and other telecom operators in March 2020. In other words, the band used by this series of microphones has been "abandoned" by the industry.

However, even so, these products are still publicly sold on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com, as well as some Sony offline agency stores, and many consumers who are involved in the video industry are still buying them. they are becoming the next potential victims.

Live broadcast has the greatest impact, and the ringing of 5G mobile phones will also interfere with the personal video number of video blogger Wu Xi, who revealed that "Sony D11 and D21 little bees can no longer be used". As soon as it was released, it attracted strong attention from video practitioners in the circle.

According to his description, the three Little Bee microphone products he uses have continuously experienced "crackling, crackling" noise and "word swallowing" since the beginning of this year, especially in live broadcasting.

After taking all the products to Sony's after-sales service center for inspection, Wu Xi found that this happened because the 700mHz band used for communications was assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to 5G communication operators such as China Radio and Television in March 2020. However, Sony has not issued relevant documents to the public or remedial measures for the problem, which happened two years ago. "No one told me what was wrong and we had no right to know about the product," Wu said.

According to Sony officials, "Sony stopped producing 700MHz-band products in October 2020, but because it has not received a mandatory recall of discontinued products, the products previously sold to dealers are still in circulation and consumers may still buy 700MHz products."

What makes Wu Xi even more puzzled is that among the new Sony microphones he bought in August this year, the production date is July 2021, but the frequency is also 700MHz and above, contrary to Sony's official claim that production of related frequency band products was stopped in October 2020. "maybe Sony did not stop production of the relevant devices in October 2020, as they said." Wu Xi said.

It is reported that if only sound recording rather than broadcasting is needed during recording and broadcasting, the current use of Little Bee microphone can still have a relatively stable recording effect, but if live broadcasting requires live sound broadcasting, using a 700MHz band microphone, when there is a 5G mobile phone around, word swallowing and even noise will often occur.

"due to the conflict with the 5G signal, the 700MHz is no longer available. Sony and dealers are aware of this, but they have not informed consumers that they are still selling these products, and it is very difficult to return and exchange them." He said that after the Little Bee microphone bought in August could not be returned and exchanged, he had filed a lawsuit with the Consumer Protection Commission and was consulting a lawyer and awaiting the outcome of the lawsuit.

Like Wu Xi, there should be a large number of users who use Little Bee devices and are interfered by 5G signals.

Many video bloggers have commented that "they have encountered a similar situation" and "twice, too exasperating". In addition, Tan Wen, who has worked in the video shooting industry for more than 10 years, told Caizhi, "I have personally measured and verified the existence of 5G signal interference. When my little bee microphone is close to the 5G signal generator, there will be obvious sound attenuation or sound disappearance. I have encountered similar situations on the shooting scene many times before."

According to Tan Wen, because of Sony's great influence in the field of image shooting equipment, the microphone equipment used by the vast majority of professional video photographers in China is mainly Sony. "at present, most of the video practitioners around me start with 700MHz, and with the subsequent increase in the coverage of 5G base stations, the impact of these devices will further expand."

Dealers are still selling, and people familiar with the matter are already selling in Xianyu. In fact, in the "running Bar" Reality Show program launched by Zhejiang Satellite TV Radio and Television production Center in June this year, the issue of interference of 5G communications to the frequency band of wireless devices has been discussed. According to the tests of the personnel who stepped on the spot at that time, the frequency band using Sony's analog V1 transmitter was 758.125-781.875MHz, but this happened to be completely within the coverage of the 5G low frequency band, and the existence of the 5G signal almost wiped out the equipment.

Nowadays, as the film and television industry once again raises questions that some models of Sony microphones are easily interfered by 5G signals, more and more people are paying attention to how to avoid the new frequency interference caused by 5G signals. However, for most Sony electronics dealers, they have not stopped selling these devices that encroach on the 5G signal band for profit.

"Caizhi" survey found that at present, in JD.com, Tmall and Taobao Mall, there are still a large number of Sony D11 and D21 models sold, and in the introduction of these products, the frequency range is in the range of 710-780MHz.

There is also a Sony URX-P03D one-drag two-D11 D21 Little Bee wireless microphone with a price of up to 9250 yuan, and its available carrier frequency is completely coincident with the 5G signal band, so it also faces the risk of being strongly interfered by 5G signals.

According to the document released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in March 2020, in order to avoid harmful interference with the mobile communication system after adjusting the 700MHz band, the necessary frequency migration, site relocation and equipment transformation of the existing legitimate radio stations (stations) are carried out, and the expenses incurred are in principle borne by the frequency users of the mobile communication system in the 700MHz band.

On a certain level, the microphone with the ability of signal transmission and transmission is equivalent to a small radio station equipment. After the 700MHz frequency is adjusted for use by communication operators, the impact on the microphone will also be borne by its users. When microphones with the same frequency band as 5G signals are sold to users, the risk of interference and losses are transferred to consumers, but for most consumers, who would want to buy a microphone that is easily interfered and "swallowed"?

"Sony should tell users the truth and begin to recall the equipment that is at risk." Tan Wen said bluntly.

But at present, most consumers are not aware of this situation. On Xianyu, some microphones occupied by 5G signals have begun to flow out, and the first batch of imaging workers who knew about it have begun to sell their microphones cheaply, while the new buyers will be the next risk takers.

What domestic alternatives are available? In response to the "financial knowledge" inquiry, Sony customer service staff acknowledged the existence of 5G signal interference, but said that there is no product recall plan for the time being, and does not support product replacement and return. Sony explained that the company's customer service had stopped producing microphones above the 700MHz in October 2020, but some users were still able to buy "problem" microphones. Sony's explanation was that "dealers may have a need to clean up inventory, but we can't control it."

A series of questions have caused some people in the imaging industry to be dissatisfied with Sony. "as a large international company, why does Sony lag so far in response to domestic policy? and when there is a problem, there is no quick solution." Some practitioners said.

In addition to Sony, microphone products launched by domestic companies such as Mammoth, DJI and iFLYTEK in recent years are also gradually being recognized by more and more imaging practitioners. "although Sony still has an irreplaceable position in the field of professional and high-end camera products, Sony's advantages may not always exist in the field of accessories such as microphones." Tan Wen said.

Another iFLYTEK heard Yang Jimin, product manager of the audio and video hardware business department of Technology AI, further introduced that at present, except for some small domestic brands, most brands no longer use the 700mhz band for transmission. Compared with foreign microphones such as Sony, domestic microphone products have some differences in low-delay and high-quality audio codec transmission and long-distance antenna technology accumulation, but with the continuous investment of domestic brands, the gap is narrowing.

Sony, which still has discontinued microphones on the market, may really need to pay attention to its dealer management and after-sales service experience.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.