Sennheiser announced the new Digital 6000 Series wireless microphone system, aimed at broadcast, corporate AV, houses of worship, touring and rental companies, and theatrical productions.

"With Digital 6000, we have brought the key benefits of our benchmark Digital 9000 system to a two-channel receiver and associated handheld and bodypack transmitters," said Sennheiser Product Manager Tom Vollmers in a prepared statement.

The Digital 6000 series uses the same long-range mode and proprietary audio codec as the high-end Digital 9000 series, Sennheiser said. The two-channel 1RU EM 6000 receiver has a switching bandwidth of 244 MHz (470–714 MHz) covered by three different transmitters. Up to eight receivers can be daisy-chained without an additional antenna splitter, the company said. 

The receiver uses frequency-selective antenna filters, meaning it can be used with both active and passive UHF antennas. It features a white OLED display for checking RF signal, link quality, audio signal battery status, frequency and encryption on multiple home screens that reduce the need to navigate menu items. It has a digital AES-3 output, balanced XLR 3 outputs and 1/4-inch output jacks, and a Dante version will add an RJ-45 connector for network connectivity.

The Dante version of the EM 6000 Series receiver. Click to load a higher-resolution version.

The SKM 6000 handheld transmitter uses Sennheiser's standard capsule interface, allowing the use of mic heads from the Evolution Wireless Series, the 2000 Series and the 9000 Series. And the bodypack can be used with Sennheiser's MKE 1, MKE 2 and MKE 40 lavalier mics. 

Finally, the optional L 6000 rackmount charger can use up to four charging modules to recharge bodypack and handheld batteries, and also works with the Digital 9000 Series.

The Digital 6000 Series is scheduled to ship in March 2017.