mackerr

If it's passing full range audio, but not phantom power the problem is most likely a broken wire on pin 1. Just open the connector and re-solder the shield to pin 1. Phantom power is applied to pins 2&3 equally. but it is in relation to ground on pin 1. Without pin 1, no phantom, without pins 2 or 3 usually audio would be low and thin, or non-existent.

Mac

I expect it is just a big transformer in the box. The brochure never says no transformer, it say you don’t need 70/100V transformers. It also says “transforming audio”. In 70/100V systems each speaker has a transformer, I think with this there is one large transformer for all the speakers.

Mac

2 hours ago, lxkev said:

Things to consider 

if we went automated - are they quick enough on the fly? Can a touring op use the system easily?

Is there any venues who own a followme or robe system?

If you go with a system like the [url=https://www.prg.com/en/technology/innovation/groundcontrol-followspot-system]PRG Ground Control[/url] or the Robe [url=https://www.robe.cz/robospot]RoboSpot[/url] there would be almost no learning curve and the spot ops could be anywhere a DMX line can reach.

the other Mac

41 minutes ago, david.elsbury said:

What kind of wire is that? It looks like Musiflex? Or is it proper DMX cable?

Best response so far...

Mac

Generally in the case of a full range speaker sitting on top of a sub the delay would be on the top speaker. Subs are naturally delayed by the low pass filter.

Mac

26 minutes ago, matt_h said:

I would concur with the general concencus that you can't beat a traditional wired comms system in most scenarios.

In a single venue you are probably right, however, there may be people involved in the production who need the mobility to leave the venue. If the production involves multiple venues, or multiple cities or even multiple countries, it is much harder to run those wires. Solutions like Unity or Clear Com's Agent IC, properly implemented are a no brainer in these cases.

Here is a link to a training/demo of Unity by Pete Erskine.  https://www.facebook.com/events/303801038342512/?ref=newsfeed

There are a couple of production comms apps that know of. I think the most widely used is [url=https://www.unityintercom.com/pricing]Unity Comms[/url]. There are 6 channels available on each phone, very low latency, and good audio. The user app is free and available for IOS or Android, the server software costs real money, but server time can be rented from a few people. Unity was the main production comm for the live police show in the US. All camera comms, IFB and program feeds were done on cellphones.

I have tested them on transcontinental connections and they work remarkably well.

Clear Com does also have a system called Agent-IC but there are significant hardware expenses involved.

Mac

From the Times Microwave calculator https://www.timesmicrowave.com/Calculator?Product=RG-213&RunLength=100&Frequency=2000   RG58 has a loss of 22dB/100feet at 2GHz, RG213 is 10dB, and LMR400 is 6.6dB/100feet. The LMR195 from the Line spec is 16.9dB of loss/100 feet.

Using long antenna cables at 2.4GHz is not a good idea. LMR400 is good, but thick and expensive. RG58 is barely acceptable at 600MHz for runs over 25 feet. Coaxial cable has a frequency response curve, and it does not favor 2.4GHz systems.

Mac

I followed your link and it was available at when I looked

 

The 2 products I see suggested are not transformer isolated.

The Peavey and the usb BalBox2 are both transformer isolated.

Mac

Hmmm… That didn’t last long. When I posted the link they were available and listed as £69. The alternative posted looks good, using a usb audio output device not only provides transformer isolation, but generally provides significantly better audio quality.

Mac

Or better yet, avoid the generally noisy headphone amp with a transformer isolated USB audio interface. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peavey-3001370-USB-P-USB-Playback/dp/B004A4PSEU

 

And if you are in the UK...

 

https://www.interspaceind.com/shop-our-products/product/50-usb-balbox-2/category_pathway-44.html

 

The link I provided was for Amazon UK, do they not ship to the UK?

Mac

What they said.

Run all the kit from the same power source if you can. Then they all have the same earth.

 

Using DI boxes for the audio as suggested above is the better solution. Running out long power cables sometimes doesn't work and is often a pain to do.

Or better yet, avoid the generally noisy headphone amp with a transformer isolated USB audio interface. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peavey-3001370-USB-P-USB-Playback/dp/B004A4PSEU

Mac

Plugging Keyboards, phones etc into mic sockets that have phantom power on them.

 

Many of the cheaper desks only have global phantom power on the mic inputs, I am fully aware of DI boxes, balancing and other interface boxes and use them.

 

 

Yesterday someone plugged a keyboard into a phantom powered mic sockets using a MXLR to Jack lead (No idea of wiring) No damage to keyboard and did work but an interesting extreme oscillation when a brass band kicked off presumably caused by the induction loop that the keyboard was in the field of. Inserting a DI box got rid of that, however it set me wondering.

 

Has anyone ever damaged an item of equipment such as keyboard, phone, walkman by plugging it into a socket with phantom power on it?

 

I have always assumed damage to equipment was something that was theoretically possible and sought to avoid the situation.

Yes. Blew up outputs 1 & 2 of my Roland Octacapture that way. Good thing it still has 6 jack outs...

Mac

Why does it have to be fibre? How are you getting power to the camera? How much travel do you need?

It's likely that it's a SMPTE type camera cable that has 2 fibers plus power in the tactical jacket. They are pretty rugged, and are plug and play with most modern b'cast cameras.

Mac

Apologies for a very specific post but I'm trying to understand something;

 

I was messing about earlier trying to cure a noisy input on an output from a Soundcraft EPM12 into an ATEM Mini analogue unbalanced input. There is a ton of digital noise on the input and it sounds terrible.

 

The ATEM is unbalanced stereo input on 3.5mm line level and the EPM12 is on XLR.

 

I was trying different cable wiring, trying with -ve shorted to earth, -ve left floating so only pins 1&3 attached, to see if any made a difference to this static.

In doing this, one time I wired it up wrong, with ground on pin 1, and signal on pin 3 (so basically an unbalanced but out of phase signal).

 

Our of the EPM this gives absolutely no sound, which was odd as once I'd worked out what I'd done I would have expected signal, but out of phase. This made me experiment with shorting +ve and -ve together, which gave me signal as opposed to the silence I would have expected - shorting pins 2&3 on the output XLR doesn't seem to effect the output.

 

The manual says the outputs are electronically balanced. Are these cleverer than transformer balanced, and will avoid a short between +ve and -ve (but this still doesn't explain a lack of signal between ground and -ve), or is it possible the outputs from the Soundcraft EPM series are unbalanced?

 

I tried two different EPM desks and an EFX desk and got the same results. I was going to put a scope on it to see what's going on but before that I wondered if I was missing something.

Your output is electronically balanced, which means pins 2 & 3 have the same impedance to ground, it does not mean there is signal on both pins. You only have signal on pin 2 and should wire that as the hot into your unbalanced input on the ATEM.

Mac

Head height or slightly above would be good, but you could get away with lower if you needed to.

Higher is better if you can, I also prefer an MS arrangement, which you can do with 2 414s. MS has better mono compatibility if you ever need to play back in mono.

Mac

UV light only effectively cleans the surfaces it directly hits. On something like a microphone with foam inserts, switches, nooks, crannys and internal voids I can't think how you could possibly write a risk-assessment that says buying an expensive gadget that uses an un-vetted process that has multiple easily spotted problems with it is a better risk management choice than dunking a mic into a $10 jug of IPA alcohol?

 

Also, don't forget to clean / dunk the cables too - they get a lot more touching than you'd think.

DPA specifically says not to use alcohol on the mic cable as it can destroy the cable jacket.

Mac

Just a reminder that currently Stage Research are offering SFX (and their other software) for free.

Show Builder looks useful for PMs, but RFGuru has no TV transmitter info for the UK, so is possibly of limited use, as there is no indication that it know the different IM properties of different manufacturers' offerings.

If you're interested in RF coordination check out some of the offerings at PracticalShowTech.com. There have been a couple of sessions on PWS's IAS software as well as a couple of Shure sessions on Wireless Workbenc, and coming up this week on Tue 4/22 is a session on Sennheiser's Wireless System Manager led by Al Craig a broadcast A2 from Sydney. This session will be at 8pm EST or midnight GMT(?) so you may want to watch it the next day streaming from the archive at PracticalShowTech.com. On Mon at 12 noon EST (NY time) there is a session on the physics of microphones, and at 4pm EST a session on RF best practices with Karl Winkler of Lectrosonics. Check the website for more scheduling information. All session are free, and all session are recorded and available about 24hrs after first broadcast from streaming from the archive.

Mac

PSW admin

PST founding member

I spent some time last night in the Wireless Workbench webinar, and it was very worthwhile. Really appreciate the effort that's gone into making these happen.

 

Definitely worth checking out anything relevant to what you do.

On Monday April 13 at noon Eastern Standard Time (NYC time, 4pm GMT I think) Phil Barrett will be doing a 2hr webinar on the basics of Vectorworks for audio and video. At 4pm EST(8pm GMT?) Gary Trenda of PWS will be doing a 2hr session on the basics of RF coordination using PWS' IAS coordination software. All sessions are free, and all sessions are available for replay from the archive about 24hrs after broadcast.

Register for these and other sessions, as well as view the line up of future sessions at Practical Show Tech. https://practicalshowtechcom.squarespace.com

There are over 20 sessions available in the archive right now.

Mac Kerr

Practical Show Tech

Short version:

Looking for recommendations for headphones with decent mic. Analogue or USB interface. What do you recommend?

I think a separate mic and headset can be had for not too much money and will sound better and last longer than a headset/mic combo.

 

Mac

Another alternative would be a USB mic with a direct headphone out. Obviously this is a USA store and price, but an example of the product type. This USB mic has a direct headphone out that also hears program from the far end.

Sweetwater

Mac

I spent some time last night in the Wireless Workbench webinar, and it was very worthwhile. Really appreciate the effort that's gone into making these happen.

 

Definitely worth checking out anything relevant to what you do.

Thanks for the kind words Stuart.

The currently posted schedule goes through episode 21, The Faraday Cage Match on April 10. This will be an open discussion between 7 renowned RF Frequency Coordinators from around the world. For this session, #16, Lunch Break with A2s, and #19 The Town Hall discussion of the state of the industry we will using a different platform, Zoom, so we can have more than 6 panelists onscreen at the same time. Our hope for the town hall is to be able to open mics of attendees to permit broader conversation.

I hope those of you who are interested join us, and watch the previous episodes that are available for viewing via the "Show Archive" on the Practical Show Tech Homepage. All times listed on the homepage are US Eastern Standard Time so GMT will be 4 hours later. If that drives the time too late to view live, all episodes are available to view from the archive about 24 hours later.

Hoping we can provide an opportunity to learn something new,

Mac

Short version:

Looking for recommendations for headphones with decent mic. Analogue or USB interface. What do you recommend?

Why does it have to be a headset mic combo? There are many decent USB mics they could use with a regular pair of headphones. Doing the 6-8 shows a week we are doing at Practical Show Tech I use an old AKG C2000B, a mic I found less than ideal as a pro mic, but it is fine as a vocal mic for webcasts. I usually just listen on my computer speakers, but the other 2 hosts use their Apple Airpod Pros, but any headphone that can plug into a computer would be fine.

I think a separate mic and headset can be had for not too much money and will sound better and last longer than a headset/mic combo.

Mac

In these trying times, where we are all sitting around trying to be productive, Kelly Epperson, Pete Erskine, Bruce Kraemer and I have started a series of webinars relating to production techniques and equipment. While it is not strictly a "theater" site, we are trying to offer a learning experience in many facets of modern event production. Monday's first episode is on ClearCom's Freespeak wireless comms system. It will be at 9amEST, it is scheduled to make it more accessible to people in Europe Asia and the Middle East.

In the afternoon at 4PMEST there will be a session with RAD explaining their split band UHF/VHF wireless comms system. With today's crowded RF environment you can free up a lot of UHF bandwidth with this system.

Previous sessions, which are available in the archive on the site, have focussed on production for webcasts for high end corporate meetings, a field that will expand as corporations find it the only way to do business today and an economical way to do business even after we all return to what was normal a month ago. We have also had a couple of sessions with Rom Rosenblum on ClearCom about Freespeak, HelixNet, and Agent IC, as well as a session with James Stoffo on RF, and Jess Heimlich on Unity intercom which uses your mobile phone as a 6ch user station.

More of the schedule, registration link for each webinar, and the archive are located on the website at https://practicalshowtechcom.squarespace.com. We are currently showing what's coming up this week, but are almost fully scheduled through April 15 at this point. There will be sessions coming up on Vectorworks plug ins, Shure Wireless Workbench, Qlab, what it means to be an A2 in TV, corporate events and theatre.

It's free, we are not making any money on this, it is just a way to do something and offering a learning experience for others. Stop on over.

Mac Kerr

Just for reference all packs I've ever come across (telex, clearcom, stonewood/metro, tecpro) all share the same pinout for headsets

Pin 1 Microphone earth / screen

Pin 2 Microphone signal

Pin 3 Earphones earth/screen

Pin 4 Earphones signal

This is the standard that every comms headset I have seen, from every system I have come across as well. The 5 pin standard used for stereo headsets uses pin for left and 5 for right, the remainder the same.

Mac