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[Tim Barber]

Maybe I will come up with an excuse to be up that way in the next couple of months and I'll swing by and say hi.

That would be cool

[Tim Barber]

Quick update.  I was away from sound duties for a while due to a death in the family.  But now I'm thinking about next steps with this system.

I needed to set up a boundary mic for a children's stage production.  We have 3 floor pockets in the stage with a mixture of XLR and 1/4" inputs, plus several additional jacks located at the lecterns.  I spent over an hour trying different stage inputs and corresponding snake outputs at the board.  In addition to the 5 currently in use, only found one that was working.  All the inputs are run to the mix location in the balcony through inaccessible conduit under the floor and in the walls.  Some of them are Y'd to two different locations on the stage, and some are not labeled at all.  So now I need to do a more in-depth investigation and figure out exactly what I have left to work with that's good.

[Rob Spence]

Quick update.  I was away from sound duties for a while due to a death in the family.  But now I'm thinking about next steps with this system.

I needed to set up a boundary mic for a children's stage production.  We have 3 floor pockets in the stage with a mixture of XLR and 1/4" inputs, plus several additional jacks located at the lecterns.  I spent over an hour trying different stage inputs and corresponding snake outputs at the board.  In addition to the 5 currently in use, only found one that was working.  All the inputs are run to the mix location in the balcony through inaccessible conduit under the floor and in the walls.  Some of them are Y'd to two different locations on the stage, and some are not labeled at all.  So now I need to do a more in-depth investigation and figure out exactly what I have left to work with that's good.

It is most likely that the bad circuits are at the connectors and not in the cable run.

If some have a "Y" to multiple connectors, a short on one will make the other bad too even though it looks good on inspection.

You need to map out what goes where (open up the pockets) and see where the failures really are.



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[Tim Barber]

Mapping ensues.

Aaaaand...one more question:

I am trying to decide the best way to approach the blown speaker issue.  I have a quote to replace all 3 Fraziers, the two Peaveys, and the two floor subs with a flown center array consisting of (3) JBL VRX932LA and (1) VRX918S, plus one more rear 932 firing at the balcony.  The cheaper alternative is to replace the HF drivers in the Frazier CAT46's with NOS units (apparently still available) and leave everything else in place.

If I can get the budget approved I'm leaning toward the JBL option.  The Fraziers are good, but they are old, and going to the center array appeals to my goal of simplifying and de-cluttering.

Opinions? 

[Jordan Wolf]

I have a quote to replace all 3 Fraziers, the two Peaveys, and the two floor subs with a flown center array consisting of (3) JBL VRX932LA and (1) VRX918S, plus one more rear 932 firing at the balcony...

Tim,

How did you get to the point of spec'ing those loudspeakers? There are many options out there, some of which may be better suited to your church's spatial layout.

It's good to consider all options before laying out the money. Get someone reputable out there who can give you an idea of what would be best. Call other local churches to see how satisfied they are with their setups, and maybe go audition a few to make sure the facts line up.

Spend 90% of your time/money on pre-production, and implementing the "fix" will be much smoother.

[Tim Barber]

That was the setup recommended by the pro sound consultant/installer I brought in.  I realize there are lots of options; that happens to be the one I have an actual installation quote for.

There is another church in the area that has the same speaker setup that I am going to try and check out.

[Tim Barber]

This RFI is kicking my a**.  Multiple channel strips with radio stations playing.  I brought in my little Yamaha MG06 to take the Mackie 8 bus out of the equation; one channel is noisy through the big desk but quiet thru the Yammy.  The rest of the channels are noisy in both, and this is with nothing plugged into the stage pockets.  I've got one channel with loud garbled RFI that gets quieter if I plug a cable into a different channel in a different pocket. So far Deoxit isn't helping much.

This article http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/troubleshooting_radio_frequency_interference_rfi_problems_in_your_sound_sys/ was really helpful but I'm out of my depth when it comes to checking for grounds, shorted shields, Pin 1 problems etc.  Might have to see if we have budget to bring in a consultant.  [/rant]

[Rob Spence]

This RFI is kicking my a**.  Multiple channel strips with radio stations playing.  I brought in my little Yamaha MG06 to take the Mackie 8 bus out of the equation; one channel is noisy through the big desk but quiet thru the Yammy.  The rest of the channels are noisy in both, and this is with nothing plugged into the stage pockets.  I've got one channel with loud garbled RFI that gets quieter if I plug a cable into a different channel in a different pocket. So far Deoxit isn't helping much.

This article http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/troubleshooting_radio_frequency_interference_rfi_problems_in_your_sound_sys/ was really helpful but I'm out of my depth when it comes to checking for grounds, shorted shields, Pin 1 problems etc.  Might have to see if we have budget to bring in a consultant.  [/rant]

Sure sounds like open grounds.

Advertise in marketplace for a tech to come over and check it out. Might only cost a few cases of beer.

At the very least, the connections can be tested easily. How far is it from the desk to the stage pockets? A cable tester and a couple hundred feet of known good XLR cables and two people can make short work of the testing part.

Once you know what is wrong with each line, opening up the mixer end of the cables isn't generally hard as long as decent connectors were used.

Can you take photos of the stage pockets?


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[Tim Barber]

Sure sounds like open grounds.

Advertise in marketplace for a tech to come over and check it out. Might only cost a few cases of beer.

At the very least, the connections can be tested easily. How far is it from the desk to the stage pockets? A cable tester and a couple hundred feet of known good XLR cables and two people can make short work of the testing part.

Once you know what is wrong with each line, opening up the mixer end of the cables isn't generally hard as long as decent connectors were used.

Can you take photos of the stage pockets?

Thanks for that.

Rise + run is about 120 ft up to the balcony mix position.  If I understand you correctly, I would plug the good cable into the stage pocket, bring it to the board and use the cable tester?  I wouldn't have thought of that, good idea

I have pics of 2 of the pockets; the third is similar.  The "Monitor" 1/4" jacks are powered feeds from the amp.  The other 1/4" are Line inputs that have 1/4" phone plugs hard-wired at the mixer end.  Those aren't where the RFI is, though, it's the XLRs.

Pocket 1 has a green ground wire screwed to the sheet metal under the bottom cover.  I can't see where it's coming from.

[Lee Douglas]

120+ feet seems like a long run for unbalanced line level signals, not mention the opportunity for some idiot to plug an instrument into an amplifier output.  Any reason they're not using DIs?

Back to the topic at hand: Perhaps something like this would help find issues on your mic lines:

http://www.ratsoundsales.com/p/soundtools-xlr-snifsend.html

Nothing you couldn't do with a multimeter and certainly not a replacement for it, but kind of handy tool to have and pretty easy to use by yourself.  Watch the video.  With phantom power active on each channel you should be able to check each line quickly.

[ProSoundWeb Community]