Why is my Sennheiser EW 100 G3 not working?

[Tom Knight]

This is driving me crazy. I have a Sennheiser EW 100 G3. It works fine at home in my office, and in my basement. I've used it in a hotel for interviews with no problems.

But the last 4 gigs I've tried to use it on contained horrible interference - A realtor showing a house, a wedding, a lecture, and an interview in a hospital. Here's a sample of the interference when I was attempting to mic the realtor. Incidentally, I left my tripod to get fresh batteries, and the camera fell over. If the mic was working fine, I probably wouldn't have left the camera, and it wouldn't have broken.

It just bugs me that I spent the big bucks on this mic for the realty gig, and for weddings, and it's not working for either.

In the case of the realtor, I realized later that he had a cell phone in his pocket. But in the case of the wedding and the lecture, I asked them to turn off the cell phone, but the audio was still awful and unusable.

Should I change the frequency? Call Sennheiser? Help!

[Alex H.]

First, always balance and lock your tripod before you walk away...

As for the mic, just because one frequency works fine in one place, even in the same city, doesn't mean it will work fine everywhere. It's not a "set it up only once" feature. Check with Sennheiser's frequency finder to see where the least-cluttered frequency blocks are. It's also a good idea, at the start of every shoot, to do a channel scan when setting up your wireless. The G3 has a clear scan function that will find available frequencies.

If you get signal interference, find another channel.

[Tom Knight]

Hmmm. You mean I might have to read the manual? ? ?

Actually, I find the manual to be really hard to read. But thanks for the frequency finder. And now I will learn how to scan for open frequencies. Any other thoughts?

When I was at the lecture with about 200 people, I had a sense that there were 200 cell phones on all around me. Would that make my mic useless? Or is it possible to get a good signal in a room with 200 cell phones?

[Alex H.]

Cell phones aren't a guarantee of interference, as it really depends on the phone. There are some smart phones that are notorious. 12 years ago, Nextel was the major culprit (in the days before smart phones). Today, iPhone is a known disturbance.

But I've done work with a G2 in a room of 250 people (assume that up to a third of them have iPhones/smart phones) and have had no issues even with a TX>RX distance of over 100'.

[Tom Knight]

Thanks Alex. You are a huge help to novices like myself.

[Tom Knight]

Another question - Does anyone have any recommended settings in regard to sensitivity, squelch, or whatever? Are the factory settings OK for general video work?

[Bruce Watson]

Hmmm. You mean I might have to read the manual? ? ?

Oy. No "might" about it -- you absolutely have to read the manual. Worse, you have to do what the manual says.

I just got back from a trade show gig in mid-town Manhattan. AKA radio frequency hell. I was doing interviews using my G3 unit in a highrise hotel half a block from Times Square. Cell phones, pagers, and two way radios in all six directions. The G3 gave me crystal clear sound with hardly a glitch.

Because before I started I scanned for open frequencies, picked one of the results, and used that open frequency.

That said, cell phones and in particular pagers are not the cleanest of electronic devices. Some of them leak RF like it's free. Everything from cell phone towers to fluorescent lights can leak RF and interfere with radio mics. Perfection isn't possible. But Sennheiser manages to do pretty well -- the G3s represent an excellent value. If you use them as intended of course.

[dre83]

The most important is "sensitivity": this is where you set up the "volume" of the transmitter. This has to be set so when you hold the mic on "normal" distance from the mouth (don't eat it, just somewhere the hight of the chest, about 15cm under mouth (yes I live in a metric country :-p).
Then talk with normal voice, you'll see some moving stuff. It has to be somewhere in the middel, (between middle and 3/4th. If you talk with a louder voice and the led of AF peak lights up, it's to much. So you have to lower sensitivity a little bit...

Cable emulation: can be set to minimum here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM7UtXbGdlo

[Tom Knight]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've been playing around with finding the frequencies, and it seems to be working better. But clearly, I need to read the manual in more detail, and understand all the functions.

[Petrus]

Oy. No "might" about it -- you absolutely have to read the manual. Worse, you have to do what the manual says.

Even more worse you should also understand what all those things in the manual actually mean.

About your sample video: why not use a $20 cable instead of radio transmitter for those 20 feet. Guaranteed perfect transmission quality. If the subject is not moving around there is really no point in using a radio system. Reasons you have learned already.