G3 Problem

[taylormade]

I'm on a location shoot using a newly purchased Sennheiser ew100 G3 lav. We've been doing interior sit-down interviews and the mic has been performing flawlessly. Today we miked up a priest to record him during Mass. Most of the time his sound was fine, but every once in a while his voice would cut out, replaced by a loud burst of static that would last between a second and maybe five seconds, then his voice would come back in. This happened on and off during the entire service. I thought the church system might have been interfering with our set-up, but after the service we turned off the house mikes, my assistant put on our lav and walked around and the problem persisted. Distance between the transmitter and receiver never got over thirty feet, no obstructions. The cut outs seemed to occur in the same two or three spots, but not every time. The squelch is set to low. We took everything outside away from the church, same problem. Do I have a defective unit? What I'm I missing?

 

[TyFord]

During the mass, with a congregation of people, any of whom could be wearing a cell phone or smart phone, you can expect problems.

Operating on frequencies that are already occupied at the moment may also cause problems.

Regards,

Ty Ford

 

[Petros Kolyvas]

One thing I didn't notice in your description was if you scanned for a new list of available channels/frequencies when you arrived. I find that an essential starting point to get rid of any obvious issues and then go from there. It might not cover all your bases, especially when the congregation arrives, as Ty noted, but it's a start.

There is no way around this issue and frequency interaction isn't direct; meaning just because you're on a clear frequency and someone's phone/device isn't operating on that frequency does not mean it won't interfere.

If the concern is absolutely no drop-outs, ever, then the only choice is to use wireless with a built-in recorder like Zaxcom makes, but then we're talking about bodypacks alone that run for the cost of two or three G3 systems. But at that point, you'd already have a system that you could change the wireless channels remotely.

Back to the G3: while five seconds is a very long time for a drop-out in my opinion, the first reaction should be to change the channels. If the transmitter isn't hidden, select a new channel on the receiver from the list you generated and get the receiver close enough to the priest to run the "sync" function. It's certainly less intrusive than trying to get up there and change channels manually.

If this happens consistently on every channel, then yes, maybe you have an issue. However, I've be in places were there were no issues for hours, I move into a room next door, literally 10 feet away and start getting RF hits. It part of the "wireless dance" and while we all wish it would just work, without fail, that often isn't the case in our increasingly wireless world where we're all competing for the same spectrum.

Good luck!

 

[taylormade]

I'm new the G3 and now realize that I was experiencing RF interference. When I turned off the transmitter, I got the static as the receiver tried to access what must have been RF from a similar frequency. Did a scan, found a clear channel and all is right with the world. I'm a DP, but I'm often forced to be a one man band and do my own sound. My G3s are brand new and I'm still on a learning curve. Thanks for the help.