Sennheiser EW100 G3, FS700 interference issue

chromeboy007

chromeboy007

Well-known member
Hello,

I have been using my Sennheiser wireless lav for a number of years with my Panasonic HPX170, solid team. Recently I bought a new camera Sony FS700, did a shoot with my Sennheiser, and my lav got interference from my camera when it records. I can hear a very quiet 'beep... beep...', only when it records, and the beeps are in sync with the SD card LED indicator on my camera flashing (to tell me that the cam is writing data to the SD card).

I tried a couple of different channels with the same result. It was never an issue with my old camera. So chances are this is a camera issue but I'm posting this in both forums any, hope this is ok.

If anyone has any recommendations with tweaking my lav settings, please advise.

Thanks
 
Problem solved. It is the receiver's XLR connector pin that has to be plugged in the way it likes. Problem solved.

Thanks
 
Hi Kraut69,

I read through that thread on the FS100. Looks like even shotguns are affected.

My so far seems to be working solution was discovered while I had the camera recording, playing with the lav receiver in anyway I could. A few days ago while I was working on this, at one point I fiddled with the AF out plug (see attached, the ring with teeth) on the receiver on my lav (turning it, push it in more, etc), I noticed the beeping would go away. So I played with it some more, tighten it a bit (and noticed that the ring is a bit jammed to begin with). Now the beeping seems to be gone for good.

One thing I noticed as part of testing: the beeping is always there when my lav is OFF, with the XLR CONNECTED (no beeping when there is no XLR connection). This leads me to believe that the beeping is a result of faulty connection or data transmission issue with the XLR. I can be recording without the XLR hooked up, with no beep, then plug in my XLR with a power-off lav and the beeping would start. I can then power up my lav and the beeping would go away again.

Whats your experience overall? I know you bought some external device and it works, but have you been able to get it working without the device?


lav mic.jpg
 
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The external filter I bought, I thought it was a solution, but the problem eventually reared its head with it installed.

I have an FS700 too, haven't noticed any problems yet, just problems on both of my FS100's, bought months apart. The distance of the FS700 Channel 2 input from the SD card I thought would help the beeping problem.

Definitely important to tighten the cable down on that threaded fitting, haven't noticed it effecting beeping, but a not tight connection will cause a lot of static it seems.

Another poster said he found the beeping problem related to high quality SD cards, which we buy of course, cheaper ones didn't display beeping. I just don't know what is going on. I just have been able to avoid it staying away from certain batttery powered mics.
 
Just for the record. I have two Sennheiser wireless kits one an EW500 series and the other an EW100 series. Both are the first generation larger all metal models. Neither have this problem. I use a Sennheiser shotgun as well and no issue. I always use the input on the rear of the camera rather than on the side mostly because it is a better cable route to the transmitter bracket but I wonder if that could play into this as well?
 
Another reason why I think it is an XLR (or lav) issue, not the camera's, is that on the same shoot, after the beeping started, I tried to record the lav onto my Tascam. The interference on the Tascam was 10 times more severe. It wasn't beeping, it was outright loud 'de de de de de de de' like a very fast clicking noise. I walked all over the building I was working in, close to and far away from the camera, made no difference. The noise came and went and came back again with no apparent reasoning. The only difference was that the noise was there even when I wasn't recording (but note that the Tascam has a standby mode - the noise was there in standby). The Tascam was fine in internal mics mode.

So a few days ago while I was working on this I was on the Tascam as well. As soon as the issue working with the FS700 ddisappeared, the Tascam noise went away as well.
 
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jpardon said:
Jem Schofield has been experiencing some audio issues with his FS-700 that sound similar to what you all are describing.

Check out his Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/theC47/status/280523343172620289
https://twitter.com/theC47/status/278619696570445824

"@chrisMmarino Besides the audio chirping when adjusting levels I had a strange beeping sound happen today. Seemed to be related to XLR input"

I'm not experiencing these problems (yet).....<fingers-crossed>
Click to expand...

This bolded part I noticed as well when there is beeping. When there is a problem and you adjust your levels, you can hear a beep at each of the level of volumn you go through... so if you turn your level up fast, you will hear "beep beep beep beep beep" very quickly (and each beep progressively louder).

I know why this is the case, but have forgotten. Let me make some calls....
 
chromeboy007 said:
Another reason why I think it is an XLR (or lav) issue, not the camera's, is that on the same shoot, after the beeping started, I tried to record the lav onto my Tascam. The interference on the Tascam was 10 times more severe. It wasn't beeping, it was outright loud 'de de de de de de de' like a very fast clicking noise. I walked all over the building I was working in, close to and far away from the camera, made no difference. The noise came and went and came back again with no apparent reasoning. The only difference was that the noise was there even when I wasn't recording (but note that the Tascam has a standby mode - the noise was there in standby). The Tascam was fine in internal mics mode.

So a few days ago while I was working on this I was on the Tascam as well. As soon as the issue working with the FS700 ddisappeared, the Tascam noise went away as well.
Click to expand...


This has happened to me in about the same way. I attribute it to having the mini plug on the XLR cable inserted into the AF out on the receiver, but not having it screwed down tight.
 
Kraut69 said:
This has happened to me in about the same way. I attribute it to having the mini plug on the XLR cable inserted into the AF out on the receiver, but not having it screwed down tight.
Click to expand...

Do you think the beeping is attributed to the same cause? It seems so to me.

I just did the same test with my Tascam. The results are more or less the same as my FS700.

- When the lav is off, and the Tascam is on standby, there is the loud 'de de de de de' noise.
- When the lav is off, and the Tascam is recording, on top of the loud 'de de de de', there is also a very distorted version of our beep. he frequency (as in how often it beeps) is very similar to the FS700, but of course there is no flashing LED SD card indicator on the Tascam (and my Tascam uses a very cheap SD card that came with the unit. I use Transcend and Sandisk class 10 for the FS700.)
- When the lav is on, then there is no 'de de de de' noise, and no beep, standby or recording.

Now I can't play with my XLR to produce the beeping sound again when everything is properly plugged and recording. If I find a way to control it, turn the beeping on and off as I please, then I can sleep easy. As of now I'm only 80% confident in my theory that it is the mini jack to XLR cord that's causing this problem.
 
I am completely baffled. I have spent tons of time testing various mics, SD cards, camera configurations, and still cannot predict when it will happen and how intense it will be, etc, but I only know Channel 2 on the Fs100 is the problem area.
 
I just started having this same issue with my FS700. I had experienced the issue once before on someone else's FS100 where the SD card access indicator LED seemed to be interfering with the CH2 XLR input, but I never had this issue on my FS100 or on my FS700 until a shoot a few days ago. The time I had the issue on the FS100 and we had to record two channels, I found that it was minimized by increasing the internal levels on the wireless LAV receiver that was plugged into CH2, which minimized the issue since it allowed me to turn down the camera's internal amplifier. This time I had the issue on my own FS700 when using a shotgun mic on a boom plugged in through a 15ft XLR cable. I've used the same setup before and not had the issue, so I do not know what changed. As it was a shotgun, I could not use the same solution I used on the FS100, and the issue seemed to appear consistently on both XLR inputs rather than just one as it did in the FS100. I didn't have time to fix it in the field, but I will try to do some tests and see if I can solve the issue. If anyone else has any ideas of how to fix this please let me know, since it would be a big problem for some projects. The best I could do in the field was try to get as hot a signal on the shotgun as possible to minimize the sound of the beeps.
 
What model is the shotgun? Is it internally powered?

I have a pair of Sennheiser ME64's that seem the most consistent at producing beeps on the FS100 regardless if they run on their battery or power from the camera.

Here's another discussion about beeping on still cams:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3092436

If you have the 128GB FMU installed, try recording only to it, and maybe remove the SD card when doing so.
 
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