Static in speakers?

[arwes]

My pastor is using a Audio Technica wireless pack and PSM1 headset. I noticed last night that at certain times when he spoke there was some static. I'm pretty sure that it's not the PSM1's cable, as we just bought a new unit about a month ago (visiting pastor stretched the thing out over his huge noggin without asking how to adjust it ). I'll check last night's recording to see if it's audible.

How do you guys go about testing your speakers to see if they're in need of repair/replacement? I'll need to find a way to recreate the problem (other than have someone talk nonstop) to justify the expense. Our late worship minister had trouble hearing himself in the monitors a few months ago so his son cranked his mic way up along with the mains. I'm worried that might have caused some damage.

[waynehoskins]

If you have static, that's a radio link problem, not a speaker problem. Does it sound like white noise, like what you hear when you tune your FM radio away from a station?

A good way to test your speakers is to play music through them, to put them through the test. Listen to them overall and try to listen to each driver if you can. If something's blown, you should be able to hear it. (you could also use a speech track, like the recording of a sermon from last year)

[Brad Weber]

Another speaker test is to run a sine wave sweep through the system, if there is a blown or damaged speaker it will usually become readily apparent at certain frequencies. There are plenty of free sine wave sweep and other audio test files available on the Web, just do a search for "sine wave sweep" or "audio test files" and you'll probably find a number of them. In many cases a slightly longer sweep can be helpful but don't be surprised if you don't hear anything until well into the playback.

I agree with Wayne that it sounds more like a wireless problem and could be as simple as a low battery or an overloaded mic.

[arwes]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll try out some of your suggestions. If it's not the speakers, then it's going to be fun figuring out the wireless issue. I do know we have a dead spot on the stage (and right behind the pulpit, how about that?!) and I'm not sure what can be done about that. New batteries are installed in every mic Sunday mornings.

But this was different. The worship leader and his wife were singing last week and his hand held mic cut out every few seconds. The pastor's mic never cuts out, it just gets 'staticy' and only briefly. I'm going to try a quick frequency sweep wave file this evening after work just for grins.

The wireless receiver rack is set up in the booth under the desk, and it's probably 75-100 ft away from the stage. If we had room we would've stashed it somewhere near the stage and made a cable run to the back. If I can't figure it out, hopefully I can at least find out what company set the stuff up to see if they will come take a look. Thanks again guys!

[waynehoskins]

It almost sounds like you've had a few more television transmitters come on the air recently, which would make sense seeing how we're in the final stretch of this DTV Transition thing. Really sounds like you have a strong co-channel signal.

Try this: turn all your radio transmitters off. Look at the receivers. Do they have any RF signal bars? If so, tune them until you don't have any bars, and move the transmitters there too. You may have to do frequency coordination with your transmitters and those of the TV stations in your area.

By the way, if they're 700-meg link radio sets, you're out of luck come February 17.

[arwes]

Well that was fun. I ruled out the speakers being a problem. Ran several frequency sweeps and couldn't recreate the problem. Loaded up several sermons from the past few years and they played just fine, but the ones recorded in the past few weeks have had some slight snap crackle pop sounds.

I'm going to get someone from the staff try a few different headsets tomorrow to see if it's a problem with the headset or the pack. We've had problems with AT connectors acting up in the past but this would be a new record for us. I think we just got the new PSM1 around the end of October.

BTW, these mics are in the 600MHz range.

[waynehoskins]

Could still be a television station interfering with you: they're all moving below 700 megs, so there could be a new one on the air down there. It could be a cable issue, but things happening to two of your link radio sets at about the same time, especially about now, the second of which really sounds like an interference and the first of which could very well be interference.

[cmchamp]

One way to find out what frequencies work for you, would be to go here: http://ff.audiotechnica.com/cgi-bin/...vfreqcheck.cgi

It also helps quite a bit if you post the make AND model of product in question.

Have you cleaned the AT connector on the PSM1 microphone?
Depending on the design of the PSM1, there is quite a lot of handling noise that is transmitted through the cable to the element. This happens quite a bit in the standard lav mic that wind up in most of the area churches. There are better options.

Check your frequency, clean the contacts, check for cable induced noise and check back.
C.

[DrowningnHim17]

Sense you guys already said everything I had to say , I'll just agree with Wayne. It sounds like good ole interference. I would definitely still check cables, connecters, mics, and batteries just to be sure. I hope its not interference, cuz that's just no fun

[[Director] drew ryan]

Just one more thing to check. If the static is light and it happens when the pastor moves his head around you might be getting wisker rub on the grill or even getting in to the diaphram. Just a thought. I would certainly check out all the other things as well.

Oh, you might also want to look at your AF meeters when you are tuning your receivers. For some reason we get a lot of AF without much RF on ours now. Very annoying.