What the ?? mic problem

[Matt Bishop]

That's what I'm about ready to try now since I mentioned that other videographer has the C model and they've never run into this.

[Peter Ralph]

were you using brand new batteries & were they registering fully charged on the meter in the senn?

all sorts of environmental factors can degrade batteries - and that sounds like a battery problem to me.

[Matt Bishop]

they registered at the 3/4 full mark. I usually use them until they at half and then I'll change them out. I haven't noticed a trend with that but I haven't really kept track of the relationship between the battery and the times I had problems.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt Bishop

That's what I'm about ready to try now since I mentioned that other videographer has the C model and they've never run into this.

One thing I started doing was looking at what the facilities used. For instance, I would go to a church and make a mental note of what frequency they were using, and the one frequency I wasn't finding was mine. hehe.

[Peter Ralph]

my g2 battery meters only have 3 bars - if it shows 2 bars the battery may only have 35% of its charge left.

does your meter have 4 bars? - if so your approach is reasonable - if not I would bet your problem was caused by low battery. The problems you are experiencing don't sound like wireless interference.

even with 4 bars personally I wouldn't start a shoot unless all 4 were showing - AAs are cheap

[Matt Bishop]

Yeah mine is the same with 3 bars so I meant to say 2/3. I didn't ever figure with 2/3 I would be low enough to cause these types of problems. I just tested the batteries that were in there for that wedding and all 4 tested in the lower area of the good range. I always use energizer alkaline batteries. Could that really effect it that much even though they're still testing at a decent amount?

[Peter Ralph]

AA batteries are 1.5V - so 2 will give you 3V. Just about all the pro wireless units run on 9V batteries - which are several times the price. My AT101 uses 2 9V batteries in the receiver.

senn are pushing it using AAs - they need all the help they can get.

[Bill Busby]

I have the G2 & use rechargeable batteries & when I 1st got it, out of curiosity I left the transmitter on with fully charged 2800mAH AA's & it powered for nearly 12 hrs. The 2 bar indication is where the majority of the useable power is. It's when it gets down to 1 bar when you need to start thinking about swapping out :)

[Bill Busby]

Originally Posted by Peter Ralph

AA batteries are 1.5V - so 2 will give you 3V. Just about all the pro wireless units run on 9V batteries - which are several times the price. My AT101 uses 2 9V batteries in the receiver.

senn are pushing it using AAs - they need all the help they can get.

Peter, that makes no difference. It's based on design... not voltage.

[Peter Ralph]

absolutely right Bill - the unit will keep on transmitting for 12 hours or more.

If you can tolerate the interference you can certainly save yourself a buck or two.

Good tip - I think clean audio is way over rated anyway

[Bill Busby]

Originally Posted by Peter Ralph

If you can tolerate the interference you can certainly save yourself a buck or two.

I suppose I should have been more clear. I don't have interference issues unless it gets down to the point there's not enough usable voltage & is on the verge of shutdown. Isn't that how most if not all wireless systems are designed?

[Waldemar Winkler]

Originally Posted by Matt Bishop

That's what I'm about ready to try now since I mentioned that other videographer has the C model and they've never run into this.

Well, whatever the source of the interference, it is clear it is affecting the frequencies your mic systems are using. Changing frequencies will likely solve the problem.

[Peter Ralph]

Bill- with rechargeable batteries there is typically no warning - you go from clean signal to noise in a few seconds

But with regular batteries wireless signals degrade in the way Matt describes, the noise comes in softly and intermittently for a while well before the signal fails completely. Monitoring with headphones you can often recognize the problem in time to deal with it.

This is the main reason most audio pros stay away from rechargeable AAs.

Recently Lectro have started recommending the iPower/Lithium 9V chargers but IME the Lectros can run on semi-depleted 9Vs much more reliably then the senns on semi-depleted AAs.

[Matt Bishop]

Peter,
When you are referring to interference coming in slowly what kind of time are talkin about. Most of the time when this happen it's about 15 seconds from clean to horrible. I'm just curious if you are referring to a longer time for it to actually go bad if it was being caused by the battery....a few minutes to degrade rather than a few seconds?? For the batteries I'm using it seems rather fast to go from good to bad. AT the same time, I have had it go out and then come back and be fine for the rest of the ceremony so I think that type of situation would rule out a battery issue. Just thinking outloud.

[Peter Ralph]

a weak battery will reduce the signal/noise ratio, making the unit more susceptible to interference. The actual progress will depend on which unit is weakened - typically the receiver will deplete the battery much faster than the transmitter. The only way to know for sure is to replace the battery and see if the problem disappears.

Ask around and I think you will find that just about everyone will recommend replacing the battery well before it reaches the "marginal" state that you are reporting.

Why not scoot over to the audio forum?

One troubleshooting tip - describe one problem in detail and see if you can get to the bottom of that - don't assume that all the problems you have ever had with audio are caused by the same thing.

HTH