wireless boom issues
 

I have the Sennheiser G2 EVolution 100 system, and an ME66/K6 shotgun, and attempted to make a wireless boom today. It worked, but was very very noisy--I mean signal noise, not noise from actual. . uh. . .things.

I tried lowering the sensitivity on the transmitter, turning gain on camera and on my Beachteck DXA whatever XLR adapter (the one for the XL1s), tried it with and without the rycote softie, etc. Still very noisy.

Even when right next to my mouth, I wasn't getting much level. I had the attenuator in the XL1s off, had audio 1 set to "mic", had the switches on the beachtek set to mic, still same issue.

Now, I had to buy a 16ft XLR female to 14/" male cable, and then a 1/4" female to 1/8" male adapter, in order to hook the ME66 up to the transmitter. Is that too much stuff in the way? I went to radio shack and it was all they had, hence why I got it.

Anyway. . .what'd I do wrong? Thanks.

Have you heard the SKP 100 wireless XLR plug on transmitter?

There is a short video in our "DVeStore Theatre" showing the SKP 100 with the ME66 hooked up to the XL1S and it sounds great.

"The K6 powering module is the heart of this Sennheiser professional modular microphone system and can be powered either by its internal 'AA' size 1.5 V battery or by different condenser microphone modules to provide a wide variety of polar patterns."

Were you using a fresh battery?


Ty Ford

I may not have been. I know it was a working battery, don't know how far into its lifespan it was. Does that make a huge difference?

Few things run properly without the required power; including the wireless plugin module.

You can starve a mic into distotion, for example, by only providing it with 12 V Phantom when what it needs is 48 V phantom.

Regards,

Ty Ford

I'm not sure what you mean. . .I had batteries in the transmitter/receiver, and a battery in the ME66. It wasn't trying to run on phantom. Don't even know if it can with that setup.

If the battery was somewhat old, that's one thing, but I wasn't trying to do anything crazy.

I'd check the adapters going from the XLR cable to the Sennheiser transmetter to make sure everything is proper. I don't know about the Senn but check to see if the transmitter input is balanced or unbalanced? Are the converters to XLR to 1/4" and 1/4" to 1/8" using TS or TRS connectors? Are they wired properly for connecting a blanced mic to whatever input the tranmitter wants?

Is that info found in the manual for the G2 system?

Found it on page 91 o0f the manual I downloaded from the Sennheiser web site. There's a chart of connector assignments on the page. Says the mic input on the transmitter is expecting an unbalanced input.

Have you considered getting the plug-on transmitter module and connecting it directly to the ME66?

I also think it was the cables you were using for the connection to the transmitter, probably causing phase cancellation between pins 2 and 3 of the mic. The cable should be wired so that those two opposite signals aren't being combined when sent to the transmitter input.

Instead, cruise back over to Radio snak and get a 1/8" mini to RCA adapter. Feed the ME66/K6 to the BeachTek.
Feed the RCA's out of the BeachTek via the 1/8" mini to RCA adapter into the Sennheiser transmitter.

Now use the included 1/8" to 1/8" cable to plug the Sennheiser Receiver into where you would normally plug the XL1S stock mic.

Regarding adapters - In addition to the wiring of the adapter the miniplug connector on the trasmitter is a threaded jack and a conventional Radio Shack plug might not make good contact.

Trew Audio has a purpose built adapter for XLR specifically to a Sennheiser transmitter, part number CASENSK100XM48. See ..

http://www.trewaudio.com/catalog/items/item456.htm

Thanks. If I can find the $#@! receipt, I'll probably just return that stuff.

Okay, stupid question time! Audio is not my specialty (hell, neither is video), but have you tried using a different frequency? You said you're getting lots of noise, maybe the area you're shooting in has some interference on or around the one you started with...?

Not sure if that makes sense, but I do believe it's possible with wireless equipment.

That is a possibility, you could test it out with your regular lav element attached to the transmitter and get everything working as normal through the receiver, the BeachTek and into the camera.
You'd need to adjust the transmitter input gain when switching between the lav and the ME66, but that would at least eliminate all the variables except the mic, the cables into the transmitter, and the transmitter input gain.
You could test the ME66 wired directly into your BeachTek, set to mic level, but probably dropping the rotary control down a click or two. Of course there will be a difference in level between the mic directly into the BeachTek and the receiver into the BeachTek at whatever output gain you have set on the receiver.
After that, the only thing left is the cable between the mic and transmitter, and fine tuning the gain settings.
If you still can't get a signal, I think it's definitely phase cancellation in your adapter cable. Consult that manual that Steve mentioned to find the right wiring.