Bad Squelch

[SonicBoomPole]

I'd like your opinions on this one please...

 

The other day I was on an indie doc shooting on the F55. I was using a G3 as a wireless camera link (notice I didn't say hop) with the squelch setting on 'Lo'. At lunch I powered down the G3 Tx but camera dept. didn't turn off the Rx on the camera. When they powered back up before me the DP saw the audio levels being blasted with the squelch signal and told me to:

 

Tturn it off or disconnect it because he had not yet paid for the camera and didn't want to damage the audio circuitry"

 

I set the squlch to high and walked away.

 

I just want to make sure that my initial feeling that he didn't know what he was talking about and was being more of a DB than a DP was accurate or to make sure I wan't in the wrong on this one.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Eric Toline]

Maybe a DP but not anyone who understands audio circuits. You could have tried to explain to him about.........nah nevermind it's not worth the effort as he wouldn't believe you anyway.

[afewmoreyears]

How many people have had the line/mic input set wrong for a moment and banged the meters... does nothing... foolishness...  unless he was wearing headphones and got a blast of audio, who cares...? 

   

  Setting the squelch to high on a G3 may produce unsatisfactory results for the whole show... now whats damaged... If you get a weak transmission signal with the unit set to HIGH Squelch, it CAN mute your signal.. Just like a CB radio... The higher the squelch, only the LOUDER or more powerful signals are allowed to pass. In the LOWER setting, the  weaker signal will still be allowed to pass through, like if you got far away or encountered a low incoming signal to the receiver... with these units that can happen at any time. I would leave it on "LOW"... meaning,  Mid or HIGH.. The options do not exist for nothing though, so I would imagine there are times to set other than LOW,  (working 10 ft. from camera with receiver...  or a very crowded freq. area.. Even then I would opt for LOW unless I encountered problems.) but my operational experience with these units are to leave in LOW...

 

  Make sure the pilot tone is ON on your receiver... That should keep garbage from passing through while your transmitter is off... It should not pass the audio until the receiver receives this PILOT tone... nor allow Static or other noise to slam the "Camera" in this case...

[Rick Reineke]

I've encountered quite a number of cameras that emit enough RF to trigger a G3 receiver's  to 'open' when the transmitter is off, regardless of squelch and plot tone. ( when in very close proximity to the cam). Normally when the transmitter is on,  it does not seriously affect reception.. as far as I can tell.. I would also leave the squelch set to low..

[VM]

I noticed that the F55 emits lots of RF and had the same things when turning off a G3 TX. I leaved the squelch to low and... leaved the TX on. 

[Nick Jabour]

Actually though most likely under informed, he wasn't wrong.  I've seen RF receivers pass enough RF hash from low squelch settings to be heard through the mute pad on a mixing console. Which is a higher level of amplitude than a mic/line level mismatch. So though, peaking the meters like that isn't likely to damage a camera, letting RF hash just drop through a receiver that's not being used can be surprisingly unpredictable and powerful.

[sounddguy]

I had a friend report taking hits on his G-3 receiver.  Turned out to be rf coming from the additional pix monitor

that the receiver was mounted directly behind.   Move the receiver and no more hits.

[hiro nakamura]

I got a DP changed Sony FS7 's audio setting to camera mic without asking me. End up with I was explaining to the post team why the audio was like that....