Old Clear-Com Question
- Thread starterElectric Carpenter
- Start date
You know what? Now that you mention that I seem to remember something about his Daughter, and talking to her on the phone about this... I'm really glad they are still around. They were always a great company to work with.
https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/production-intercom-shipping-delays.28741/#post-264297 and subsequent, including a post from @Van https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/production-intercom-shipping-delays.28741/page-2#post-279075 who seemingly has less than five-year total recall.
I'm managing 45 jobs right now I can't remember if I put on socks this morning.
I HAVE, however, switched to Chrome and now have integral speelchaeck.
themuzicman
Well-Known Member
You can't knock RS100A's, I run shows that routinely have all 700 series Clearcom, Helixnet, or Riedel, but I will ALWAYS give the MD an RS100A. The hard On/Off switch means that they never have to remember to latch their belt pack when they get in for the day. It saves me a week of reminding them to latch the belt pack before using the handset. It's old, but it is the BEST tool for that job.
Electric Carpenter
Member
WOW, thank you everyone for commenting and sharing their experiences! When I first looked up clear-com on this site, I didn't find anything so hopefully this can answer future questions also!
In terms of the specific original post, it seems to have been the conductor or main rag operator were leaving their packs "talked-on". Why the feedback was so random, who knows, but we removed the main rag operators pack and told the conductor to not leave his pack on, and all is well, knock on wood!
Thank you all so much!
In terms of the specific original post, it seems to have been the conductor or main rag operator were leaving their packs "talked-on". Why the feedback was so random, who knows, but we removed the main rag operators pack and told the conductor to not leave his pack on, and all is well, knock on wood!
Thank you all so much!
TLDR warning boldly in place: @Electric Carpenter When you wrote: "Why the feedback was so random, who knows"; Here are a couple of plausible explanations: With ClearCom and similar "party line" systems, there is what is termed "Side tone" along with an adjustment for it. "Side tone" does not have anything to do with an actual "tone" like you'd expect from an audio oscillator / tone generator / call signal or feedback. The term dates from the early days of telephone systems and relates to how much of your own voice you hear in your own headset while you're speaking.
[Forum members, please don't stone me for my oversimplification]
If your belt-pack / station's "side tone" is set too low, you'll be speaking louder and louder as you're not getting much sense of your headset working. You'll be thinking "Well I can hear them so my earphone's working but maybe my mic is NFG?"
If your "side tone" is set too high, your headset will appear too sensitive; If your beard / moustache brushes against your mic while speaking, you'll find the bristling noise in your ear very distracting.
When your headset is on your head, too much side tone won't feedback as your skull is preventing your mic from hearing your earphone. If you take your headset off your head and hang it on an unused rail pin with its mic still switched on, there will be nothing but the short physical distance of open air between between its mic and its earphone and this may create a clearly audible feedback howl which of course will be heard by all users on your channel.
For explanation's sake, let's say you whip your headset off your head [With its mic still switched on] and don't hang it on a pin but lay it on a nearby flat surface, a chair, stool, table or even on the floor. First of all, the loud unexpected mechanical noise will annoy other users [likely leading to rude comments on your parentage] but secondly there will no longer be only the direct, through air, path from your earphone to your mic but also the reflected path(s) caused by bounce between the earphone and the mic effectively making the mic more efficient / sensitive at which point the headset that was close to feedback is now definitely contributing feedback.
Let's not belabor this too much more as I'm sure you can see where I'm going.
Hang it on an unused pin in the middle of the rail, it's back in free air. Hang it on a pin near the DS end close to the rear side of the prosc' and it MAY have slightly more gain again. Rotate it a little differently next time you hang it on that DS end pin and possibly, by virtue of how gravity happens to position it; maybe more sensitive and maybe not. Of course the same physics apply when you casually abandon it on the handiest flat surface.
If the mic is switched off, no problem.
If the side tone is low and the mic is left on, no problem for YOU but the mechanical noise will still annoy your fellow users and they'll be back to discussing your parentage.
Same comments apply to your conductors as they often hang their headsets on the lower lips of their music stands or drape them over a nearby mic boom. This tags us back to @themuzicman 's comments regarding giving orchestra conductors HS6 [ClearCom Hand Set Six] handsets with PTT [ Push To Talk / Squeeze when you grip ] handsets to use rather than headsets with several of the following advantages: The instant they let go of the handset, its mic is switched off long before they've dropped it down on the handiest surface plus the handset's mic is automatically switched off while the orchestra's playing and other users aren't competing with the brass section to be heard.
With apologies for droning boringly on, I hope some of the foregoing is of some use to you.
All the best @Electric Carpenter
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
themuzicman
Well-Known Member
It also ties back into nulling out your system as the sidetone adjust on most Clearcom is a part of the nulling circuit -- if your system is nulled properly everyone has a nice and even Clearcom experience.
Start at your main station and then move on to your rack mount remote stations. Pop open the panel underneath the Channel buttons, on your belt packs there is often a little inset knob. A single person should hit up every station, set the Master Volume to half-way up and with a tiny screwdriver, and channel by channel turn the Sidetone knob right until it is at its maximum volume. Then turn it left until there is no, or next to no side-tone. Then crack it open a little bit more by turning that knob to the right a hair. Do this on every single channel at every single com location, and you'll have a nice even system where the user is experiencing the same sound at every position.
Typically I do a full system null on load-in after all com and tech com is in, and then I re-null after tech com has been struck, because pulling a few hundred feet of cable out of the system will change some things. Afterwards, I'll hit up the system maybe once every two or three months on a long running show just to make sure no one is messing with any knobs.
Also make sure your system is terminated at a single location, typically at your master station there are switches on the back by the A, B, C, and D XLR and you engage them. On more complex systems you can accidentally end up terminating your system in multiple locations, but for smaller systems it's generally not a problem.
Start at your main station and then move on to your rack mount remote stations. Pop open the panel underneath the Channel buttons, on your belt packs there is often a little inset knob. A single person should hit up every station, set the Master Volume to half-way up and with a tiny screwdriver, and channel by channel turn the Sidetone knob right until it is at its maximum volume. Then turn it left until there is no, or next to no side-tone. Then crack it open a little bit more by turning that knob to the right a hair. Do this on every single channel at every single com location, and you'll have a nice even system where the user is experiencing the same sound at every position.
Typically I do a full system null on load-in after all com and tech com is in, and then I re-null after tech com has been struck, because pulling a few hundred feet of cable out of the system will change some things. Afterwards, I'll hit up the system maybe once every two or three months on a long running show just to make sure no one is messing with any knobs.
Also make sure your system is terminated at a single location, typically at your master station there are switches on the back by the A, B, C, and D XLR and you engage them. On more complex systems you can accidentally end up terminating your system in multiple locations, but for smaller systems it's generally not a problem.
@Van @EdSavoie @gafftaper @Aaron Becker ; Expounding further about ClearCom channel terminations, where one termination per channel is mandatory and two is verbotten.
On a number of installs, I've found consultants spec'ing two ClearCom power supplies for redundancy and using one to terminate one channel and the second to terminate the other channel. Similarly, I've installed four channel systems where the consultant uses two dual channel supplies for redundant power yet uses the four terminations to provide four channels.
So far, so good. The oversight shows up when one of the two supplies fails, is removed and sent to ClearCom for service. At that point, the failed supply's termination, or terminationS, leave the building with it reducing the system to half its original number of channels. What we chose to do was fabricate our own outboard termination PC board, for up to 12 channels on one install, and use the supplies ONLY for power and redundant power without using any of the termination networks included in the power supplies. Doing so allowed any power supply to fail and be removed for service with all terminations remaining in place and all channels continuing to function normally.
One more point. When installing in this manner, we only connected the common and power leads to the power supplies. Intentionally NOT connecting the audio lead to the power supplies meant people could play games with the supply's termination switches to their heart's content WITHOUT having any effect on the terminations of the various channels NO MATTER HOW HARD, or well intentioned, they tried.
Sometimes it was interesting to listen to folks discussing how they could hear the effect of the various termination switches on the supplies. Kind of like listening to folks telling you how much better their EQ settings were without realizing the EQ was bypassed. It takes all kinds.
@TimMc You've NEVER met anyone like that have you?
EDIT: In earlier days, ClearCom's termination network was comprised of three parts per channel; a resistor, a capacitor to prevent shorting DC to ground when flashing the call light and a potentiometer to finesse the termination with all three connected in series between the audio line and the common ground. At some point, they removed the potentiometer reducing the termination to a simple resistor and capacitor in series. This is all I've ever used per channel when adding independent outboard terminations per channel. I've done this successfully on one, two, four and twelve channel installations.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
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