Stake Center Sound System Challenges
Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:32 pm
Our stake center sound system has a nasty habit of turning itself off. This usually occurs during stake conferences, often when the general authority is speaking and we are webcasting. The FM Group has made attempts every six months over the past four years to troubleshoot the problem to no avail.
We are running an Ivie system with two main processor panels. The system feeds the chapel speakers, cultural hall speakers when the divider curtains are open, sends out the organ sound (when the overflow divider is open), and feeds the rest of the major rooms in the meetinghouse, Relief Society, Primary, high council room, etc.
My specific question: Is there any benefit to shutting down the system at the audiovisual rack and rebooting it from time to time? Does this clear up gremlins that gather over the months from normal use?
On occasion, but rarely, the audio also shuts down during sacrament meetings conducted by wards in the building.
When the system bails, it usually just shuts down and never recovers as if someone has pushed the power button. Pressing the power button at the pedestal control near the pulpit usually restarts the system.
Sometimes it will shut down and then try to restart itself. When it tries to restart, one of two things happens. It restarts and continues to work. Or it attempts to restart and keeps shutting itself down over and over until it gives up or, if I am babysitting a stake conference webcast, I manually shut it down with the power switch at the rack and then power it on again.
In the past, it has failed during the Sunday morning session while we are webcasting. Faithfully, every six months for the last four years. The meetinghouse is about 10 years old.
This conference weekend the system quit during the Saturday evening session. It just turned off and died. Pressing the power button at the pedestal turned on the sound in the chapel. Twenty (20) minutes later the system adjusted itself and the cultural hall speakers turned on and started working again.
The main difference this conference was that during the Saturday afternoon session we used a number of handheld microphones, a lapel microphone, and did a lot of plugging and unplugging of cords during the meeting. Then it failed during the evening session with normal pulpit speakers.
After the evening meeting, I decided to completely shut down the system manually. I left it off for a minute, then powered it up again. The two processors took over a minute to reboot, one of the two taking about 15 seconds longer than the other to come up.
On Sunday morning we webcast our general session and did not have any audio problems at all.
Over the last few visits, the FM Group contractor has replaced both processors and other parts of the system. Six months ago he installed an uninterruptible power supply to try to alleviate any local electricity company dirty power problems. We have monitored temperatures in the rack. Still, we had the Saturday problem.
So again: Did my rebooting of the system help keep us from problems on Sunday?
My personal I do not have a clue guess is that the computers pick up gremlins each week as they operate, similar to a much maligned computer operating system. Those operating system gremlins are usually solved by rebooting. Are the audio computer processors in our sound system doing the same thing?
Is six months enough time for problems to develop? Do the audio processors ever totally reboot themselves on their own? Am I dreaming?
I will submit an FIR to the FM Group this evening just for the record. But I wonder if I should add rebooting the sound system to my checklist before each stake conference in the future. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions or experience any of you have. The technician (who has been in regular contact with the manufacturer) and I are running out of theories.
We are running an Ivie system with two main processor panels. The system feeds the chapel speakers, cultural hall speakers when the divider curtains are open, sends out the organ sound (when the overflow divider is open), and feeds the rest of the major rooms in the meetinghouse, Relief Society, Primary, high council room, etc.
My specific question: Is there any benefit to shutting down the system at the audiovisual rack and rebooting it from time to time? Does this clear up gremlins that gather over the months from normal use?
On occasion, but rarely, the audio also shuts down during sacrament meetings conducted by wards in the building.
When the system bails, it usually just shuts down and never recovers as if someone has pushed the power button. Pressing the power button at the pedestal control near the pulpit usually restarts the system.
Sometimes it will shut down and then try to restart itself. When it tries to restart, one of two things happens. It restarts and continues to work. Or it attempts to restart and keeps shutting itself down over and over until it gives up or, if I am babysitting a stake conference webcast, I manually shut it down with the power switch at the rack and then power it on again.
In the past, it has failed during the Sunday morning session while we are webcasting. Faithfully, every six months for the last four years. The meetinghouse is about 10 years old.
This conference weekend the system quit during the Saturday evening session. It just turned off and died. Pressing the power button at the pedestal turned on the sound in the chapel. Twenty (20) minutes later the system adjusted itself and the cultural hall speakers turned on and started working again.
The main difference this conference was that during the Saturday afternoon session we used a number of handheld microphones, a lapel microphone, and did a lot of plugging and unplugging of cords during the meeting. Then it failed during the evening session with normal pulpit speakers.
After the evening meeting, I decided to completely shut down the system manually. I left it off for a minute, then powered it up again. The two processors took over a minute to reboot, one of the two taking about 15 seconds longer than the other to come up.
On Sunday morning we webcast our general session and did not have any audio problems at all.
Over the last few visits, the FM Group contractor has replaced both processors and other parts of the system. Six months ago he installed an uninterruptible power supply to try to alleviate any local electricity company dirty power problems. We have monitored temperatures in the rack. Still, we had the Saturday problem.
So again: Did my rebooting of the system help keep us from problems on Sunday?
My personal I do not have a clue guess is that the computers pick up gremlins each week as they operate, similar to a much maligned computer operating system. Those operating system gremlins are usually solved by rebooting. Are the audio computer processors in our sound system doing the same thing?
Is six months enough time for problems to develop? Do the audio processors ever totally reboot themselves on their own? Am I dreaming?
I will submit an FIR to the FM Group this evening just for the record. But I wonder if I should add rebooting the sound system to my checklist before each stake conference in the future. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions or experience any of you have. The technician (who has been in regular contact with the manufacturer) and I are running out of theories.