Stake Center Sound System Challenges

[lajackson]

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.

[russellhltn]

That's a fun one. I can't remember ever having system act like that. Intermittent problems is every techs "favorite". The contractor has done a good start.

At this point, I'd focus on the remote panel and the cable leading to it. It's possible it's gotten damaged and is presenting a resistance that can get low enough that the processor thinks the button has been pushed.

Another possibility is RFI (radio frequency interference). Equipment can do odd things in the presence of a strong RF field. Either a nearby transmitter, or if you're close to a highway, a mobile rig.

In the latter case, I'd wrap a few turns of the cable in a ferrite core just before it goes into the processor.

Perhaps a first test is to see if you can turn on the system and disconnect the control cable and it still runs. (You might have to jumper something). Try using it that way and see if it behaves.

[CalS201]

Intermittent problems are difficult to find, and take time to solve. Your FM technician is doing the right thing by replacing the major parts (the 2 processors) with new ones and providing clean, glitch-free AC power by inserting a UPS. GREMLINS usually don't come with new, replacement parts ! The only parts left in the system (with possible gremlins) are the control panels (that have the power on/off switches) at the pulpit and possibly in the AV rack. To eliminate the control panels (and their cabling and connectors) as the source of the problem you or the FM tech will need to:

STEP 1 - Turn on the system and wiggle ALL connectors/wire splices, and tug on each and every connected wires from the control panels to the processors to confirm tight connections and stable operation. If everything is OK then continue to step 2.

STEP 2 - Disconnect or replace each one of the control panels (one at a time) and run the system for a long time (8-24 hrs) to confirm stable operation. If the system is now stable you've found the gremlin. If the system still turns itself off then proceed to step 3.

STEP 3 - Ask FM to have an IVIE engineer come out and troubleshoot the system. They will have knowledge, skills, and equipment beyond what the tech has. They can find gremlins that hide from techs!

Good luck.............................

It is interesting to note the IVIE installation procedure mentions that reusing old control panel interface wiring can result in unstable operation.
https://www.audionetwork.it/stage/image ... p_1.2a.pdf

[CalS201]

To Russelhltn - we must think alike (and at the same time). Actually, I didn't even see your post before I started mine.

[russellhltn]

It is interesting to note the IVIE installation procedure mentions that reusing old control panel interface wiring can result in unstable operation.
https://www.audionetwork.it/stage/image ... p_1.2a.pdf

Nice find. Apparently, the on/off command is just a pulse (presumable when the button is pushed) and not a on/off switch with a continuous signal. I can see that making it prone to interference or sketchy installs.

[RyanGard1977]

Some of the IVIE 1280s also have the "automtic shut off" for midnight enabled, and because the controllers don't keep the date and time very well and don't get updated often enough from our laptops for those of us who work on them, the controller may think it's 12:00AM and shut the system off when it is only 10:00AM.