Black Magic Micro Studio signal loss

Hi all,

Have a rig consisting of 14 BMMS cameras recording through 25' SDI to Atomos Shogun Flames, all triggered by external time code generator as well as genlocked through a Black Magic Sync generator. We are recording for hours at a time.

I am having issues with the cameras dropping signal in the middle of recording, or having the entire signal shift by multiple lines of pixels. The only way to fix the shift is to disconnect and reconnect the BNC. In the case of dropped signal, I have the recorder cut up the recording into multiple clips. The only saving grace is that the time code is consistent so I can later resync.

Anyone encountered this problem? Have switched out a camera body, but it's not always the same camera. Have switched out cables, and our SDIs are only 25' so I doubt that's an issue.

Next step seems to be adding a reclocker into the line, but at 14 cameras with one reclocking DA per camera that gets expensive. Hoping someone has a quicker solution!

Thanks

[Kristian Lam]

Hi,

It's not something we have encountered before.

I am having issues with the cameras dropping signal in the middle of recording, or having the entire signal shift by multiple lines of pixels.

Would you happen to have a recording or screen grab of this you can send me?

Two thoughts:
Could it be heat? What's the temperature in your studio? You could do a test recording with some vents blowing cool air to the cameras.

Could it be power fluctuations? How do you power the cameras? 14 cameras is a lot and when recording for hours I guess you are not using batteries. Could it be that you are having them one power circuit?

How are you distributing sync/BB/TLS to the cameras? That would be the first place I'd check.