ATEM TVS causes interferences

Hello,
I've been using ATEM switchers since they first appeared. I have 1M/E and one TVS.
I have problems with my sennheiser ew100 g3 mics. When it looks for free channels, if the TVS is running I get 0 free channels. If I unplug it, all comes back to normal. I have had this problem for the last year, I've been talking with sennheiser, they checked up every receiver, studied my location and recommended me B range. They even changed all my mikes to B range (around 620-670Mhz). The problem still persisted. I thought that is because I am in the center of the city (Madrid) and there are a lot of interferences. Sometimes I could get free channels, sometimes not. I thought that was due to the air interferences.
Until I decided to test every single unit in my setup. And I discovered that plugging and unplugging the TVS the Sennheiser mikes had and hadn't this interference issue.
What led me to try my gear was that, at 600kms distance from Madrid, I still had this problem. And the sound technician, with Shure wireless mikes, also had this this problem.

First issue I observed is that ATEM TVS wall plug does not have ground connection. Nor the Sennheiser power adapters.
What I did was to set the Squelch setting to High in the Sennheiser receiver. This thing sets the minimum signal
level not to pass if it is not strong enough. Now I see that the interference persists but it is lower than the min level and I don't hear it when the microphone (emitter) is off. Or during a show, little scratches, like interference issues. BUT, setting this squelch to HIGH will cut the voice if the antenna signal decreases a little.

What do you think about this thing?
Could it be a power issue? I tried powering the TVS from another wall outlet and the problem is still there.
Or maybe, due to its electronics, the TVS creates a magnetic field around it and this causes the interferences with my mikes. What do you think?

Best regards,

Nobody uses sennheiser mikes with the TVS?
Can't believe it.

I've had my gear alongside sennheiser gear and not had any issues.

Thanks for answering. Maybe I have a defective unit. I will keep trying it to find out why it does act like that. Good night everybody.

Couple of questions"
Are your wireless receivers in the same case as the TVS? Are you using the antenna's on the wireless receivers or a antenna combiner? is the antenna bnc cable routed close to the TVS. You might try connecting the rack mount of the tvs to the Wireless receiver and see if that helps.
we typically have our wireless units in a separate portable rack, with an antenna combiner and a paddle antenna mounted on a mic stand away from the rest of the gear

How close is the Wireless receivers to the Monitor you are using for the tvs?
Sharyn

Couple of questions"
Are your wireless receivers in the same case as the TVS? Are you using the antenna's on the wireless receivers or a antenna combiner? is the antenna bnc cable routed close to the TVS. You might try connecting the rack mount of the tvs to the Wireless receiver and see if that helps.
we typically have our wireless units in a separate portable rack, with an antenna combiner and a paddle antenna mounted on a mic stand away from the rest of the gear

How close is the Wireless receivers to the Monitor you are using for the tvs?
Sharyn

Hello sharyn,
The TVS and sennheiser receivers are rackmounted in different cases.
I use the standard antennas with coaxial 50ohms cable. It is 3m away from the rack. The antenna cables aren't routed near the TVS. Strangely, it causes interferences even with the portable receivers (ew 112-p) from sennheiser when at 1m. At 5m distance, it doesn't affect.

There are 30-40cm between rackmounted sennheiser receivers and the TVS. Very close but different rack.

You might try connecting the rack mount of the tvs to the Wireless receiver and see if that helps.

Do you mean that it could be a grounding issue? Maybe out of phase?
I will try that if that's what you mean.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I have the B Series mics as well, I had not noticed any issues.

We taped with 2 TVs, and 1/Me with 6 sennheisers all on the B range. - I did have troubles in one room, but the room was under an escalator, and all wireless devices had problems in that room. Even the presenters mics that were unknown sure mics.

That was at the Hyatt in Orlando, near Disney world.

Are your mics plugged into the same power supply?

Do you use battery operated receivers, or AC units?

Have you moved them farther away, and have the same issues/

I just used ours last weekend with an TVs, and was having some intermittent drop outs with my new G3,s

I will have to test this.

George

I am thinking it could be a grounding issue, and the wireless systems sometimes are sensitive to a ground plane that has some sort of power on it. BNC panel connectors sometimes come in versions where the ground is isolated from the chassis and other versions come where the ground is on the chassis. Since BMD makes a comment that heat is dissipated via the heatsink but ALSO via the cables, it MIGHT be the case that the ground on the BNC connectors on the TVS might be an issue.
Sharyn

Are your mics plugged into the same power supply?

Do you use battery operated receivers, or AC units?

Have you moved them farther away, and have the same issues/

George

Hello George,

I don't usually plug the the mics in the same power supply with the TVS.
I use both, AC and battery powered receivers. Both of them have issues. If I move 4 mts away, everything works well.

Thanks sharyn for your thoughts.
Maybe it is a grounding issue.
I will check it.
Regards

You could try to ground/connect both rackmount chasiss with a 2-3mm isolated (but not on the ends) copper wire and check if that solves your problem..

Hi,

Your problem is most likely caused by rf interference, not a grounding or power problem. This is most likely coming from the power adapter and not the switcher. These power supplies are switching type and can create lots of broadband rf noise if not filtered properly.

I would find someone with an rf spectrum analyzer that knows how to use it and have a look. Engineers at tv stations may have these in house.

Another idea would be to try another compatible power adapter or to test with dc power. That will surely narrow it down for you.

Hope this helps,
Tony

Thank you very much tmarone.
I'll try changing the power adapter. I have a spare unit, from blackmagic. I will try it.

Has anyone found a solution or are experiencing a similar RF problem?

I am having serious radio frequency interference on my ATEM 1 M/E. It interferes with my Sennheiser Evolution 100 G3 wireless receivers (body pack - B-series, 626-668Mhz).

If I set the squelch to low then I have to be over 10' away before the RFI is low enough to receive my mic transmitter signal (with Pilot off, with Pilot on it is a bit better but unpredictable).

If I set the squelch to middle I can operate a bit closer - like 6' away.

When I test with a laptop power supply I can get within a few inches before the RFI is too strong so there is obviously something wrong with the supplied power supply brick.

I contacted BMD and was promptly sent a replacement power supply brick (smaller and lower amps and volts than the original) but it didn't offer any reduction in RFI.

I've asked their support if I can just take an laptop supply and have my local electronics repair guys modify it with the connection that BMD uses but have been advised not too and didn't tell me what amps/volt specs I require.

Any thoughts? I'm not liking having to keep 15' away from the wireless receivers and sound board and the interference is frustrating.

I also noticed when I saw a TVS (I have 1 M/E) that the power requirements and connection are different so I can't even test one of those that I know not to emit RFI.

Hi,
Im having the same issue!

Do you have access to these type of clamp-on ferrite suppressors?



http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=clamp+on+ferrite+bead

Do you have access to these type of clamp-on ferrite suppressors?



http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=clamp+on+ferrite+bead

Sure I can!

Going to try it! good tip, i was thiking about a Surge Protection , might not need with these suppressors
I will get back to this thread after trying it.
Thank you very much

Hi All

We have been used BM TVS together with Sennheiser ENG system connected ta a PA different times and it seems we got these interference everytime we use SDI connections. If we unplug the SDI from the camera the interference disipear.

We use:
- Canon XA25 in 720p 50 mode
- BM TVS ATEM
- Laptop PC Dell connect to TVS both trough ethernet cable and USB
- One display Multi Out
- Middle-end SDI RG59 cable 20meters.

Last week we did a test to ground TVS chassi with Twinn ISO Isolator for the XLR cables as we connact to cam coder XA25. This gave a small improvments for some of the channels but I am not shore if this only was a coincident.

BR
Stefan Blom
Solidtango.com

The problem is that some TVS are not properly shielded and creates some sort of high frequency that kills some wireless signal channels before the signal even flows into the audio cables the wireless receivers are already affected.
The best thing to do is to change the power supply of the TVS.

Let me also mention that I have interference issues with the 1.8GHz 100G3 series Sennheiser wireless microphones and the ATEM 2 M/E.

My setup is a bit cluttered but it has worked for me so far. I'm posting just so others can compare notes and maybe see what is causing this.

The setup; one plastic rack box that contains from top to bottom:
[
Behringer Ultrazone 8 channel sound mixer
BM Hyperdeck Studio
BM ATEM 2 M/E
BM ATEM TS
Linksys 8 port gigabit switch
A basic PC server
]
The Sennheiser em100 g3 is simply placed on top of the rack box and it spits out noise with a RF level of 25. The source of the signal is the rear of the ATEM 2 M/E; I can say this with certainty because:
-Moving the antenna 2-3m away from the rack eliminated the noise.
-Unplugging the ATEM 2 M/E eliminated the signal completely, I even attached the antenna to an SDI cable so that I could check signal levels in several positions in the rack, but I got nothing (I remind you that the ATEM TS created no RF noise)
-Strangely with the ATEM 2 M/E on, the noise drops to a minimum when the antenna was placed directly in front of the big metal front plate of the ATEM 2 M/E.

Just to clarify, the frequency range of the receiver is 1785MHz - 1800MHz.

#sidenote: I also used to use some 2.4GHz digital mics and they also had huge reliability issues. They appeared also when not on this rack, and even when not used with ATEMs at all, so their fault sure lies beyond possible interference from the ATEM 2 M/E at the 2.4GHz spectrum; but it's still a possibility.

Found this thread by accident and the topic is of interest. At our church we recently upgraded and installed some flatscreens. The HDMI splitter and source (laptop, now a HP micro PC) are in the sound booth. We had horrible interference with our Sennheiser G3 wireless receivers. It would span over 150Mhz and cause all of them to pass noise. I minimized the problem by installing ferrite beads on the HDMI cables and increasing the squelch to "Medium". Unplug the HDMI splitter and the problem goes away. I tried to "see" the interference with a spectrum analyzer but could not.

Well, this past week we ran some CAT6 to another building and hooked up a HDMI/CAT6 extender. I had the lav mic channel gain up and when I plugged that thing in I almost wet my pants! Horrible interference. We're going to try a more expensive extender to see if that helps.

Oh....our Shure wireless receivers aren't bothered at all. Only the Sennheisers.

Found this thread by accident and the topic is of interest. At our church we recently upgraded and installed some flatscreens. The HDMI splitter and source (laptop, now a HP micro PC) are in the sound booth. We had horrible interference with our Sennheiser G3 wireless receivers. It would span over 150Mhz and cause all of them to pass noise. I minimized the problem by installing ferrite beads on the HDMI cables and increasing the squelch to "Medium". Unplug the HDMI splitter and the problem goes away. I tried to "see" the interference with a spectrum analyzer but could not.

Well, this past week we ran some CAT6 to another building and hooked up a HDMI/CAT6 extender. I had the lav mic channel gain up and when I plugged that thing in I almost wet my pants! Horrible interference. We're going to try a more expensive extender to see if that helps.

Oh....our Shure wireless receivers aren't bothered at all. Only the Sennheisers.

Are you sure its Atem switcher that makes that interference?
Technically all SDI outputs on it that have no cable plugged in are transmitting signal as RF. So if you want to make everything by the book all your SDI cables and SDI outs that are plugged it should be terminated with 75Ohn resistor cap.

It's much more likely that inexpensive HDMI splitter or extender would case massive RF leak, enough to be heard in audio RF spectrum. Most of the no brand items never pass FCC certification for RF leakage, even if some did cheap design can fail overtime.


PL

Found this thread by accident and the topic is of interest. At our church we recently upgraded and installed some flatscreens. The HDMI splitter and source (laptop, now a HP micro PC) are in the sound booth. We had horrible interference with our Sennheiser G3 wireless receivers. It would span over 150Mhz and cause all of them to pass noise. I minimized the problem by installing ferrite beads on the HDMI cables and increasing the squelch to "Medium". Unplug the HDMI splitter and the problem goes away. I tried to "see" the interference with a spectrum analyzer but could not.

Well, this past week we ran some CAT6 to another building and hooked up a HDMI/CAT6 extender. I had the lav mic channel gain up and when I plugged that thing in I almost wet my pants! Horrible interference. We're going to try a more expensive extender to see if that helps.

Oh....our Shure wireless receivers aren't bothered at all. Only the Sennheisers.

Are you sure its Atem switcher that makes that interference?
Technically all SDI outputs on it that have no cable plugged in are transmitting signal as RF. So if you want to make everything by the book all your SDI cables and SDI outs that are plugged it should be terminated with 75Ohn resistor cap.

It's much more likely that inexpensive HDMI splitter or extender would case massive RF leak, enough to be heard in audio RF spectrum. Most of the no brand items never pass FCC certification for RF leakage, even if some did cheap design can fail overtime.


PL

We don't have an ATEM switcher at the church. I only mention this because of the connection to the OP using Sennheiser wireless.

I would like to give this topic a new life as it fits to an issue I experience...

In my setup with an Atem 2m/e 4k I have a lot interference as well. With (Sennheiser) receivers at least 5m away from the Atem rack, spectrum analyzer shows a distortion over the whole (B) band. Peaks of around 23dB. As I didn't know the exact source of problems I took Wisycom reicevers with the coverage from 490 to 830 MHz. Same problem. The complete range is unusable.

I tried with connecting just one of both intergrated powersupplies as well without any difference. I took out the mixer from the rack to use it standalone. Without any connection everything seems to be clear. However connecting an SDI cable (even on input) is immediately visable with the spectrum analyzer. With 5 cables connected it is already really (to) worse. They working like an antenna.

I tried as well to connect just cables with a terminator, so to be sure no grounding issues or other equipment can cause any problems. Same result. Even a bit worser.

All cabling is done with measured Belden brilliance 1394a.

With squelch on 25dB (max) channels will be available, but working in this way is a kind of Russian roulette.

Anyone any suggestions, except throwing away the Atem

Hm. Till today I had no clue and also have not seen any records/remarks about it. I was at the venue someday ago and the audio tech guy complained that when I switch on my rack (ATEM TV HD, Hyperdeck Studio Mini, Behringer XR 12 & Cerevo encoder he has interference somewhere in 600-800 MHz. I forgot about it, but I noticed that my phone LTE connection drops when I am around my case. So I went trial/error way and now I can confirm that when I plug in ATEM TV HD, LTE drops and I get "no service" on my phone. Has anyone else noticed something similar?